General

The Rural Reader. May book review.

Farm – The making of a climate activist. By Nicola Harvey (2022). After a phone call from her dairy farming dad, Nicola and her partner return to New Zealand having spent 17 years of city life in Melbourne and Sydney to start a farming life near her family farm. She has strong ideals about farming

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The Mackenzie Study – Nuffield and Kellogg latest results.

The Mackenzie Charitable Foundation have initiated research alongside the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust, in collaboration with Otago Business School and the Department of Economics, to investigate the contribution of Kellogg and Nuffield Alumni to Food and Fibre. Research covering 72 years of Nuffield and 43 years of Kellogg Rural Scholarship. The objective of the

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Changes to Nuffield NZ and NZRLT Boards.

Craige Mackenzie and Michael Tayler step down – Murray King and Steve Wilkins join Boards. We can’t really do justice to the service given to the Nuffield NZ and NZRLT Boards by Craige Mackenzie and Michael Tayler in this short piece. So we will another time. However, after serving eight years on the the Nuffield

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Precision Selling – New Zealand: Building Relationships with Large Farmers.

A new partnership with Purdue and Lincoln Universities. Rural Leaders, in partnership with Purdue University’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business, and Lincoln University, bring this exciting (and essential) new programme to Aotearoa New Zealand.  Precision Selling: Building Relationships with Large Farmers – Lincoln June 21-22 and Hamilton June 26-27. Managing key accounts requires a

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The Rural Reader. April book review.

The Rural Reader – Book reviews by Dr Patrick Aldwell. Late in 2022, with the advent of ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) took a great leap into our everyday lives, especially in education. ChatGPT, one of several generative chatbots, is just one of many AI applications that more and more of us use every day. Kissinger

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The Rural Reader. March book review.

Tragedy at Pike River. How and why the 29 men died. Rebecca MacFie (2013) Rebecca MacFie, one of New Zealand’s leading investigative journalists, has produced what is arguably a master class in governance – as it should not be practised. Updated in 2022, this gripping and at times frustrating read, backed by intensive research of

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The 2023 Nuffield Triennial Conference. 

On summing up the Summit and Triennial Murray King, Rural Leaders’ Summit Chair said,  “We couldn’t have hoped for a stronger group of people to share this experience with. From our hosts to our delegates, and from our Summit speakers to those who attended the Nuffield Triennial Conference and the Rural Leaders’ Summit.  It was an

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A Rural Leaders Agribusiness Summit Summary.

By the time 2023 Rural Leaders Agribusiness Summit attendees heard from Devry Boughner Vorwerk, she had spent two days visiting local farming operations and attending functions on the Nuffield Triennial Conference’s opening weekend. There was also an interview with Rural Exchange – REX too.  As Keynote Speaker at Monday’s Summit, Devry helped set the tone

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Rebecca Hyde - Ideas that grow podcast interview

Rebecca Hyde – Collaboration, cooperation and finding the common ground. 

Rebecca Hyde is better placed than most to see the differences between collaboration, cooperation and the value of finding common ground when it comes to farming and the environment. It’s her job.   She discusses her work and provides a useful ‘101’ on what collaboration looks like overseas and closer to home – both inside and outside of agriculture.  

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Value Chain Innovation Programme 2022 Cohort

The Value Chain Innovation Programme – Sector value-add. 

Rural Leaders and Lincoln University have just wrapped up a collaborative delivery of The Value Chain Innovation Programme, a seven-day bus tour of New Zealand’s four major sectors: dairy, red meat, kiwifruit, and apples.  A fully subscribed programme of 22 students, including senior growers, farmers, consultants, industry professionals and government took part in this North

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Dame Jenny Shipley: On Leadership. On Point.

Dame Jenny discusses the need to keep challenging industry to push young people forward to develop as leaders and in turn ensure the future strength of our political and social environments. There’s insight too on leadership in the regulatory environment, the rural urban divide and how farmers and growers need to share more about the positive ways in which agriculture responds to the concerns urban communities have.

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Katie Vickers: Banking on a sustainable future.

Katie Vickers, a 2019 Kellogg Scholar, is on a mission to help regenerate our planet by influencing business practice to close the gap between purpose, people, and profit.

Katie talks to Bryan Gibson from Farmer’s Weekly about how her Kellogg research, beliefs, and her role as Sustainability Manager at Rabobank, are going some way to helping achieve that.

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Ben Todhunter: Farming, conservation and Nuffield.

Ben Todhunter, a 2006 Nuffield Scholar, talks about his family’s high country station Cleardale, integrating conservation into the operation and into farming systems. Ben also touches on his Nuffield study and how this has informed his own approach to conservation.

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Forefront - Rural Leaders Agribusiness Summit

The 2023 Rural Leaders Agribusiness Summit.

The 2023 Rural Leaders Agribusiness Summit theme ‘Forefront’ reflects focus on the businesses making change and providing solutions to some of the sector’s biggest challenges and opportunities.   The Summit seeks to promote global vision, leadership and innovation by demonstrating some of the practical solutions shown to mitigate the challenges facing agribusiness today.   The Summit begins

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