User:Michel Chauvet

I trained as an agronomist, with a thesis on ethnolinguistics ("the names of food Cruciferae in European languages"). I have always had a special interest to botany and languages. I first worked at "Centre français du commerce extérieur", where I had to advise French exporters of fruit and vegetables. This has given me a good overview of the food industry. I was then recruited at INRA, working at the "Bureau des ressources génétiques" in France, which was in charge of promoting conservation and use of genetic resources, and allowed me to reach some expertise in the field of plant breeding and genetics... I participated for more than ten years in the negociations of what would become the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.

In the meanwhile, I wrote an encyclopedia of food plants (in Europe, 670 species), which I hope to publish in 2011.

I came to Montpellier in 1999, acting first as scientific adviser of "Agropolis-Museum", a museum of food and agriculture worldwide,organising exhibitions (strawberries, cucurbits, bread, rice, beans...) and delivering conferences. I have also managed the French office of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa), supervising in particular the French translations of all articles. On a personal basis, I have also participated to a francophone network of botanists, Tela Botanica.

My expertise in economic botany and terminology led me to integrate the AMAP lab and the Pl@ntnet project late 2009, and propose to initiate collaborative projects about useful plants and terminology related to plants.

I can read several languages, so that you can communicate in your preferred language (French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish).