OPINION: Your old mate - as well as most of the country's ag scientists - were already highly sceptical about the quality and depth of a 'research paper' produced by Landcare Research a couple of months back on Regenerative Agriculture (RA).
However, it now comes to light, that the lead researcher of this paper was Landcare soil ecologist Dr Gwen Grelet, who also happens to be on the board of and 'science advisor' to Quorum Sense - a trust set up by RA proponents to promote this farming practice.
Quorum Sense has already been granted around $2 million of MPI funding to "undertake RA extension work".
This old mut would like to know if anyone at Landcare, MPI or the Government questioned the perception of Grelet leading the research with her apparent conflict of interest? And, if not, why not?
As they say: 'If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...'