The Saunders, Oram and Salinger road show — a joint presentation on Maintaining farm productivity and profits in an uncertain climate — is about to go back out on the road, with a busy schedule of meetings lined up for coming months. The first talks are in Whangarei, Kaikohe and Kaitaia on July 14 & 15. Times and organiser details for the full tour, which sees the intrepid trio travel from Kaiatai to Invercargill, are below the fold. I’ll have to see if I can persuade them to add Amberley to their itinerary…
Northland
Thursday 14 July
Whangarei : 10 am to 12 noon Northland Regional Council 36 Water Street.
Contact: Dean Evans
Friday 15 July
Kaikohe: 10 am to 12 noon Far North District Council, Memorial Hall, Memorial Avenue, Kaikohe.
Kaitaia: 3 to 5 pm Far North District Council, Northerner Motel Conference Room, Kaitaia. Contact: Lou-Ann Ballantyne or Sarah Robson.
Waikato/Bay of Plenty
Monday 18 July
Hamilton: 11:30 am to 1 pm Waikato Regional Council, 401 Grey Street, Hamilton. Contact: Jocelyn Pope
Thames : 4.30 – 7 pm Thames/Coromandel District Council, Apostolic Church. Contact: Peter Wishart.
Tuesday 19 July
Rotorua: 10 am to 12 noon, Waiariki Institute of Technology, Mokoia Drive. Contact: Warren Webber.
Tauranga: 7 to 9 pm , Tauranga Environment Centre, Bongard Centre, 200 Cameron Road. Contact: Emma van de Molen.
Nelson/Marlborough/Wairarapa
Wednesday 3 August
Appleby: 3 to 5 pm, Tasman District Council, Seifried Estate , Appleby
Contact: Rob Francis.
Nelson: 7.30 to 9.30 pm, Nelson City Council Victory Room, Trafalgar Centre, Nelson. Contact: Karen Lee.
Blenheim: to be arranged.
Thursday 4 August
Masterton: 10.30 am to 12.30 pm Frank Cody Lounge, Masterton Town Hall. Contact: Paul McGill.
Monday 8 August
Timaru: 7 to 9 pm Aoraki Development Trust, Seven Oaks Reception Centre, 64 Wai-iti Road (provisional), Timaru. Contact: Wendy Smith
Tuesday 9 August
Hokitika: Westland Milk Products 56 Livingstone Street, Hokitika. Contact: Chris
Auckland
Friday 2 September
Auckland: 4.30 to 6.30 pm Owen Glen Building, Grafton Road, University of Auckland.
Dunedin
10 or 11 October
1. Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment CSAFE, University of Otago. Contact: Chris Rosin
2. Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago. Contact. Andrew Bradstock
The second seminar will look at ethics and intergenerational issues
Southland
Thursday 27 October
Invercargill: details to be arranged
After seeing this blog post I enquired about the Whangarei event thinking it sounded interesting and worth attending. I was told it’s invitiation only, which is disappointing.
Sorry about that Mick. I was under the impression they were all open to the public. Perhaps you should ask them for an invitation!
They say they’re worried about the number of council members and staff they can fit in the room. So I asked them to let me know if they find there’s still space.
It was a 10 min walk down to the local venue here in Thames (thank goodness I no longer live in Auckland where it would have been at least a 30 min drive to where-ever, and then have to find parking!).
Jim and Rod had been on the road all day and when Jim told me that they had 110 people in Hamilton, I was hoping that it would be more than myself and my friend! There were. I didn’t count because I was near the front, but a good 50 – 70 I would say. Not bad for a small rural region. Of course the second half of the talk was addressed to the potential for agriculture in a changing climate and that was a definite draw card from the dairy farmers of the Hauraki Plains, not that there were many – but enough to make it worth while.
Jim has developed his presentation so that he includes local climate information – for Thames that was Hamilton (Ruakura), Tauranga Airport, and Rotorua. Interestingly, Tauranga has been frost free since the mid 2000’s.
Obviously you can’t have a talk on Climate Change without the denial brigade in attendance, who see it as their bounden duty to repeat the meme’s of denialhood. Jim answered these as one would expect, but obviously with little effect when there are more “authoritative” references such as “Air Con” and the “Straight Furrow” – these are sacrosanct.
Rod gave his own and Caroline’s presentation, outlining the advantages of pursuing a more sustainable, ecologically and environmentally, based farming practice, not only to dairying and agriculture in particular, but also to the NZ economy as a whole. He advocated looking at farming and primary products in terms of their carbon footprint and working towards ways of reducing overall CO2 when bringing a product to market. Presently, 1kg of milk requires almost 1 kg of CO2.
Overall, a challenging and inspirational evening. It will be in a town near you, so take the opportunity to attend.