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MELBOURNE
BRUNSWICK
BUNDOORA
FISHERMANS BEND
POINT COOK
HAMILTON
HO CHI MINH CITY
HANOI
RMIT brings food security issues to the table
RMIT University Hamilton will host a full-day think tank, examining the issue of food
security from a number of perspectives and focusing on ways in which rural
enterprises and communities can respond to, and take advantage of, new
opportunities.
Industry experts, mentors and regional youth from RMIT’s Next Generation: Rural
Leaders’ Network, and community members, will meet this Friday, 13 November.
The think tank forms part of the Next Generation: Rural Leaders’ Network research
agenda, focused on how rural enterprises and communities can best respond to
uncertainty and increasingly complex challenges.
Dr Paul Collits, RMIT Hamilton’s Regional Development Research Fellow, said:
“Food security is one of the most important issues that the next generation of rural
leaders will have to confront.
“It is an extremely complex emerging issue at the local, regional, national and
international scales, and has many inter-connected elements, including on-farm
business planning issues, land use planning issues, the sustainability of resources,
climate change and energy security issues, international demand and market
uncertainty, national policy issues and emerging technologies.”
Guest speakers will include:
Shirley Harlock (Chairman of the Dairyfood Safety Victoria Board, Chair of
the Dairy Australia Future Dairy research project and co-partner of
Wollaston Farms),
Associate Professor Trevor Stevenson (Discipline Head of the RMIT School
Applied Sciences on the topic of Food and Fuel)
Lindsay Ferguson (Industry Investment Manager of the Food and Beverage
Group of the Victorian State Government’s Regional Development Victoria).
The afternoon roundtable will be chaired by Professor David Hayward, Dean of the
RMIT School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning.
Community members are invited to attend. To register, contact RMIT
Hamilton, (03) 5572 0500.
For interviews: RMIT University Hamilton Manager Community Partnerships
and Projects, Dr Kaye Scholfield, (03) 5572 0500.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Hamilton Communications
Officer, Rachel McDonald, (03) 5572 0505.
11 November, 2009
NEWS 
