From free trade and the TTP to invasive fungi and a critical look at dairy – they are all part of a series of free public TEDx-style presentations run by Lincoln University for the first time.

Previously, Lincoln’s professors held an annual Professorial Address Series, where experts talked to their peers, but what they have to say is too important. Now it’s become the ChangeMakers series of lectures. They assume no prior in-depth knowledge of the topic but will take the subject matter head-on.

They are crafted to provoke and stimulate discussion on a range of subjects relevantto Lincoln’s mission helping to: Feed the World, Protect the Future and Live Well.

There are six talks in the 2016 series.

First up, on February 25 at 6.00 pm in the Stewart Building, is Professor Crawford Falconer, Sir Graeme Harrison Professorial Chair in Global Value Chains and Trade with ’Trade Agreements: New Zealand’s salvation or suicide?’. This is an in-depth look at New Zealand’s current and potential trade agreements, including the controversial TPP.

Other presentations include, ‘New Zealand dairy: friend or foe?’ and ’Dangerous partnerships: our ecosystems in flux’.


The talks are around 45 minutes long and will be followed by a fifteen-minute question and answer session.

The full schedule is at: www.changemakers.co.nz

It’s hoped the public will back the change at Lincoln – there’s a lot to talk about.

About Professor Crawford Falconer

Crawford Falconer is currently the Sir Graeme Harrison Professorial Chair in Global Value Chains and Trade at Lincoln.

After leaving the New Zealand Government in 2012, he led an OECD project on Services Trade (The Services Trade Restrictiveness Index-STRI) and Trade in Value Added (TIVA). From 2009-12, as Deputy Secretary of New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he was New Zealand's senior official  for International Trade and Economic Affairs.

Prior to that he was New Zealand Ambassador to the WTO in Geneva from 2005-2008. During that time he chaired the Doha Round Agriculture Negotiating Group and the Doha Cotton negotiations in a personal capacity.

Over the previous twenty years he has held positions in Wellington and Geneva for the New Zealand Government, as well as working independently at the OECD and the New Zealand Institute for Policy Studies. He is also a past Chair of the OECD Trade Committee, the WTO Subsidies Committee and, in a personal capacity, has been a judge on over fifteen WTO international trade disputes.

Photo Credit: David Hollander