Following the Live Export (LiveEX) ban, the agriculture sector in Australia was re-awakened to the importance of building close working relationships and partnerships of mutual respect with government, the community and corporate sector and NGO’s. All of which will have individuals or cohorts of individuals who may or may not view the agriculture sector favourably.
It is also recognised that to maintain those relationships and partnerships is going to take a great deal of commitment and diplomacy and transparency. To help achieve this, farmers are widely encouraged to become advocates for their industries and the farming sector as a whole.
Image source
Effective advocacy delivers two vital roles for farming communities. The first one is maintaining social licence and the second one is attracting people to careers in the sector.
Supporting advocacy requires time and money. Time to do it and money to provide the access to experts, training, tools,knowledge, mentors and vehicles that ensure the identified advocates can reach their audience in a way that resonates positively with that audience. In agriculture’s case that audience is everyone (government, the community and NGO’s and the corporate sector)
Social licence is a term unfamiliar to most farmers. I hadn’t heard of it myself until I attended a series of workshops given by Charlie Arnot .
We are very lucky in Australia that the majority of the community have a great deal of respect for farmers and trust them and whilst we (farmers) may think differently, the community has allowed us in the main to self regulate and given us a very generous social licence compared to other professions and sectors.
One area that however is quite heavily regulated in agriculture in NSW is biodiversity conservation and native vegetation management and that legislation is currently under review in NSW
Farmers see themselves as custodians of the land and the animals under their care. Like raising children, taking care of animals is intuitive for most people and most people can be trusted to do it well without the need to legislate
Biodiversity conservation and native vegetation management is a very different thing and requires skills and knowledge that are learned. Farmers are experts in production landscapes and natural resources management (NRM) professionals are experts in native landscapes. To get the best outcomes for food production and maintaining the landscape that sustains us requires a close working relationship between the two and Landcare has certainly been the ground-breaking best practice model to help achieve this.
Farmers know we made a lot of mistakes in the past as this extract from a Landline story reminds us
European farming methods blamed for soil degradation
Reporter: Maria Taylor
First Published: 9/04/00Soil degradation in Australia and across the globe is right at the top of serious environmental problems.
It costs Australian farmers $2.5 billion a year in lost production and nobody has even calculated off-farm costs such as salt-polluted rivers or loss of bio-diversity or wildlife habitat.
“Scientists are documenting alarming levels of salinity, soil acidification, wind and water erosion, soil structural decline and loss of fertility, waterlogging, sodicity, non-wetting soils and so on,” scientist Anna Ridley said.
Most of these problems arise from the mismatch between Australian soils, water balance and climate and the traditional European farming and grazing methods.
Australia has achieved amazing agricultural success with methods that worked well in Europe and North America. But along the way farmers ignored the limitations of Australian soils and climate and didn’t appreciate the value of native ecosystems.
Dr Ridley said farmers are learning they may be paying a big price for the vegetation clearance and other dramatic changes that have been made to the landscape.
“After close to 200 years of farming in some areas and as little as 30 years in others, we are seeing a lot of warning signs that all is not well with the soil and water that underpin our agricultural success,” Dr Ridley said.
Addendum, October 2026: Thanks to Melinda for raising an important part of this history in the comments. Governments drove much of Australia’s land clearing. Conditional purchase leases required settlers to clear their land, and clearing costs were tax deductible until 1983, when tax incentives shifted to conservation and Landcare. Read more here
Farmers who genuinely want the best outcomes for the land that they are custodians of know best practice biodiversity conservation and native vegetation management is vital
They also know its very time consuming and resource intensive and nothing happens overnight.
Farmers also know that returns in agriculture are highly variable and we often have to make choices we don’t want to. Choices that involve decisions on where those limited returns are spent. In some years far too many farmers find themselves just struggling to feed their families. From memory I think the statistics say that only 10% of farmers run consistently profitable businesses.
We cannot do without agriculture, but the industry must be profitable. By contrast, protecting biodiversity is unlikely to be profit-driven. Can the two ventures be compatible? Source
Australian farmers look after up to 80% of the Australian landscape. But less that 6% of Australia is suitable for crop production. So farmers provide a huge public service and at times ( depending on the government of the time) public good money is used to help farmers conserve biodiversity and manage natural resources.
Our natural resource management mistakes of the past led to extensive regulation and legislation and yes some of it is onerous and not very effective and the review is a good thing
Whilst we are all loathe to admit it legislation and rules and regulation are often put in place to protect us from ourselves. Farmers have made so many wonderful gains during the 25 years of Landcare. The review gives us the chance to ensure we can continue to do this. It is so important that we do not naively find ourselves being punished for the mistakes of the past by suggesting that we no longer need rules and regulations for managing the landscape.
‘It is critical that all Australians see farmers as part of the solution, not the problem’.
I personally think it would be a folly to go back to a self regulated ethos for natural resource management. What I believe we need are rules and regulations that are workable. What we need is the necessary resourcing and support networks and access to expertise for our farmers. The review gives us the chance to get it right. I have my fingers crossed we do
Ten years on, I’ve written about regulation again. In Agriculture talks about the burden of regulation. Fewer talk about the licence it already holds: public trust. I look at the rules we all live with, from driver’s licences to registered dogs, and the licence farmers hold that has no renewal date: public trust.
Further Reading
This article is from The Conversation – Biodiversity and Farming – Finding Ways to Co-exist
The UWA Future Farm 2050 Project
Green light for biodiversity at CSU (April 2017). Charles Sturt set aside biodiversity zones on its farms at Orange and Wagga Wagga to protect threatened native animals such as the Squirrel Glider and Superb Parrot. Grazing is managed to favour native grasses.
Farmers and Mother Nature working in harmony
Great news about farmers and environmentalists partnerships here
Footnote
The opinions expressed in this blog are mine based on my personal experiences
Interesting points you raise, Lynne. While NRM experts may have a fabulous breadth of knowledge, nobody knows the farmland like the farmer.
I’ve found that some of the non-negotiable funding scheme parameters are truly inappropriate for our farm and, in fact, counterproductive.
For example, once scheme mandated at least three hot wires to protect new plantations. On a flood plain, that doesn’t make sense. Flooded fences with many hot wires fall victim to debris very quickly and the lowest hot wire is almost invariably shorted out by spring pastures. Our dairy farm is almost entirely fenced with just one hot wire and the cows respect those fences.
It’s all about balance. A little regulation of the basics is a good thing but too much regulation is a disaster.
Yes Marian I agree its is imperative that all legislation acknowledges and reflects local context and local knowledge
Oh, I meant to write “Spring” pastures!!!
will fix xoxox
Thanks! Fingers running faster than brain.
Your opinion. Thank heavens we are each entitled to our own!
What you are remiss in mentioning in your critique of the farmer, is that so often advances in effective environmental management on farm and soil preserving technology is in fact driven by….. The Farmer!!! The desire to preserve that which is the fundamental basis of their livelihood has more often then not been the instigator of environmental change.
You also fail, in your opinion, to take into account, weather patterns, excessive rising costs and market prices dictated to us that fail to consider the costs to us of production! Is this not a significant consideration to the profitability of farming? What’s more is the fact that the farmer HAS taken these costs into consideration, and being the clever cookies that they are, have consistently been intelligent enough to develope methods, practices and technology to do what we do with increasing efficiency, effectiveness and decreasing costs.
Meanwhile we have become the target of mindless twits who care naught for necessity and reason nor truth and fact. Who shout and preach and harvest donations of goodwill and then do bugga all towards improving and fixing that which they protest. Again… Who implements th change, improvement and advances? The industry… and ultimately, the farmer.
Again, we are all entitled to our opinion, and I’ve noticed “mutual respect” is a favourite catch phrase. So far my opinion is that the catch phrase is wavering at the source.
The choice of graphics sucks by the way. My opinion.
Thanks Melinda for advocacy #Kudos to you. Just one thing lets be careful not to shoot the messenger on this one.
How do I feel about farmers and what am I doing to support them http://www.landcareonline.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lynne-Strong-acceptance-speech.pdf
Did you venture into the Further Reading section here? You might enjoy these http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yec/casestudies.html for example
Re the Graphic – it was selected to invite reader to delve further. Did you investigate the source This research is well worth the read http://www.agweb.com/article/consumers-dont-care-if-us-farmers-feed-the-world-naa-news-release/
Pointing out awards and sparkles does not address the opinion you present. You mention advocate…. I’m left questioning who for?
If for agriculture, and therefore also the industry to which I also derive my living from…. I respectfully ask please stop.
For this opinion piece, and let’s face it… That’s all blogging is… paints the farmer in general to be backwards hillbilly mindless twits who care nothing for the land they apparently rape beyond its physical capacity of production.
Given that the partnership between Lancare and the farmer in rural landscape is vital, in my opinion, this blog is overly harsh in its assumptions and statements. My ultimate concern is for those outside of our great industry would read this opinion of yours and make a direct leap to the incorrect assumption. What’s more it is these same readers that I feel we need to correctly inform, and demonstrate the intimate relationship farmers have with their land. As farmers WE ARE the custodians and care givers to the land we drive our livelihoods from. It has been proven time and time again that if your land (and stock, machinery, infrastructure) is not held to priority and nurtured, your business is destined to fail. Farming in today’s marketplace is not for the stupid nor the faint of heart. It is the astute in business, the wise and caring of stock, and the in tune with the land and its strengths and weaknesses who ultimately succeed in this industry as farmers. To suggest otherwise in an opinion piece that portrays credibility to the unknowing is both arrogant and undermining of the strengthening agvocacy of many hardworking and credible Australian Farmers and their supporters on social media today.
In today’s world our farmers and associates are taking constant hits and the standard expectation is beyond 100% perfection within every system. It is beyond ridiculous the rubbish that circulates from various social terrorists, so quite frankly I do take exception opinion bordering on similar notion from someone whose supposedly within the industry!
By all means raise you questions… But be damn sure to acknowledge the multitudes of environmentally proactive and groundbreaking farmers who have paved the way to make awards such as yours exist in the first place!
Thanks Melinda I value your contribution to helping me hone my ability to dodge the friendly fire and in the first instance I revisit my reply from our previous conversation
Did you venture into the Further Reading section here? You might enjoy these http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yec/casestudies.html for example and Re the Graphic – it was selected to invite reader to delve further. Did you investigate the source This research is well worth the read http://www.agweb.com/article/consumers-dont-care-if-us-farmers-feed-the-world-naa-news-release/
Beyond this take a step back and remove the emotion – why do you think I have chosen to do this blog this way? After all I run this program http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yfc/index.html and previously this program http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yec/index.html and done this R&D&E&E http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yec/casestudies.html Surely even the most cynical would make the assumption I had the greater good at heart. Why do you think I am so worried that all the good could be forgotten. Am I really having a go at farmers doing the right thing in this post or is my aim to remind those doing the right thing in the present how hard it is to remove yourself from the sins of the past. We are all on the same side here
Yes I did actually. What I am opposed to, however, is the blanket opinion of farmers in relation to Landcare of THIS blog. To me THIS is the friendly fire. You quoted statistics of which you aren’t 100% sure (this you admit to) and fail to acknowledge the contributions and advancements made in Landcare and environmentally friendly farming practices. I find this blog unfairly critical of all farmers. Perhaps my offense is magnified in the knowledge of how closely our farm partners with Landcare circles and authorities. How passionately we prioritise soil health and environmental factors. How far removed we are from the clueless image your blog has portrayed of farmers in regards to environmental concerns and Landcare.
What you also forgot to consider was the stipulations upon early farmers enforced by government law in regards to clearing of land post war. It was not necessarily the mindless action of farmers, but in fact decree of political “masterminds”
Perhaps if you are attracting “friendly fire” you might consider how your opinion may be perceived on the receiving end. If Ag is to grow and prosper in the face of constant obstacles, it needs internal unity… Not harsh criticism that forgets to acknowledge the credit where it is due
I am sorry Melinda I have no idea why you feel I am not giving credit where credit is due with respect to Landcare and I quote
” Farmers have made so many wonderful gains during the 25 years of Landcare.” and ‘Landcare has certainly been the ground-breaking best practice’ model’
In this post its whats between the lines that’s important and it appears I have been too subtle so I will bring it out in the open FYI There is an eNGO who is not happy with the biodiversity policy changes NSWFA are recommending. They believe it will lead to massive land clearing and they believe the only way they can get NSWFA to listen is to take them head on in the media They will be running campaigns that focus on the past and all your work and all the work of Landcare will be tarnished forever
I am devastated by this and I am doing everything in my power to bring NSWFA and the eNGO’s to the table. Sadly its NSWFA who arent listening. The NGO’s are also gathering support – when they show farmers cant be trusted to look after the environment- I understand the next wave is going to be even worse
Where to from here is you can continue to take pot shots at me or you can lobby NSWFA to fix this mess before it starts. I will leave that up to you