UCC team wins 10th Agri-Food debate
(Left to right) UCC Grand Final winners Apoorva Unde, Claudine Lynch, Yuelin Zhan, team captain Aoife Lynch and Anna Ryan celebrating at the 10th Great Agri-Food Debate.
University College Cork (UCC) has been announced as the winner of the 10th annual Great Agri-Food debate.
The annual event, which was organised by Dawn Meats and co-sponsored by McDonald’s, saw the UCC team secure the win by defeating University College Dublin (UCD) in what the judges described as a tightly contested and high-quality Grand Final.
The team from UCC included team captain Aoife Lynch from Callan in Co Kilkenny, co-speakers Anna Ryan, from Glenville in Co Cork, Apoorva Unde from Kilkenny City, Claudine Lynch from Ennis, Co Clare, and researcher Yuelin Zhan, who is from Beijing in China and studying Food Science & Technology.
The four UCC speakers are all fourth-year Nutritional Sciences students at UCC.
Susanna Kelly, a fourth-year Food & Agri-Business Management student in UCD from Celbridge in Co Kildare, won the Best Speaker award in the Grand Final.
Her fellow team members in the Grand Final were UCD team captain Fionn McDonnell, speakers Molly-Mai O’Meara, Amaia Garay and researchers Darragh Broderick and Aoishe Wycherley.
The event was held in the South East Technological University (SETU) Arena in Co Waterford.
In total, seven teams across Ireland and the UK entered the highly popular competition. Teams from University College Cork (UCC), University College Dublin (UCD), Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), Munster Technological University (MTU), Atlantic Technological University (ATU), and South East Technological University (SETU) faced off, resulting in the UCC and UCD teams meeting in the final.
The Grand Final was judged by Richard Clinton, group commercial director of Dawn Meats, Jim Roynane, McDonald's Restaurants franchisee, Phelim O'Neil, market intelligence and EU specialist at Irish Farmers Journal, Dale Crammond, director of Meat Industry Ireland, and Eimear Brazil, chef and influencer.
The Grand Final was moderated by Tom Moran, chairman at Kerry Group and Alliance New Zealand.
Group commercial Director at Dawn Meats, Richard Clinton, said: “It’s a unique opportunity for us to meet and hear from the next generation of agri-food leaders on the issues and challenges that are crucial to the future of our industry.
"The debates are always of a high standard, and the commitment and hard work of the debaters, their researchers and their lecturers is always impressive.
"We take great pride in continuing this tradition and hope new voices will continue to be inspired to take part in the years to come. I’d like to congratulate everyone who took part this year and, of course, this year’s winning team, UCC.
"Many thanks to all involved, including the participants, judges and moderators, for making this event such a success.”
