CIGR V and AIIA feel honoured to invite you to the International Conference on Innovation Technology to Empower Safety, Health and Welfare in Agriculture and Agro-food Systems, that will be held from 15th to 17th of September 2008 at Ragusa. Because a lot of people work in agriculture (rural sector and /or food industries) as owners or employees, and because of the great variability of the agro-industries, workers, public administrators and researchers are greatly interested in safety, health and welfare. Moreover, as concerns the last theme, since a great part of the local economy is based on milk cow farming, it would be a good idea to include in the Conference a topic about the connection between animal welfare and the milking parlour.