Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen is Director of the Institute of the Theory and Practice of Subsistence (ITPS) at Bielefeld, Germany. She is a visiting professor at the University for Soil Culture in Vienna, Austria. She has undertaken research in Mexico and Germany, specifically on Sustainable Regional Economics in East Westphalia. Her publications include work on Women's Studies, Peasant Studies, Social Anthropology and the matriarchal community of Jucitan, Mexico.