Agricultural Emissions Teaching Materials Released

Last month, we released a brand new short film on agricultural emissions. Today, we are pleased to announce the release of a set of free teaching materials to accompany the film. These consist of an editable presentation, complete with speaking notes, and further information on some of the figures that the presentation contains.

Our intention is that a wide range of people – including teachers, lecturers, farmers or people working with farmers – will be able to use the film and presentation to lead a discussion on what we can do about agricultural emissions. Potential audiences include secondary and tertiary students, as well as consumers and farmers. In other words, anyone who eats!

The materials can be downloaded by following the links below. In addition, we have just released the film in physical copy. If you would like to be posted a free DVD which includes the film and materials, please send your name and address to info@motu.org.nz.

We will be happy to support those who wish to use the film and materials by answering specific questions. We'll collate the questions and answers into an FAQ document which will be available soon on the blog and also on the Motu website. If you have any questions at all, please email them through.

The New Zealand Farming Story presentation (.pdf version)
The New Zealand Farming Story presentation (editable Powerpoint)
The New Zealand Farming Story speaking notes
Notes on figures for emissions from meat consumption in presentation

"Origin Green" - certifying the sustainability of Irish primary products

Rural News recently ran this article about a quality assurance scheme initiated by Bord Bai (the Irish Food Board). Called "Origin Green", the scheme guarantees the sustainability of certified foods to consumers. As the article explains, Beef and Lamb New Zealand Chair Mike Petersen thinks that there is scope for New Zealand to do something similar.

The Irish scheme is very similar to an idea developed within New Zealand by the Agricultural Emissions Dialogue and a version of it is already being developed by one of the members, Mike Barton, through his Taupo Beef programme. Mike discusses Taupo Beef in our short film.

More information on Origin Green is available here.