This Tuesday we were pleased to hear a very interesting talk from our long-time member Graham Gilchrist. Graham told us that that he first became interested in Rotary in 2002 when he went to Indonesia on a Rotary Group Study Exchange. After returning to Canada he joined Rotary in Vegreville, and then continued with Rotary once he moved to Edmonton. Graham told us that he has been a licensed Agrologist for more than thirty years and currently holds two licenses, one in Alberta and the other in British Columbia. When he left public service, about five years ago, he started his own consulting company, focused on the corporate side of agrology. Four years ago he started doing forensic agrology, working as an independent expert witness in cases involving disputes concerning agriculturally related cases. He now also holds a private investigator license which allows him to testify in court in these types of cases.
He then went on to talk about some of the many interesting public cases he has been involved with over the past few years. He has been asked to certify that fields qualify for inclusion in the carbon credit market or to determine how many acres have been damaged for insurance or remuneration purposes. He has also been asked to determine whether the cattle included in an estate still exist, whether a crop has been harvested last fall or more recently and is often asked for evaluations on farming corporations, land or labour (seeding, fertilizing, combining) used to determine settlements between two opposing parties. He also does costing out calculations for valuations of carbon credits, supply chain systems, and costing out of expenses used to set prices for products. In some cases he advises on the division of labour, which types of decisions are best made by the corporate board, and which should be made by the corporate manager. He has also done water flow trending for the Milk River in order to inform how Canada can fulfill it’s commitment to the international water commission. Graham said that he often finds he can give people solutions to problems they never even knew they had!
We would like to thank Graham for this very interesting glimpse into his work and can see that he is a good representative for the principles of Rotary.