Andre Luiz Rodrigues GONCALVES is an agronomist and currently he is in a PhD program in the field of Crop and Soil Science at Cornell University USA. He got a fellowship from The Fulbright OAS Ecology Initiative to undertake his studies. Prior to coming to Cornell he was the office coordinator of the Ecological Agriculture Center in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil. Among his functions was: the coordination a staff of ten people, elaboration of projects for funding, institutional representation, courses and direct advisement in ecological agriculture for smallholders' families. He got a master degree in sustainable agriculture at the Imperial College at Wye - University of London, and he also participated in International courses at the United Nations University - Tokyo, Japan.