Alessandro Brizi

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Alessandro Brizi (7 September 1878 – 14 January 1955) was an Italian agronomist, economist and politician. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Forests in the Badoglio I government, the first cabinet after Fascism fell.

Born in Melicucco, Brizi studied agricultural sciences at the University of Pisa. He began his career teaching in agricultural schools and then worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, eventually becoming director-general (1918–1928). He later taught agricultural economics at the Higher School of Agriculture in Portici. Brizi joined the Permanent Committee on Grain in 1925 during the Battle for Grain and served as secretary-general of the International Institute of Agriculture from 1929 to 1939.

In politics, he was a member of the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations (1939–1943) and then a Senator (1943–1946). He also headed the cabinet of the Ministry of Finance under Giacomo Acerbo. After the fall of Fascism, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in the Badoglio I Cabinet, serving from 27 July 1943 to 11 February 1944. During the September 1943 armistice, he stayed in Rome to oversee agricultural procurement and later moved with his family to Assisi, though he kept his ministerial post for a time.

After the war, his ties to Fascism led to the loss of his Senate seat, and he left his position at the Portici school. He continued to write on agricultural issues, served as vice president of the European Federation of Farmers and as president of the Italian Institute of Genetics until 1952, and kept working in the field until his death in 1955.