Life's too short for regrets....

It as very interesting, we had presentations from Nuffield Scholars too.  Each vastly different but ones which make you sit up and think about what is important about the few short years we have on God's earth.  Just like with the'sucessful' executives who presented to Leadership NZ and lamented their lack of work life balance, so too the same message came through like a stern warning.  Looking back on a sucessful life has less significance without satisfaction in the home sphere.  It is about getting the priorities right.

So too with extreme personal tragedy.  Live each day to its fullest because you don't know when things will change.  Live life with no regrets.

Nuffield is not just about getting input from the outside in but also about looking at what drives you and how that is expressed in your actions....meaty stuff but something that we need to get right, and keep working on it.

Below is a shot of all the Nuffield crew for 2012..not a bad bunch, even the Aussies........

The power isn't with us....

The theme of global trade continued with a presentation on the power base of world trade.  Our presenter highlighted the historical fact that political power is generally connected to political power.  Today it is still the case. The US today is still the seat of political and economic power and even with the rise of economic growth in the East, the vast amount of wealth sits in the US in comparative terms.

Did you know that between 75-90% of all globally traded grain is sold through four companies.

Our presenter then went on to demonstrate an index of five factors which reflect power: political, corporate, economic, natural resources and natural fuels.  The various trading blocks were calculated to establish a power index.  Not surprisingly the US came tops with a power index of 21.5 then came EU 27 with 19.3. Disappointingly Australasia came out with an index of 9.8; second from bottom and pretty much minnows on a world power basis.

I found this interesting as as NZer's (and the Aussies) we view ourselves as having a level of influence on the world stage and as an exporting nation we think we can (or at least hope) that we can influence the price of commodity products.  This isn't the case at all.  Our challenge as food producers is to read global food trends and meet them.  Our future lies in a proactive approach to producing high quality, safe and environmentally responsibly produced food.

Its simple, produce what people see as valuable...

Dr David Brand spoke on Leadership in the Global Food Industry and highlighted the significnace of food retailers.  He provided some staggering figures such as the turnover of WalMart at $425 Billion US running a 3.25% profit margin.  They are a big player!

He also highlighted that the multinationals which have gotten big are ingredient brands or non-food brands rather than food companies.  He noted the reason for this differece is the control that the consumer's personal preference determines whether they buy the product or not.

The most poignent comment Dr David made was that farmers needed to own companies that produce items that the public saw as valuable.

What a venue.....

The London based Institute of Directors set the tone a of a brilliant day.  I first have to describe the building.  As the photo suggests it is rather regal with a number of large paintings in the large foyer areas depicting the Battle of Warterloo and the Battle of Trafalgar.
Both Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington are catptured on two huge portrait paintings on the stairway walls and in the main meeting room, there are paintings of all the monarchs of the  Royal  Family, all through history.

It is spectecular and for a New Zealander who knows colonial history of a couple of hundred years, and Maori history not too much longer than, looking at millennia of history is inspiring.

International Trade on the books...

Peter Riely from the NZ High Commission spoke on the global trade situation and filled in the Scholars on the WTO operation and various Bilateral and Free Trade agreements.  It was a fascinating presentation from a NZ perspective because international trade is our lifeblood.

This presentation was prefaced with a summary of the Global economy and in particular the Eurozone by Amber Rabinov from ANZ.  Ther was quite some discussion about the challenges facing Greece and where to from here.  The general tome was that steady as she goes but the worst should be behind us now.  I guess time will be the judge of this.

The day finished off with a cocktail function at the top of NZ House and a short welcome by the High Commissioner and the patron of Nuffield UK, Prince Richard The Duke of Gloucester.  A ten minute discussion with him is my closest experience with royalty and it was very pleasant.

Choice New Zealand Real Estate in Central London

We resumed our programme in New Zealand House, a delightful location in central London overlooking Trafalgar Square. A 360 degree view of London greeted us for the first spell as we were able to take in a breath-taking panorama of busy London.

Our first presentations were  from the Soil Association and GM  Freeze.  These showed view that agricuture needed to take  a more considered approach to food production and that an organic approach would be a more preferable farm system.  This presented a challenging position given the relatively urgent view of global food safety, security and soveriegnty issues which were raised in discussions in Holland.  The paradox between needing to grow more food from less land with fewer inputs was evident within these discussions.

 

The answers to these discussions have been somewhat academic and "arms length" with all parties looking accross the fence at their 'neighbour' to take action

Good Bye to Holland

The Dutch leg of Nuffield wound up and we relocated to London for more inspiring and challenging presentations.

As I leave Holland the two debates in my mind which I am looking for greater understanding during the next few weeks are:
1:  Why does the CAP subsidy environment seem to impact negatively on farmer uptake of innovation.   The discussions with my fellow Scholars and some speakers suggests that subsidies are the antithesis of innovation.  I am unconvinced of this as I cannot see why there should be a direct link between subsidy payments and uptake and adoption of new ideas.
2:  Should New Zealand farmers have a greater stake in the ownership of the value chain.  Some of the discussion during the time in Holland revolved around the performance of cooperatives and the performance of the likes of Fonterra and Freislandia and such.  There are seriously big co op's in Holland which suggest collective ownership of big business is possible if not positive (as argued by the Co operative exectives).  The performance of the co-operatives were questioned by farmer suppliers and there is the ongoing tensions between suppliers and processors whether co operatively owned or fully privately owned.