The theme of the first evening session in the Connecting Country 2012 education program is on the vital importance played by biodiversity [that is, the pattern of plants, animals and micro organisms in the environment] in the health of agriculture.
The speaker will be Dr Denis Saunders [AM], President of the World Wildlife Fund and former CSIRO chief research scientist.
Dr Saunders will argue that agriculture is an ecological enterprise. It is totally dependent on ecosystem processes like soil formation, nutrient cycling, maintenance of water cycles, pollination of crops, etc. These processes are all driven by interactions between elements of biodiversity. If you take out some of its parts the system as a whole is bound to suffer. He will argue that it’s better to integrate ecology and agriculture instead of sacrificing biodiversity for short term production benefits.
The session will be held on Tuesday 20th of March from 6:30pm to 9pm at the Newstead Community Centre – 9 Lyons Street, Newstead.
A light meal will be provided by Castlemaine Abundance Kitchen Enterprise [CAKE] as part of their Low Food Miles Mt Alexander initiative.
The program is free and open to all members of the public. For catering purposes it would be good to RSVP to bryan@connectingcountry.org.au –or call Connecting Country on 5472 1594. Full details of the program can be found on the Connecting Country website www.connectingcountry.org.au/2012-education-program
Click on image for info/order page
Click on image for info/order page
Click on image for info/order page
