Maria Lundesjö

Maria works within the program Future food and Torsåker gård, Axfoundation’s test farm and development center for the future’s sustainable food production.

Maria is a trained Food Agronomist and holds a PhD from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Her doctoral dissertation was about the quality of beef and how breeding and post-slaughter handling of meat can affect tenderness and other quality parameters. Maria has a great interest in teaching and putting research results into practice, and has been Director of Studies for the Food Agronomy program at SLU. In January 2020, Maria was also elected a member of the Agriculture Committee of The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA).

Maria has a background as a quality manager in the meat and charcuterie industry. In 2011, she was involved in starting the Lövsta Kött slaughterhouse in Uppland in collaboration with SLU, where the goal was to conduct commercial slaughter and offer teaching and research possibilities in the same place. Maria has also worked as a sustainability leader in the perishables segment at ICA Sweden, where she focused on applying sustainability practices in product development of private label products.

Last but not least, Maria runs a beef cattle farm outside Heby, Sweden, together with her parents.