Busy Days

We spent 2 more days in the Netherlands. Visited a piggery, and had a good discussion day talking about European Union agricultural subsidies, listening to a representitive from the oxfam organisation, and an organic and non-organic pig producer.

In terms of GM, it was interesting to note, that the organic pig producer was having a hard time finding non-gm soy to feed his pigs, due to the large dominance of GM soy in the world.

It was interesting day and learnt a lot about the European subsidies that I had no understanding about before. It seems they are more neccessary than I realised, and it is not quite as easy as just removing them from EU farmers!!

We spent our last day in the Netherlands at an amazing Cress farm. A fantastic speaker on Marketing, and a look round an amazing glass house set up for growing crazy tasting varieties of cress. We were cooked an amazing meal, these guys are really into good wholesome food, good cooking, and supporting sustainable agriculture. This a pic showing the beautiful meal that was cooked for us, and the cook explaing it all to us.

We finished with a quick tour of Amsterdam, a look at the Red light district, interesting..... then hopped on late flight back to London. Here is a pic of me in Amsterdam.

The holiday inn in London, has a gym, so it was great to start Thursday with a bit of exercise!! To get to our destination for the day we had to jump on the London underground at 8am. It was CRAZY. I litterally had to push myself into the train like a sheep on a truck! Hilarious!

We made it to New Zealand house in London, and we spent the day on the top floor, which was the BEST view of London city! A really interesting day for me listening to a speaker from the SOIL association, which is an organic group that are totally anti-gm. We then heard from GM freeze, another speaker obviously totally against GM crops. I can understand some of their point of views, but some of their points I totally disagree with. The reacurring argument against GM crops that I keep hearing is the problem of large multinationals controlling the seed and intellectual property. But I am not sure how we get technical advancements in agriculture if we don't have these companies investing into the technology!!

In the afternoon we learnt about the world trade organisation, and heard the perspective of a few different countries of their opinion on world trade arrangements at the moment! A good learning session for me!

We finished the day with a night walk tour of London, then a beer at the London Farmers club! A lovely old cosy building, that didnt know what had hit it when we all rocked in for a drink!!

Today (friday), we have been in another beutiful old English building - talking about leadership in Agriculture. It was an excellent day, with some passionate, captivating and very moving speakers!

We have learnt and talked about so much, I hope that I can keep it all in my head! Everyone loves to talk agriculture all the time, and my brain is choc a bloc!

This afternoon we did a tour of the houses of Parliament!! What a building!!!! REally amazing architecture. Tonight is a conference dinner windup, then out to the country tommorow!