World Soil Day Seminar Mon 5th Dec
Launching the People4Soil Campaign
National Botanic Gardens Glasnevin Dublin 9 Ireland.
10.30 – 11.00
Registration Tea/Coffee
11 – 11 05
Introduction and Welcome - Felicity Gaffney and Michael Ewing
11 05 – 11 30
Klaus Laitenberger.
"All of life depends on the physical, chemical and biological health of our soil - Stop
Treating Soil Like Dirt"
11 30 – 11 55
Dr Matthew Jebb - Botanic Gardens
"Exploring relationships between the soil and the plant”
11.55– 12 20
Helen Kelly
"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves" – Gandhi
12 20 – 12 45
Cian O’Mahony – EPA
“Land Use and Soils in the EPA’s State of the Environment Report for 2016 – An
Overview”
12.45-1.10
Michael Ewing – Environmental Pillar
Launching the People4Soil Campaign
1.10-1.50
Lunch
1.50-2.20
Joan Rogers Gardener - National Botanic Gardens,
A short walk in the organic vegetable garden to see the approaches taken in
managing the soil for organic produce.
2 20 – 2 45
Rob Krawczyk - Head Chef of Brabazon Restaurant at Tankardstown House
“Healthy Soils, Food and People”
2.45-3.10
Nicky Kyle - "There is life after soil abuse - practical ways that gardeners can help
to restore damaged soils"
3.10 – 3 35
Dr Michael H.B. Hayes - University of Limerick
“Humus, Humics, Humin: Importance in Soil Fertility and in Carbon Sequestration”
3.35
Discussion Panel
Open Forum
4.00pm close
Speakers
Felicity Gaffney
Felicity Gaffney has responsibility for events, exhibitions and public education programmes at the
National Botanic Gardens. She manages the Education Team and has developed the public education
and schools programme at the NBG for a number of years. Felicity has an MSc. in Education for
Sustainability from London South Bank University and a postgrad in Botanic Gardens Education from
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Michael Ewing is the Coordinator of the Environmental Pillar, a coalition of 28 national environmental NGOs www.environmentalpillar.ie and of the Irish Environmental Network
www.ien.ie. Previously he led an EPA-funded research team at the Centre for Sustainability, IT Sligo, investigating the state of environmental democracy in Ireland. He has also
worked as a facilitator and as a consultant in the fields of environmental governance and
ecology. He has been growing vegetables organically for his family for forty years.
Klaus Laitenberger has been growing organic vegetables for over twenty years in the UK
and Ireland. He was the Head Gardener at the Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co. Leitrim for
seven years. He started the garden restoration in Lissadell House in Co. Sligo. He now works
as a self-employed trainer, mentor and consultant in organic horticulture. Since 2012 he
works as an organic inspector for the Organic Trust and lectures on the MSc Organic Horticulture course in Skibbereen. Klaus is also the author of three books: ‘Vegetables for the
Irish Garden’, ‘Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse’ and ‘A Vegetable Growers
Handbook’.
Matthew Jebb is the Director of the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin.
He undertook his primary degree and D.Phil at Oxford University. His Ph.D. looked at the
taxonomy and tuber morphology of the rubiaceous ant-plants. Following a 5-year appointment as Director of the Christensen Research Institute at Madang, Papua New Guinea, Matthew took up a 2-year post-doc position at Trinity College Dublin. This work worked involved
preparation of a revision of the Araliaceae for the Flora of Thailand project. Matthew has
revised the family Nepenthaceae for Flora Malesiana.
Helen Kelly from Glenties Co. Donegal....her background is in Family Support and Parenting.
Central to her work is the belief that the source of our wellness is intrinsically connected to
our relationship with the Earth.
Cian O’Mahony has worked in the Environmental Protection Agency for 8 years.
Cian is a member of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Team based in Cork. Cian
is involved in the review of Plans and Programmes, falling under the remit of the SEA
Directive, on behalf of the Agency. He holds an MSc in Geology from University College
Dublin and a BSc in Geology from University College Cork. Cian is a keen landscape/seascape
photographer, hillwalker and all-round nature enthusiast.
Joan Rogers is responsible for the Organic Vegetable Garden at NBG She was fundamental in
achieving the Organic Status for the walled garden with IOFGA in 2013. Joan has worked as
part of the horticulture team in the National Botanic Gardens for a number of years and is a
graduate of the Teagasc College of Horticulture based in the Gardens.
Rob Krawczyk Head Chef of Brabazon Restaurant at Tankardstown House
Rob is the current holder of the RAI Best Chef in Leinster title having retained the award for
the second year. Krawczyk has been at the helm in Brabazon at Tankardstown since February
2014. Since joining Tankardstown, he has introduced an in house smoker and being the son
of the well-known Charcuterie expert Frank Krawczyk in the West Cork Slow Food
movement, Rob grew up in a house where food was foraged and created from local seasonal
produce where possible. A rule he still runs with today and many of the dishes on his tasting
menus in particular are based on what is available for fresh picking from the Walled Kitchen
Garden and Polytunnels on the Tankardstown estate.
Nicky Kyle has been growing food organically for over 40 years and was one of Ireland's first
certified organic commercial growers in the early 1980s. She was a director of IOFGA and
also co-founder and director of The Organic Trust. She writes a blog about organic gardening,
poultry keeping, wildlife gardening, healthy eating and cooking - She also writes a monthly
column in The Irish Garden Magazine, and is co-presenter of the popular 'From Tunnel to
Table' series on LMFM Radio's award-winning Late Lunch Show with Gerry Kelly.
Michael H.B. Hayes, Research Professor, CS Department University of Limerick Leading role
in awareness of the molecular associations concept of humic components, in bringing about
almost complete isolation of the organic components of soil, and in establishing linkages in
the core structures of humic substances. Has, with colleagues, shown that humin is
primarily composed of biological molecules in intimate associations with clays. Helped to
resolve the structure of water in the interlayer spacings of expanding lattice clays; resolved
the mechanisms of interactions with clay surfaces of quaternized aromatic organocations;
had a major role in resolving several mechanisms of interactions between anthropogenic
chemicals and humic substances; led the research that first achieved the introduction of 15 Å
iron oxide pillars between the layers of expanding lattice clays.