A carefully-selected new Advisory Committee for 2006-2009 has been announced, including four new members and four ongoing members, representing a range of skills relevant to the program’s priorities for research for the organic industry.

“Between them the members of the Organic Systems Advisory Committee hold valuable skills across the industry, covering organic production, processing, retail and wholesale, scientific research, natural resource management, extension, business development, certification, and policy,” Dr Caroline Lemerle, RIRDC General

Manager for Research said, announcing the Committee.

The new members of the committee are:

• R&D joint ventures and collaboration specialist Mr Eric Love
• organic researcher and economist Dr Els Wynen
• Australian Government Department Agriculture Forestry & Fisheries Food Policy & Safety manager Mr Richard Souness
• Victorian Organic Dairy Farmers Cooperative chairman Mr Terry Hehir.

They join the following ongoing members:

• current chair of the Organic Systems Advisory Committee Mr Don Fraser
• organic tropical fruit farmer and Organic Federation of Australia (OFA) chair Mr Andre Leu
• organic farming systems research scientist for the Victorian Department of Primary Industries Ms Viv Burnett
• Professor of Agriculture (Farming Systems) at the University of Western Sydney Prof Peter Cornish.

The Organic Systems R&D program is managed by Dr Caroline Lemerle. A current focus of the RIRDC Organic Systems R&D Program is removing constraints to the industry’s growth.

“The Committee will help to direct R&D for the industry to meet the Organic Systems Program’s three key objectives: to improve the performance of organic farming systems; to address supply-chain and food safety issues; and to assess the ecological performance of organic farming systems,” Dr Lemerle said.

“These objectives are clearly laid out in the program’s recently-released five-year R&D Plan for 2006-2011.”

Details of the R&D Plan, as well as current and completed R&D projects for the organic industry, are available on the RIRDC  website: www.rirdc.gov.au

Ends

Media enquiries:  Martin Field, RIRDC Public Affairs Manager 02 6272 4735