Growing Your Farming Destiny

Growing Your Farming Destiny....

This event is a social get together for farmers and rural folk from around the region to celebrate the work that has been achieved by Ellesmere Sustainable Agriculture Inc and their members in the last 3 years and also to examine what the future of farming could look like both here in NZ and globally.

Sarah Perriam-Lampp, of Sarah's Country, will host the event and will be chatting to a panel of guests about their own farming stories and what they see as the upcoming changes and challenges in the farming sector. They will discuss how we can elevate our farming environmental story with accreditations, verifications and story telling to the consumer. Sarah is excited about having robust conversations with the panel and questions from the audience will be encouraged.

The panelists are:

Hamish Gow - Hamish is the Sir Graeme Harrison Professorial Chair in Global Value Chains and Trade, a lecturer at Lincoln University following his tenure at Massey University and Michigan State University working in Global Food Systems. Hamish is an Independent Ministerial Appointee on the Fonterra Milk Price Panel and recently took 25 primary sector leaders on the first Value Chain Innovation tour in 2022 exploring four of NZ's most prominent sectors - dairy, kiwifruit, apples & red meat.

Rhys Roberts - Rhys is the CEO of Align Farms, six dairy and one dairy support - all between the Ashburton and Rangitata Rivers in Mid-Canterbury who was the 2022 Zanda McDonald Award winner. Align farms also runs a market garden and a "vertically integrated" yoghurt business with its own brand sold throughout the country. Rhys along with his wife Kiri and team of 60 across their value-chain business have been running a trial of regenerative practises for the past two years on one of the Align farms, with 148ha being farmed regeneratively and 140ha farmed conventionally providing transparent results on their website. Rhys' entrepreneurial and innovative approach to farming saw 150+ farmers attend their recent fieldays and Align Farms will be on Country Calendar in May 2023.

Tim Jones - Tim is the Founder/CEO of Grow Good, New Zealand’s 1st qualified B Consultant having successfully completed the training programme run by B Lab ANZ. To date he has helped more than 50 companies from around the world successfully navigate the B Corp Impact Assessment, and is working with new businesses every month to take them through the process. As well as guiding clients to gain their B Corp certification, he delivers inspirational, motivational, memorable and impactful consulting, training and coaching to individuals and organisations. He helps them achieve meaningful goals in life and work, by tapping into the potential of their purpose fuelled performance. He also holds a Certificate in Impact Measurement and Management for the SDGs from Duke University.

Mandy Bell - Mandy is a Central Otago deer farmer at Criffel Station near Wanaka, a veterinarian as well as experienced director and business owner in the primary sector, biotec and tourism industries. She is currently the Chair of Deer Industry NZ and Wai Wanaka Her focus is One Health, the optimal integrated health of water, environment, animals and people, and in integrating science and technology to create roadmaps and actions to deliver on future thinking and vision. She chairs the MfE-funded Wānaka Water Project and DINZ/MPI Passion to Profit programmes and was a member of the Freshwater Leaders Group which assisted Ministers to develop national freshwater quality policy.

Gabi & Doug Micheal-The Michaels are a fifth-generation family of barley growers in the heart of the Canterbury Plains. In 2004, Doug and Gabi Michael established Gladfield Malt, a 100% family-owned maltings. A company committed to producing high-quality, hand-crafted, all-natural, malts for the World's beer, whisky and homebrews.

The evening will include live music from a young local musician as well as dinner and a cash bar.