#Strongwomen. "I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful – for all of it." Kristin Armstrong
This one is a real treasure ( both of monetary and sentimental value ) and hence is stored in a safety deposit box to be given to next gen who will value it
As mentioned in Remembering those who came before us – Part 2 Eric Lindsay and his brothers were very impressive footballers and tennis players
Way back in the early 20th century when you won a premiership you got “real” gold medals
Charlie Lindsay played 1st Grade football for Port Kembla and they must have won the comp in 1922
Eric Lindsay and Charlie Lindsay played 1st Grade football for Dapto and they must have won the premiership in 1919
In 1906 Eric Lindsay won the Junior Tennis Championship and again his win was celebrated with “real” gold
and they all came with this beautiful “real” gold fob chain
I decided to keep up the family tradition and had my son’s national ski championship awards replicated in gold and added to the family history fob chain. I am confident the next gen will value them as much as me.
Whilst it is sad they are kept locked away, I would be devasted if I wore the fob chain and lost them and just having the capacity to share their story gives me great joy
Its biodiversity month. I think it might be a very good idea if we make it biodiversity decade as I am VERY embarrassed to say Australians can lay claim to being the worst global environmental vandals in the last 200 years. Read all the bad news here and see the statistics here
Australia has experienced the largest documented decline in biodiversity of any continent over the past 200 years. Under the EPBC Act, more than 50 species of Australian animals have been listed as extinct, including 27 mammal species, 23 bird species, and 4 frog species. The number of known extinct Australian plants is 48. Australia’s rate of species decline continues to be among the world’s highest, and is the highest in the OECD Environmental Performance Index
Recent natural disasters including drought, the bushfire crisis and flooding have further damaged this continent’s fragile biodiversity.
The river is like our refrigerator that keeps fresh the meat. The forest is like our drug store that has our medicines. It is like a supermarket with all of the food and things we need. Why would we poison our water or clear the forest? Paiakan, a Kayapo Indian, Quoted in Knudtson and Suzuki, Wisdom of the Elders, 1992
Australian farms have an important role to play in improving and protecting biodiverse ecosystems and its pivotal the sector strike that delicate balance of improving environmental outcomes while concurrently remaining profitable and increasing climate resilience to meet growing demand. You can learn more about what farmers and the agriculture sector are planning here
There are simple things we can all do and its starts with awareness.
Lets talk about it more. For example
Its biodiversity month and our surveys have show over 50% of Australians have heard of the term but aren’t sure what it means.
I have been working in this space for 15 years and I had no idea that our track record over the last 200 was so abysmal so lets talk about it more.
2. We can stop squabbling about it. We can say NO to it being used as a political football. Its not a left and right wing issue. Caring for the environment means you care about a massive part of what makes Australia unique and it makes economic sense. Smart people protect their waterways and nurture the landscape that feeds us
The National Party environmental vandals were also happy to keep the message simple. In NP terms, protecting the environment means Left wing radical greenies running the country, losing your jobs and being forced to give up your ute. Source
The Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill 2020 is environmental vandalism in the extreme. It completely ignores Professor Graeme Samuel AC’s interim recommendations to accompany changes to the Act with stringent national standards and an independent regulator. And it hands decision-making to state and territory governments who have shown time and time again to be conflicted and incapable of protecting the environment. Source
3. And we can all show leadership. Does leadership get any better than this?
Its almost two months since I put fingers to the keyboard for my personal blog. To be honest I have been embarrassed by the discourse between farmers and farmers on social media. I also see a lack of leadership by industry in encouraging respectful conversations between farmers and the community and it saddens me.
‘Great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.’
This post is a special shout out to the team at Bulla Burra for continuously showing great leadership. You can see the full post on Facebook here
Last week I had the pleasure, courtesy of Wingecarribee Shire Council of being on the panel post the showing of the 2040 Film. The film has some confronting things to say about some of our current agricultural systems. Its also uses very inclusive language to invite everyone to work together and use the film as a launch pad for bold visions
This will require respectful conversations between everyone – thank you Bulla Burra for showing us how it is done.
The main point of this letter is to say that agriculture is a professional, thriving industry – but we are not very good at talking about it. We tend to live in our own little farming bubble and talk and whinge amongst ourselves. We get frustrated when we see something on “Sunrise” or “The Project” which affects us, and we go off half cocked on FB or Twitter – mainly to people within our own industry. And when we do get to talk to you we are usually being reactive or do a poor job of articulating our argument. We are sorry about that.
From our perspective we also need to do a far better job of listening. You rightly have questions and concerns about what we do, as the results of our efforts ends up feeding and clothing your families. How can you not be rattled by what you see on social media about GMO’s and Roundup, especially if we don’t have meaningful conversations with you about what we do and why. Of course those of you who love animals will be furious (as we are) when you see examples of animal cruelty. And yes, the whole idea of climate change is scary for us all.
Make no mistake, farmers are some of the most intelligent, educated, climatically aware, hardworking people on the planet – and focused on developing new, innovative and environmentally sustainable ways to continue to feed, clothe and fuel us all. As farmers, we don’t always get to have meaningful conversations with people outside of own agricultural bubble, so please feel free to pass this letter on to your friends both within and outside of ag. It is only by listening to each other that we create understanding, empathy and stronger communities.
With respect John
Success is a journey and the Pygmalion Effect is a powerful motivator
With 21st Century thinking and smart government policy there are many new and exciting opportunities for Australian farmers to thrive in a world of big data, a community screaming out for clean energy options and developing countries with a burning thirst to soak up our knowledge as well as our produce.
A number of our Young Farming Champions work with, share their knowledge and learn from farmers in developing countries. A number of them have taken advantage of the Crawford Fund scholarship support to engage in international research, development and education for the benefit of developing countries and Australia.
Young Farming Champion Sam Coggins has just landed a job with ACIAR and this article by Professor Andrew Campbell CEO of ACIAR is a great opportunity to share the work they do and the exciting opportunities for Sam in his chosen career in the Australian agriculture sector .
Sam Coggins taking his knowledge and passion for the Australian agriculture sector to the world
Agricultural aid is in Australian farmers’ interests
Andrew Campbell, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research considers the pragmatic reasons why well-targeted aid, especially in agriculture, is in the long-term best interests of Australian farmers and rural communities.
Why should Australian farmers support overseas aid?
Especially agricultural aid – doesn’t that just give a leg-up to our competitors?
Well, no.
Leaving aside moral arguments that overseas development aid is ‘the right thing to do’ for wealthy nations like Australia, there are also pragmatic reasons why well-targeted aid, especially in agriculture, is in the long-term best interests of Australian farmers and rural communities.
Specific examples of benefits from aid flowing back to Australia described below all stem from the direct experience of ACIAR – the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
ACIAR was established by the Fraser government in 1982, out of a recognition that Australian agricultural, fisheries and forestry science has much to offer developing countries in our region as they seek to feed their people and develop their economies.
ACIAR is an independent statutory authority in the foreign affairs portfolio, reporting directly to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am just the sixth CEO of ACIAR in 36 years. We have enjoyed remarkable stability over that time, enabling us to build very solid long-term partnerships from east Africa to the Pacific, developing many projects that have delivered benefits back to Australian rural industries and communities.
In many ways ACIAR is similar to Rural R&D Corporations, in that we organise and fund research, but our focus is overseas, taking Australian science to developing countries in the Indo-Pacific region, and we work across livestock, crops, horticulture, fisheries, forestry, land, water and climate.
Australian farmers and rural communities benefit from the work of ACIAR in several ways:
At the most basic level, as an exporting country, we do better when the countries in our region can afford to buy our products. As economies develop and people get richer, they consume more meat, dairy, fruit, processed cereals, sugar, wine and wool, and they demand higher quality food.
Australian scientists working on pests and diseases in developing countries can help to manage risks and limit the spread of major problems before they reach Australia. In doing so, they also get opportunities to work on problems that thankfully don’t (yet) exist in Australia, enabling them to build skills in detection, diagnosis and control of exotic diseases. This has proven of crucial value for Australia, for example with Panama Disease in bananas, and Newcastle Disease in poultry.
ACIAR investment in collaborative breeding programs gives Australian industries access to new varieties. For example, seven new citrus rootstocks were recently released into the Australian market, developed from disease-resistant and salt-tolerant Chinese cultivars through a collaboration with NSW DPI funded by ACIAR. Germplasm used by Australian wheat breeders to release high performance varieties to Australian growers draws heavily on material from CIMMYT – the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico – funded by ACIAR and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
ACIAR-funded fruit fly research directly helped mango farms in North Queensland, when exports to Japan were withdrawn in 1995 due to fruit fly incursions. The Queensland DPI was able to develop postharvest treatment protocols for Australian mangoes much faster because of their work for ACIAR in Malaysia, resulting in approval to restart exports at least six months sooner than would have been possible otherwise.
ACIAR often supports Australian researchers to work with partners in neighbouring countries to tackle a shared challenge. The strength of our innovation system leads to new technologies being trialled and adopted first here. Research on growing tropical tree crops, such as mango, jackfruit and cocoa, on trellises for greater productivity and cyclone resistance, led by Queensland DAF with support from Horticulture Innovation Australia and ACIAR, is now offering trellising as a potentially transformative technology to Queensland growers. Research to tackle productivity problems associated with plant viruses in sweetpotato crops in PNG, has led to virus therapy techniques and virus-free planting material being adopted as the foundation for a more productive sweetpotato industry in Australia. Techniques developed by Prof Peter Harrison from Southern Cross University to restore degraded fringing coral reefs in the Philippines (by stocking hatchery-reared coral larvae at the time of larval settlement into enclosures over the reef) are now being trialled on the Great Barrier Reef.
ACIAR is an important source of applied research funding for regional universities and state departments of primary industries, with major flow-on benefits for regional centres like Wagga, Armidale, Orange, Lismore, Toowoomba, Gatton, Roseworthy, Mildura, Yanco, Townsville, Hobart, Darwin and Maroochydore.
While I have great admiration for agricultural economists, benefit:cost ratios tell only a fraction of the story of why investing in agricultural aid in our region makes good business sense for Australia.
Andrew Campbell, CEO, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
All over the world, evidence over the decades since World War 1 has shown that investment in agricultural research delivers great returns, within and between nations. ACIAR has a fine tradition of measuring and tracking the impact of our investments. Some projects deliver exceptional benefit to cost ratios. For example, clonal improvement of eucalypt and acacia plantation genotypes in Vietnam delivered returns of around 80:1, and vaccination of village chickens in east Africa delivered returns of around 60:1.
Perceptions that our aid helps competitors to out-compete our own exporters don’t hold up under closer examination. Smallholder producers in developing countries rarely compete in the same high-value markets as Australian exporters. The gap in most instances remains very large, and reducing it somewhat usually creates opportunities for Australian industries.
For example, Indonesia wants to become self-sufficient in beef, and ACIAR is funding the University of New England, CSIRO and the University of Queensland to help lift beef productivity and production in eastern Indonesia in particular. But beef self-sufficiency for Indonesia remains a very long way down the track. In the meantime, they will need many breeding cattle from Australia and multiple linkages with the northern beef industry in particular. Building these links will help Australian exporters and producers.
Mangos are another example. Market studies around the Asia-Pacific, led by Griffith University in collaboration with the Australian Mango Industry Association, with input from state and territory DPIs and support from ACIAR, have shown how mango markets are differentiated by seasonal time slots and price points, local market preferences and varietal characteristics. Innovations in pest and disease management, flower induction and post-harvest handling can bring benefits to the mango industry in Australia and in partner countries.
Overall, over the last 36 years, using very conservative assumptions and only counting the benefits that can be quantified and costed, the ACIAR portfolio has delivered benefits at least five times greater than our total expenditure. Many benefits from more recent projects are yet to be fully realised.
While I have great admiration for agricultural economists, benefit:cost ratios tell only a fraction of the story of why investing in agricultural aid in our region makes good business sense for Australia.
Being a trusted science partner across our region, helping neighbouring countries to tackle some of their most pressing problems using Australian know-how, is a very tangible, practical demonstration of our commitment to regional security, prosperity and sustainability. In doing so, we learn a lot and we develop new capabilities that help our own industries, and in the long term we create more and better market opportunities for Australian farmers.
In short, the 2.5% of the Australian overseas aid budget managed by ACIAR delivers terrific value for Australian farmers, rural industries and rural communities.
I live in a very beautiful part of the world on a farm on the side of a mountain with rich volcanic soil and an average rainfall of 2000 mm. Yes that’s almost 80 inches of rain per year. With Australia experiencing the driest and warmest winter in 15 years we haven’t had “real’ rain here for months. We are in the midst of a green drought as the highly moisture stressed ryegrass does its best to hang on and provide the cows with the rich energy source that sustains them and the milk they produce.
My little piece of paradise hasn’t looked like this for quite a while
Rural Australian life is very rewarding in many ways, however, farming has many challenges including the long term impacts of climate change and extreme weather events and can be a stressful occupation.
Mental health and maintaining optimism in the face of adversity is very close to my heart
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller
I believe through The Archibull Prize we are selling hope to young people. Putting them at the centre of the learning experience . Using farmers as examples of dealing with the daily challenges of providing quality food and fibre and Young Farming Champions as leaders in creating the change we want to see.
The Cottage helps about forty, 12 to 18-year-olds experiencing a mental health condition every year. Days are split between schooling and therapy, with counselling, rehabilitation, creative arts sessions, education and individual clinical management on offer to help students achieve their recovery goals. Source
Well done to all the business who have come together to make The Cottage a true story
of hope
“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” Robert Schuller
If you know some-one who is struggling with stress an excellent resource can be found here
Its pretty easy to think about the world and be cynical. I know at my age I can certainly write a list of the people who have let me down.
But we all know selling despair, ruminating on the people you wished hadn’t crossed your path and on what could have been gets us nowhere. On the other hand selling hope and focusing on a bright future by engaging and working with the people who share your vision keeps the fire burning in our bellies
I keep the fire burning in my belly by surrounding myself with exciting young people. Young people in schools, young farmers and young activists for social and environmental justice .
Anika Molesworth Winner of the Environment and Sustainability Award
Millennials and the generation before them don’t exactly get the best wrap and are often described as self absorbed . Reading the bios of the finalists in all categories certainly drew everyone’s attention to a group of young people and their support networks who are turning the self absorbed label on its head.
Why theses young people do what they do and how they do it is both fascinating and inspiring. Last year’s winner in the opening speech said something that gave me food for serious reflection. This young lady is a very passionate member of AYCC who lobbied their peers to sign up and vote at the last election. She quoted some phenomenal numbers as a testimony to their success.
She expressed her motivation by saying something along the lines of “politicians don’t care about young people and young people don’t care about politicians”. She went on to say part of the mission of AYCC is to show young people how important it is to care about politicians and what they do and don’t stand for and to vote for the one’s that align with their values
Do politicians care about young people.? Do they care about us? I think they do but I can certainly understand why people in general wonder what they do stand for. How do we fix a system where it appears that too many of our politicians only care about the needs of big business and the powerful people and not enough about the quality of life and well being of everyday Australians?.
AYCC have got it right. It’s up to everyday Australians to hold our politicians accountable and that starts with making sure we have the right politicians in office and support fiercely the one’s who align with our values.
Congratulations to Anika Molesworth, a fierce campaigner for #youthinag and the viability and resilience of Australian farmers and social and environmental justice
Anika’s acceptance speech – its easy to see why she is in demand as a keynote speaker
The Picture You in Agriculture team has paired up with the Intrepid Landcare tribe to create and deliver a program that builds on the success of the Art4agriculture initiatives – The Archibull Prize and the Young Farming Champions to help young people in schools get their heads around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and take local action
Schools participating in the Kreative Koalas program ( note landing page only at this stage) will partner with Young Sustainability Ambassadors (Expressions of Interest open here ) and investigate and reflect on seven of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
We are finding ‘Responsible Production’ tricky. Coming from generations of primary producers that these days would be seen as Big Agriculture, my mission is to show the Little vs Big Agriculture story is not a binary argument – Good vs Bad or Romantic vs Reality or Sustainable vs Non-Sustainable or Non-Sustainable vs Sustainable but a continuum. I am looking for objective views and some great cases studies on both Little and Big Ag.
Do we have food journalists that write level-headed assessments of Australian agricultural systems in plain English? If the answer is yes – please share them with me
The Art4Agriculture team have created a complementary program model to The Archibull Prize that will allow us to roll the program out nationally. The students participating in the program will be investigating and reflecting on the theme
Feeding, Clothing and Powering a Hungry Nation is a shared responsibility
with the word ‘power’ referring to farmers potential to provide the community with renewable energy sources
So of course we needed a logo and I briefed the graphic designer who happens to be male and he comes back with
Okay so this was James stereotype of a farmer – love the bandy legs
Okay James farmers can be women too
So James sends me this
So girl farmers have bandy legs too !!!!!!
So then I said OK lets make it a partnership and James comes back with this
then we thought about it some more and we thought lets have the farmers on one side of the plug and people from the city on the other
So how should I brief James?
What does a stereotypical urbanite look like. Does he/she evoke images of super cool people with 9 to 5 corporate careers who surf after work and party on the weekends ??????
Update
The sage minds on twitter have delivered me a solution – farmer Gus Whyte has proposed a salute to the middle man. I will ask James to replace the farmers with a tradie wearing hi viz. But still have the problem of sex and ethnicity
I like to throw this idea out there. Its us not them – we don’t get out enough – people DO love us. And whats even better I have the hard data to prove it
Why are Aussie farmers out of love?
Jan. 27, 2016, 9 a.m.Opinion
JUST what have Australian farmers done to be so disconnected from the broader community?
In other nations across the globe, people involved in the most fundamental industry of all, food production, are respected as the primary plank of a functioning society.
Yet here in Australia, broadacre farmers cop a bum steer in terms of community perception.
They are variously described as whinging farmers being propped up by hard working city folk or mercenaries ruthlessly jeopardising the health of a nation in search of additional profits through the administration of veritable witches’ brews of toxic chemicals.
As those living in rural communities know, nothing could be further from the truth, but these ill-informed ideas have a damaging effect on the Australian agriculture industry across a range of issues.
But why does the Australian urban public seem to have so little time for farmers?
You look at the US, a similar culture to our own, and the nation celebrates the importance of those who produce its food. Here, however, the disconnect between country and city means the majority of urban dwellers have no idea of the work and financial risk required to put food on the national table. Kaniva, Victoria, farmer Wal Meyer has an interesting theory on how farmers have lost the public relations battle. He believes that the very phenomenon that theoretically should have improved relations between mainstream farmers and the metro public has worked against it. The resurgence in interest in where food comes from, driven in part by Australia’s seemingly insatiable appetite for reality cooking shows, should have seen the public thanking the Australian farming community some of the safest food in the world.
Partially, we did see increased appreciation of the role of the farmer, but only a certain segment. The public latched onto key phrases such as ‘organic’ and ‘rare-breed’ raising small scale, niche market growers to the level of minor celebrities.
Well done to these guys and they are certainly making a go of their enterprises and producing some fantastic food in the process. But as Mr Meyer lamented, this success often comes at the expense of other farmers. “People keep talking about organic this and that, and saying how bad for you conventionally farmed food is, when the facts are, that all Australian food products pass through a rigorous screening process before it is declared safe to eat.”
Another issue for those interested in environmental issues is whether organic farming is more sustainable than systems using herbicides. Certainly, it is a nice warm and fuzzy feeling to know no chemicals have been used, but the situation is not so cut and dried. Organic grain production systems rely heavily on tillage, which in turn creates problems with erosion and salinity.
As the crop protection lobby argues (of course with its own interests to the fore) it is likely that judicious use of herbicides and synthetic fertilisers may be better for the planet as a whole. But perception is all, and at present conventional farmers and livestock producers are often pigeon holed as ‘factory farmers’ without a proper analysis of their methodology.
Farmers cop a similar bad rap when it comes to the processed foods that land on consumers’ tables. There is no doubt artificial preservatives and colourings are best to be avoided, as any parent of a child who has partaken in too much red cordial will attest, but nutritional issues with food on the supermarket shelves owe more to the manufacturing process than to the raw food the food processing sector is provided with.
Advocacy groups are out there arguing agriculture’s case, you see the Grains Legume Nutrition Council promoting healthy grain products and agriculture as a whole must continue to invest in these initiatives that bridge the gap between producer and consumer. Only then will we see a similar level of respect afforded to our primary producers as in other nations.
Its time to listen to the stats and get off the couch and get some sunshine, avoid the selective hearing trap and talk to people and actually listen- its amazing what we might find and I can assure you it will be good for the soul
I have had a very inspiring 3 week road trip which started with an invitation to judge the Spirit of the Land Farm Art Sculpture’s competition. You can see my photos of this amazing event here
Following the Lockhart Festival I joined The Archibull Prize artwork judge architect Wendy Taylor on her yearly whirlwind tour searching for the WOW Archie. Poor Wendy this year proved to be very stressful – the wow factor was off the scale as you can see here.
For me as a farmer the highlight of this trip is talking to the teachers and students and listening to their journey and finding out the impact the program has had on them, their school and the wider community.
Did the students and teachers and farmers have the courageous conversations we all need to have to ensure Australian farmers can continue to feed and clothe Australian families in the highly challenging environment we find ourselves in on so many levels?
The big threats to reliable access to safe, affordable and healthy food in this country like increasing and prolonged extreme weather events, declining access to land, water and non renewable energy sources, food waste, biosecurity risks and and increasing consumer concerns about modern farming practices.
The students looked at all these big ticket issues and many more. They created artworks, they blogged and they animated and wow did they have courageous conversations, They have thought boldly . They have shown they have the courage to drive change and find new and better ways of doing things . Mega kudos to them and their outstanding example to the rest of us
These little cuties from Lockhart had such a great time making pom pom sheep
The Archibull Prize is a very costly program to run as you can imagine. Australia is a big country and transporting life size fibreglass cows doesn’t come cheap. Many people donate their time and expertise to ensure the program is delivered on behalf of farmers everywhere to the level of significance our wonderful Australian produce deserves
In fact the Young Farming Champions – some of Australian agriculture’s most inspirational young people donate thousands of hours between them to gain the skills and knowledge to go into schools participating in The Archibull Prize to tell agriculture’s story and share their values, hopes and dreams for a bright future for agriculture in this country
Interestingly enough it was Cotton Australia who was the first industry to put their hands up to participate in The Archibull Prize. Always an industry that thinks outside the box they could see the potential of using a blank fibreglass cow to tell the story of cotton. Although I must admit it did take me a while to convince them the award shouldn’t be the called The Archiboll Prize. Just to show you what I knew about cotton at that time I had to ask what a ‘boll’ was
Let me show you how inspiring an innovative vehicle, a blank fibreglass cow, an exciting young farming champion and some great classroom resources can be to tell Cotton Tales in a way that resonate with the people that matter – the people who buy what farmers produce and I am not even going to show you the artwork yet
The Many Faces of Cotton
Investigating the Australian Cotton Industry
and this
Did you know Australian Cotton is the best in the World?
How to make a Cotton Calf
And we haven’t even talked about cows telling sheep tales yet
Well check this out
Where there’s Wool There’s a Runway
Weaving the Woollen Dream
And this is just a sample – so glad I am not judging these
I decided to keep up the family tradition and had my son’s national ski championship awards replicated in gold and added to the family history fob chain. I am confident the next gen will value them as much as me.
