Getting into a taxi with a stranger at 11pm could have been an awkward experience. Especially when the journey ahead was due to take one-and-a-half hours. Fortunately, when I arrived at Pisa airport last week and jumped into a car to be driven to Siena by Riccardo Chiantini, sitting next to me was Raja Chakir, a researcher in environmental economics at Paris Saclay University and a director of research at INRAE, France’s national research institute for agriculture, food and environment.
Inevitably, once we’d got beyond, “how was your flight? I hear you were delayed”, we quickly arrived at “so, what do you do and why does it bring you to a conference of the future of Europe?”. Fortunately, The Conversation provided instant common ground. Raja is a reader, but also a very content contributor. Just a couple of months ago, she published this article with colleagues from INRAE and one of our French environment editors, Gabrielle Maréchaux.
Not only had the creation of the piece (on climate change and pesticide use in France) with Gabrielle been an extremely positive experience, but it had led to further media interest in the research team’s project, including a Q&A with the national newspaper Liberation.
