Inaugural AusBiotech AEI & AusFoodtech networking event hits the mark
Thursday, 19 April, 2012
The inaugural AusBiotech AEI (Agricultural Environment and Industrial biotechnology) & AusFoodtech event held last week attracted 70 attendees from around Australia, representing the food, agricultural, industrial and environmental sectors of biotechnology.
The event held at Griffith Hack in Melbourne, heard a key note address by Dr Selwyn Heilbron, CEO, Sustainable Agricultural Initiative, followed by a panel discussion facilitated by Ms Paula Fitzgerald, General Manager, Industry Development Grain Growers Ltd about the current agricultural biotechnology derived innovations and how these contribute to the future global demand for food, feed, fibre and energy. The panellists were:
- Mr Selwyn Snell, Chair , Horticulture Australia
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- Dr Tim Higgins, CSIRO Fellow
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- Dr Rob Banks, R& D Manager, Meat & Livestock Australia
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- Prof Peter Langridge, CEO, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics Dr David Nation, CEO, Dairy Futures CRC
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- Dr Roger Hellens, Science Group Leader, Breeding & Genomics Plant & Food Research NZ
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Dairy Futures Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) CEO, Dr David Nation, spoke about the previously- announced partnership with Jersey Australia on a number of Jersey genomics initiatives, including the Jer-nomics project — a large-scale analysis of genotypes from Jersey bulls and cows across Australia.
The projects will use genomic technology to deliver cutting-edge breeding tools that will fast track improvement of the breed, and are already on track to deliver genotypes of more than 3500 Jersey cows and 700 Jersey bulls according to Dr Nation, as members to date have supplied semen and cow tail hair samples for analysis. ‖ The Jersey breed is an important contributor the Australian dairy industry and this support demonstrates how a range of organisations can work together to benefit all Australian farmers, Dr Nation said.
AusFoodtech will hold its second full-day symposium on 2 November at this year’s AusBiotech 2012 national conference.
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