During the 2026 New Zealand Agriculture and Climate Change Conference (NZACCC) held on 29–30 April at Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre, the AgriDENZ project hosted a side event on 29th April bringing together international and New Zealand voices to discuss indigenous knowledge in circular food systems.
The two-day NZACCC conference, hosted by the Ag Emissions Centre in partnership with AgriZero and MPI, provided a fitting backdrop for the AgriDENZ side event. The conference brought together international market leaders, policymakers, professionals, scientists, and farmers to examine how New Zealand can respond strategically to a global marketplace in which low-emissions production is increasingly a defining marker of quality and long-term competitiveness.
The AgriDENZ side event was hosted in collaboration with the Indigenous Research Network (IRN) of the Global Research Alliance on Greenhouse Gases (GRA). After a highly engaging waiata (song) performance by a Kapa Haka Group led by the GRA lead for the IRN Shiloh Babbington, participants were welcomed by GRA Special Representative Peter Ettema (MPI). The AgriDENZ Food Loss and Waste (FLW) topic lead Dr Felicitas Schneider (Thünen Institute) then gave a brief introduction to how food surplus and FLW research and activities contribute to the three pillars of the AgriDENZ project. This was followed by featured presentations from participants from the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests (MAFF) Tonga, who each described exciting initiatives in the region related to circular food systems, as well as specific regional issues relating to food loss and waste (FLW) and food security, which were further explored in a subsequent discussion. The session was well attended both in-person and online by countries and organisations from the Pacific, Australasia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Participants particularly valued the opportunity to learn from both countries’ experiences and to explore potential areas for deeper future collaboration.
Key themes at the AgriDENZ NZACCC side event
Specific issues discussed included:
- strengthening regional knowledge and capacity to address post-harvest crop losses, and
- Improving regional knowledge in sustainable soil and waste management practices
A key follow-up activity is a workshop which is planned to be held in Samoa in the first week of September 2026 to advance the ideas explored at the event and to potentially develop a multi-country GRA Flagship project on “Circular Food Systems”.
Further resources
