OIC Director Markus Braun: Markus in the News
Markus Braun was born and raised in southern Bavaria / Germany, where he was introduced to organic farming practices by his grandmother and extended family in his childhood.
After school and university (architecture and geography) he migrated 1993/ 95 to Jamaica.

Since 1993 he is actively practicing organic farming in Jamaica where he operates a 27 acre organic farm certified by JOAM for the Jamaican market .About 5 acres are cultivated with a great variety of crops. Green leafy vegetables and herbs are the main crop.
Since 2002 he also works as an organic agriculture consultant mainly in Jamaica. Two years later he started to work as an organic farm inspector in the Caribbean and became an accredited EurepGAP inspector.

From 2001 to 2006 he served as a director of JOAM the Jamaica organic agriculture movement and is a member of IFOAM since 1997.

During this period he facilitated many workshops and farmer trainings in Jamaica and the Caribbean. He attended many conferences and seminars on this and related topics and was in October 2006 part of a five member Jamaican delegation to the Terra Madre Festival – World meeting of native food communities – in Turin Italy organized by Slow Food.

During his educational journey his life-time objective to find, develop, apply and train holistic, practical and sustainable livelihood approaches in rural communities nested in fragile highly diverse eco-systems was and will be obtained.

With his practical experience in organic agriculture in the tropics and temperate climates, his knowledge of the socio-economic and historical factors in the Caribbean, his knowledge of the constraints affecting the development of an organic industry in the Caribbean, his worldwide connections in the field of sustainable agriculture and livelihoods and with his networking capabilities Markus Braun hopes to serve the objectives of OIC in the capacity as founding director , consultant and administrator in the best ways possible.

contact Markus Braun: oic.markus@gmail.com