Organics Festival of Food and Wine in Oamaru

Big interest in NZ Organics Festival of Food and Wine in Oamaru this weekend

Interest is spreading in the New Zealand Organics Festival of Food and Wine in Oamaru this Sunday. The festival will provide organic food, organic wine and beer along with, entertainment, arts and crafts for thousands of local and visiting organics enthusiasts. This is the fourth annual national organics festival, held in Oamaru, now consider the New Zealand organics capital. Among the speakers are Dr Elvira Dommisse, a former Crop and Research scientist.

Dr Dommisse will tell festival-goers that she wants the government to explain why they were risking losing New Zealand’s clean, green, and safe-food image by growing GE crops, when it could lose key international markets because of its pro-GE approach. New Zealand had an international reputation for exporting environmentally safe food of the highest quality. Dr Dommisse worked for Crop and Food at Lincoln from 1985-1993.

The festival will mark the loss of two of their main supporters -- Sir Peter Elworthy who died suddenly in January and Paul Tangney, a local fisherman who went missing, presumed drowned off the North Otago Coast, also in January.

Sir Peter’s wife, Lady Fiona Elworthy, who is a patron of the Natural Heritage Society in Oamaru, will officially open the event on Sunday.

Sir Peter, who was chairman of the NZ Sustainability Council, will be honoured for his contribution to the organic movement.

Paul Tangney, who earlier helped prepare for Sunday’s event, will also be honoured at the opening ceremony. New head organiser is Jay McMillan, the new manager of the town’s Organic Co-op.

Opera singer Deborah Wai Kapohe will serve up a musical feast when she appears at mid-day as the star performer. Wai Kapohe is recognised as New Zealand’s most promising lyric soprano. Ends Media advisory:

Copyright 2004 Word of Mouth Media NZ

© Scoop Media