He began his professional career at the World Food Council, worked as a senior economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and eventually as a Director at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In parallel, he assumed numerous short-term assignments with other international institutions, including the IPCC, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB). Josef is a prolific writer and researcher, his work has been published in high-impact journals like Nature, PNAS, the Lancet and Science, as well as in hundreds of books and documents of international organizations. His areas of interest include climate change and food security, trade and investment; agriculture 4.0 and related innovations and technologies; as well as global commodity markets and trade. Josef holds an MSc in agricultural economics and a PhD in economics from the Technical University of Munich.