The European Union and Aotearoa New Zealand are separated by geography, but united by shared pride in their strong agricultural roots and traditions.

Now, as the world faces the existential challenges of climate change, how can we embrace these traditions during the transition to a more sustainable agricultural model?

How do we deal with environmental remediation of our soils and water, biodiversity loss and ensuring food security?

And how can one be inspired by an indigenous approach to sustainability?

Tune into this informative webinar to hear leading EU and New Zealand experts in sustainable farming discuss current initiatives in this field, such as the EU’s From Farm to Fork strategy, regulation, standards, research and innovation.

Speakers Include:

Dr. Jeroen Candel - Associate Professor in food and agricultural policy at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. In his research, he studies how governments, from local to EU level, can support a transition towards a more sustainable food system. In his most recent publications, he has reflected on the ground-breaking potential of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy and provided recommendations for improvements of the Common Agricultural Policy. Moreover, he was one of the authors of the SAPEA-report ‘A Sustainable Food System for the European Union’.

Dr Gwen Grelet, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. Gwen is particularly interested in all aspects of interactions and linkages between plants and microbes, how animals influence these linkages, connectivity of the soil food web, and connection between people and the land.

Dr Jessica Hutchings, Kai Atua, Food for Hope and Wellbeing. Dr Jessica Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati) is a kaupapa Māori researcher, activist, and hua parakore grower living on a small whānau farm in Kaitoke North of Wellington. Her PhD is in Environmental Studies and she has worked for the last two decades in the Māori research sector leading and supporting kaupapa Māori research to deliver transformation across diverse Māori communities.

Alfred Grand, Austria, Grand Farm and Innovation, Board of the EU Soil Mission. Alfred Grand is an organic arable field farmer, market gardener and entrepreneur from Austria. Alfred is a member of three soil-related EIP-Agri focus groups, three EIP-Agri operational groups and several Horizon 2020 projects. Alfred Grand is co-author of the book ‘Biodünger selber machen’ (Make your own fertilizer).

Peter Wehrheim, European Commission, Directorate General for Research and Innovation. Peter Wehrheim is Head of Unit for the “Bioeconomy and Food System” within the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in Brussels.

Felix Mittermayer – organic farm owner, Austria. Felix works across agriculture, food safety and regional development. He works at the Secretariat of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development in the European Parliament and owns an organic farm. Felix transformed the farm from traditional farming to organic meat production. The farm is located in the Austrian mountains and it has 10ha of permanent pasture and 20ha of old growth forest.

Mark Anderson - with wife Madeline and their three children work a 580ha dairy farm in Waiwera South, South Otago. It is their fourth year of re-aligning farm operations to work alongside nature, milking 750 cows once-a-day holistically grazed on taller diverse pastures and mixed species forage crops. The farm also winters the cows in a way in which enhance and accelerate soil health and ecological services. Their vision is to repair the broken biological cycles industrial agriculture has set upon us, returning the health of the land, animals and people.

Maximilian Koch. Organic Farmer, South Germany, and member of the supervisory board of the Allgäu Milch Käse dairy cooperative since 2005. Maximilian did his internship in New Zealand in 2001, before taking over the family-owned organic farm in South Germany, farming 110 hectares of rough country, 800m above sea level.

Moderator for the webinar will be Julian Wilcox, (Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa) - Julian first hit the New Zealand airwaves in 2004 with Māori Television, and was one of the most prominent faces and voices of the channel for its first decade.

The webinar will feature several key presentations followed by panel discussions involving our speakers. And our speakers will also answer questions asked by the audience.

Register Now and be part of this important discussion!