The lineup for the E Tipu IFAMA 2023 World Conference in Christchurch continues to take shape, with three more speakers announced.
New Zealand’s biggest agri-sector summit, to be held from June 17-20, aims to connect, inspire and galvanise primary sector communities in NZ and around the world. The conference, which will also be held virtually, is backed by a partnership between Boma, the organisers of E Tipu: the Boma Agri Summit, and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA).
The latest confirmed speakers are scientist Andrew Kralicek and Future Farmers co-chairs Aimee Blake and Finn Ross.
They join Tané Hunter, the co-founder of Future Crunch, Foundation of Māori Authorities chair Traci Houpapa and nanobiotechnologist Oded Shoseyov, who were announced in early March.
Kralicek is founder and chief technology officer of Scentian Bio and former team leader of the Molecular Sensing Team at Plant & Food Research. He has spent almost two decades working out how to harness the powerful sense of smell that insects have, to revolutionise the world of electronic sensors.
His team’s technological breakthrough led to the development of a proof of principle prototype showing that insect smell receptors can be used for the detection of miniscule amounts of volatile compounds. Possible commercial applications range from human health to food quality, pest and disease detection and environmental monitoring.
Blake is arural professional, social researcher and systems thinker with a passion for reconnecting people back to food systems. She is currently pursuing her second master’s degree at Lincoln University, specialising in agribusiness and researching the role of information in land-use decision-making.
Her rural roots run deep as the sixth generation on her family’s small dairy farm in Waiau Pa, Tāmaki Makaurau.
Blake is on a mission to support sustainable transformations and as well as being co-chair of Future Farmers NZ she is also co-founder of Girls Who Grow, a grassroots initiative to grow the next generation of female change makers, leaders and environmental guardians.
Her fellow Future Farmers NZ co-chair Ross is a naturalist, climate activist and adventurer. He is the founder of Carbonz, a carbon credit trading network and has previously founded the Seaweed Solution, Bomb Bucha; and co-founded the not-for-profit Let Them Fish. He also hosts the Both Sides Now political podcast, and sits on the scientific advisory board of the Kelp Forest Foundation.
Ross is a current PhD candidate at Deakin University investigating seaweed as a natural climate solution. He is from Lake Hawea Station, the first certified carbon-zero farm in Australasia, and is passionate about a regenerative food and fibre sector.
