Conference Focuses On New Future For Pastoral Industries

An international virtual conference that focuses on cultivating a shift towards more sustainable and ethical grazing systems will involve presentations from experts all over the world.

Hosted by Lincoln University, the series includes six weekly online workshops, to take place between 31 May and 5 July 2021.

Livestock Production Professor Pablo Gregorini says the event is not to be missed, as no other scientific convention in the world offers such breadth of topic coverage.

“We’re aiming to influence future theoretical and practical models of pastoralism with a series of talks from a wide range of experts. Participants will be exposed to cutting-edge thinking and practice, with an international audience of scientists, academics, postgraduate students and policymakers, as well as farmers from around the world.”

Discussions will centre on re-imagining models of pastoralism by referring to what Prof Gregorini refers to as “grazing in future multiscapes”. The “multiscapes” include thoughtscapes (ways of thinking), landscapes (environments including soil, water and air), foodscapes (dietary perceptions and health), socialscapes (societal demands), and wildscapes (issues relating to interactions between agriculture and wildlife).

Keynote speakers will cover subjects as diverse as system thinking, rangeland, grasslands, grazing management, ecology, indigenous development, agroecology, environmental ethics and sustainability, economic sociology, natural resources management, and landscape design.

Prof Gregorini is Head of Lincoln University’s Centre of Excellence: Designing Future Productive Landscapes, director of the Lincoln University Pastoral Livestock Production Lab and Chair of the International Scientific Committee for the Nutrition of Herbivores. These organisations all seek to explore and re-imagine future agricultural and pastoral industries while considering the sociological and cultural context for an evolving world.

Register for the series and find out more here.

© Scoop Media