I am reprinting this article “Surviving my mother suicide”  from the Medium Daily Digest. It truly moved me and resonated so deeply. Like Cas I too have far to much knowledge in this area. And for people who don’t, you have no right to judge.

…………………….

After Chester Bennington’s suicide, I have come across a series of posts and discussions on the topic on Facebook, and elsewhere, with people calling the act selfish while paying special attention to the children who have now been left behind to deal with the trauma.

 

Everyone is so quick to jump on the topic as if they knew the Linkin Park singer and his family; as if they knew his kids and how they felt. Even in writing this, I have no idea what type of person he was, how ill he was, what he was like as a person, or a father, but as someone who is the child of a parent who committed suicide I feel I can and should shed light on the child’s perspective — an area that’s not often talked about.

As a child of a parent who committed suicide; I can tell you that suicide is not a selfish act. It is in fact quite the opposite in the mind of the person who is suffering. They believe that taking their own life is doing their family, friends and communities a big favor because they see themselves as an unbearable burden. They believe that once they are gone from the picture, everyone’s lives will be easier, happier and better. This belief leaves them with massive guilt resulting in self-deprecation, thinking about what others are or might be going through in handling their illness. And yes, people who have suicidal ideation are suffering from mental illness. They do not ask to be struck with depression, anxiety, fear or psychosis, any more than a person with cancer has “asked” to be struck with that disease. Nor, is this their fault. Mental illness can and does strike people across all walks of life; the wealthy, the poor, the successful and the average.

It’s no secret that it is extremely difficult to live with and be around someone who has severe mental health issues.This was especially true in the time before the internet when you couldn’t turn to Google to help you figure it all out. Until my mother’s death, it was near impossible to understand her moods and behaviors, even with the experts intervening and all the resources at my disposal. She just couldn’t seem to stop the vicious mental battle with herself that she was fighting alone inside her head, and all the external consequences that resulted from it.

Yet, one thing, and maybe the only thing, that was always clear to me is that she loved my brother and I an indescribable amount. She would do anything in the world if she thought it would give us a better life, including committing the most extreme act of taking her own. Again, I never knew Chester, but I’m sure if he was a good dad, he would have felt the same, and his children would know that now too.

I won’t lie and say that not having to constantly worry about my mother isn’t a relief. It was hard and scary at times, especially after three or four failed attempts at suicide and wondering if this time would be it. Living with constant worry about someone you love is hard, and that goes for anything, whether it’s mental illness, eating disorders, addiction or something else that impacts someone’s ability to “live a normal life.”

What was harder though, was witnessing my mom struggle with being unable to be the parent she so desperately wanted to be for my brother and I. My mother was driven to get better, taking advantage of the best resources and doctors out there. Her determination, however, wasn’t enough. The illness overtook her and she lost the battle with her illness. She fought the disease affecting her mind every single day in an attempt to be happy and find the joys in what would appear on the outside to be a very happy life.

I have trouble reading the comments surrounding the “great life,” many people assume Chester had because of his fame, wealth, friends, family and so on that basically “went to waste.” This idea that someone should be happy because of all they may have is valid, for the person who does not suffer from mental illness, perhaps. For them, it just takes a shift in perspective to realize all of the amazing aspects of their life. Unfortunately, that’s generally not the case for someone with mental illness. No matter how hard they try they just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, or can’t hold onto it long enough to change the way they view the world, and their place in it.

Also, there’s so much talk about what it will be like now for Chester’s kids not to have their father in their life, but no one looks at the impact of having him in their lives. My mother’s constant struggle impacted me from a very early age as I mimicked her moods and behaviors, learning from her what was right or wrong, good or bad. When things that are good in life are perceived as bad, that becomes what’s normal. Her rationale for why she felt the way she did made sense to me because I didn’t know any better. It took many years to understand, that her thinking wasn’t normal.

Understand, I don’t think that having my mother absent from my life was better for me at all, and I’m not saying that for Chester’s kids either. I just want everyone to have a better understanding of what it means to survive a parent as a result of suicide. It is sad that my mother missed my graduation, and that she won’t be there for my wedding or my first child. It sucks that she will miss all the other major milestones in my life and all the little ones in between. But, as my mother’s daughter, I know if she truly believed she could continue to live the life she was living, she would have and would still be here

 

Anyone who has meet the delightful and effervescent Cynthia Mahoney knows she has the well-being of rural and regional Australia at the heart of everything she does.

Founder of Cynthia Mahoney and Associates, Cynthia is passionate about working with women to embrace their strengths, develop their life and leadership skills and live courageously. She believes that being our best selves and living purposefully creates a positive ripple effect that benefits our families, workplaces and communities. Through her business, Cynthia has created a way to combine her entrepreneurial spirit with her passion for developing people to be their best and her skills and talent in facilitation. Her journey of self-discovery, along with her empathy, authenticity and commitment to courage, growth and self-leadership, enable her to help people, teams and organisations make positive change and achieve professional and personal success.

Cynthia and Louise Thompson have designed a one-day workshop specifically for busy, professional women called ‘Driving Your Life Wellbeing’

thew workshop has been designed to create a space for busy women to step off the treadmill of life and work. For just one day invest in yourself and take some time out to reflect on what’s important.

Here is the blurb from the website found here

Identify how best to look after yourself and start making positive change to create the life you want for you and your family. We know that women enjoy connecting, listening and talking, so we designed a new workshop to introduce the Driving Your Life philosophy which balances what you like doing and what you need to do to reconnect with yourself: with your dreams, goals, confidence, courage, plans and actions.

During your Driving Your Life Well-Being day you’ll:

•  Clarify what’s most important in your life right now
•  Step back and reassess your goals in all areas of your life
•  Identify how you can harness your strengths for success
•  Learn tools and techniques to help you gain clarity and direction for focus and balance
•  Benchmark your work-life balance, develop strategies to reduce your busyness and reclaim time for what’s important to you
•  Gain, and share with others, tips and practical tools that you can implement right away
•  Map out a courageous plan to drive your life

Join us at 9.15 for a 9.30am start and we’ll finish at 4.30pm. We’re searching for the right venue at the moment and will confirm with you closer to the date. Your ticket will include the refreshments and nourishment necessary to be revived and ready to leave with your revised map. Places are limited to create an interactive and supportive environment for all participants.

Watch the trailer here

We commenced hosting Driving Your Life workshops almost five years ago after listening to the repetitive concerns of people – irrespective of their occupation, age or gender – who wanted to set aside time to reflect, dream, create and take action to make positive change in their lives. We’ve worked with groups of people to guide them to mark out a course on their life map and put them in the driver’s seat of their life.

We’re thrilled to be now able to offer this customised one-day version of our Driving Your Life program, especially crafted for busy women.

Get your tickets here 

 

Source The Age

Food sustainability is about culture, education, health, equity and respect for the planet we live in.

Eat better, eat less, food for all. Source 

Always on the search for new and thought provoking content on responsible production and consumption  and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that feature in The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas  I was pretty stoked to come across the Food Sustainability Index website See here 

The Food Sustainability Index (FSI) has been created by the Economist Intelligence Unit in partnership with Barilla Centre  for Food and Nutrition (BCFN). The FSI is a tool designed to highlight international policies and best practices relating to global paradoxes and to the main SDGs for food, climate change, sustainable cities, responsible production and consumption, health, gender equality, education and infrastructure.

This study is composed of a white paper, a city monitor, infographics and a digital hub – all tools intended to further expand data relating to the 25 countries and the 16 cities which were at the centre of our research.

It’s a tool for all stakeholders which can be used to promote better awareness for all involved in the food supply chain.

The aim is to  promote sustainable practices and to rebalance the fundamental links between food, people and the Planet.

so how does Australia fair

Overall we are 8th on the list

Where do we star -Australia scores strongly on food waste and loss (ranked 2^nd in the index)

BUT  nutritional challenges have been identified as a particular issue for us. We rank 16th in the nutritional challenges pillar, well below other developed countries such as France, Japan and South Korea.

You can access all the graphs here  and you wont need a magnifying glass to see them

There is also a fascinating blog about us titled Australia’s Food Bowls which I have reprinted below

Australia has a reputation for good weather, healthy lifestyles, fresh food and a high quality of living—not least in its biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne. However, growing urban sprawl around both cities, and associated high rents for agricultural land, are putting increased pressure on local farmers.¹,² If left unchecked, this process could have negative implications for the quality of life of the cities’ inhabitants.

Agricultural land around Sydney currently produces around one-fifth of its food,³while that around Melbourne can produce up to 41% of its needs. However, two recent studies—Sydney’s Food Futures⁴ and Melbourne’s Food Futures⁵—found that this could change dramatically if current trends are not reversed.

The studies produce stark estimates of what current policies would lead to. For Sydney, these include that the area would lose 90% of its fresh vegetable production and 60% of its total food production, and that the Sydney Basin would only be able to meet 6% of the food needs of the area’s residents, from 20% currently. In the case of Melbourne, the study predicts that the area would only be able to accommodate 18% of the city’s food needs by 2050.

The scale of the decline projected by the studies is quite dramatic. Although the food could be sourced elsewhere, this would mean transporting it over greater distances and sacrificing freshness. At the heart of this lies the issue of food sustainability, which is addressed in the 2016 Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit with the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition.

Local issues, national priorities

The three pillars of the FSI—sustainable agriculture, nutritional challenges and food loss and waste—all link to the debate about the future of agricultural production in Australia. Overall, the country came 8th out of the 25 countries measured in the FSI. This is one of the lowest rankings for a developed state, suggesting room for improvement.

Even though Australia scores strongly on food waste and loss (ranked 2^nd in the index), nutritional challenges are identified as a particular issue for the country. Australia ranks 16th in the nutritional challenges pillar, well below other developed countries such as France, Japan and South Korea. This suggests that a focus on a healthy diet is a key priority for the country’s policymakers. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has warned about growing rates of obesity in the country,⁶with current figures indicating that 63% of adults are either overweight or obese.⁷

Ensuring a large amount of operational agricultural land close to major urban centres such as Sydney and Melbourne would help to tackle this issue. If urban sprawl continues to claim agricultural land and the share of the city’s overall food needs supplied by local producers continues to decline, the amount that residents need to pay to eat a balanced, nutritious diet is likely to increase. Producing food close to market reduces transport costs and negates the risk that higher energy prices will push up food prices. So-called “food deserts”—areas where there are very limited options for purchasing fresh food—are already reported to be quite common in Sydney, notably in the west of the city.⁸ In these areas, health problems related to a lack of fresh vegetables and fruit, such as type 2 diabetes, are more common.

Nutritional centres

Guaranteeing a stable supply of fresh goods close to major population centres is also central to curbing food loss levels (defined as the mass of food production intended for human consumption that is lost during the production, post-harvest and processing stages). Although Australia is a strong performer on this measure in the FSI, pushing agricultural production further away from population centres could change this. Food that has to be transported over greater distances is liable to suffer a higher rate of loss. This is particularly the case for perishable goods. If grown close to market, the loss from these products can be reduced.⁹ In addition, transporting goods over greater distances means higher carbon emissions.

Getting ahead

All is certainly not lost. The Sydney’s Food Futures project argues that there is still time for policymakers to protect agricultural land close to the city and asserts that there are plenty of viable measures that policymakers could put in place to support this.¹⁰ Moreover, the study finds that sustainable strategies to integrate food production with other essential services could actually lead to an increase in food production in the area and create jobs for local people.

However, this will require a concerted effort from government. A key point of reference for policymakers could be the Milan Urban Policy Food Pact, signed by 138 cities in 2015 (including Melbourne, but not Sydney). The outcome is a plan aimed at reducing food waste, encouraging healthy eating and ensuring the sustainable purchase of food in an urban context.

More broadly, these issues are relevant to Australia’s commitment under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015.¹¹ Six of the 17 SDGs deal specifically with issues related to food. In particular, SDG 3 (“to ensure health and well-being for all, at every stage of life”), SDG 12 (“to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”) and SDG 15 (“to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems”) all have directly relevant implications for the urban sprawl and loss of agricultural land around major population centres. Source

 

Our guest blog today comes from Chris Vella and his partner in crime April Browne who are the Science Education and Engagement Coordinators at the Western Sydney University School of Science and Health

Chris Vella (left) and April Browne (right)  with the award they won in partnership with Therese McGillion (project officer, School of Science and Health) for nurturing individualised, student-led scholarship, bringing agricultural education to the daily dinner table, and collaborating with genuine joie de vivre towards a better food future.

Chris and April recently paired with MKR contestants Jason and Annie Chesworth ( Mr and Mrs Cheese) to run a dairy engagement activation at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in March

Chris shares with you the team’s motivators and drivers

Food is something that we, at Western Sydney University, believe everyone has opinions on. People think, talk, write, and post about food every day. But, how often does the average consumer have the chance to  receive information about where their food comes from, directly from the source? This insight is incredibly valuable for urban-based audiences, and we, as an agricultural education institute, feel that part of our job is to help facilitate these discussions in the community about issues surrounding our food system- plus we just love talking about all things food!

(From https://www.instagram.com/p/BS5Et2-hNKB/)

The chance to help people get a bit deep with their food is one reason why we enjoy being a part of the Sydney Royal Easter Show. This year, the Western Sydney University stall was in the Downes Pavilion during the long weekend. With the dairy cattle surrounding and a space across from Dairy Australia, we could think of no better people to partner up with to create our stall than Jason and Annie Chesworth from Hunter Belle Cheese.

Focused on continuing the dairy conversation with eager visitors to the cattle sheds, Jason and Annie designed an incredible, Price is Right-style game called ‘an Udder Day an Udder Dollar’ (the Hunter Belle team get full credit for that pun) that we ran throughout the long weekend. Each session drew a huge, diverse crowd of people, giving them the chance to ask those burning questions they might have about the dairy industry.

In the following video Annie has captured Jason hosting the game. This was an opportunity to bust myths and pass along information about what goes into the dairy products that we all know and love.

(https://www.facebook.com/annieandjasonmkr/videos/1636598069698553/)

“It was great to be able to interact with our consumers in a way they could connect, by taking it back to basics of what they spend weekly at the supermarket on dairy products and then aligning that with the production process. It was heart warming the amount of people that commented about how they didn’t realise this or that, so to think that we made a small difference to how these consumers view the value of the Australian Dairy industry was a very good outcome.”-Jason Chesworth

At Western Sydney University we are passionate about creating a more food literate society through our teaching and research. Our Bachelor of Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security equips graduates with the professional skills to lead a new era of agricultural conversation between producers and consumers. It is our hope that these kinds of activations (as well as the many others we offer in our school programs) can inspire the next generation to pursue a career in agriculture and lead a more sustainable food system.   

(From https://www.instagram.com/p/BS7t0XqBHRT/)

Thanks Chris

Don’t we all wake up to be a better person that we were yesterday.

One great way to do that is to reduce our footprint on the planet. Yet it appears we are all so misinformed and as the ABC brilliant new show “War on Waste” showed last night far too many of us (including me) are under the misconception coffee cups can be recycled. If they can it sure as hell isn’t happening in our country.  OMG the dairy industry would go broke ( or even broker) if our love affair with coffee was impacted

A recent Choice article informed us

The well-intentioned caffeine lover who tries to do the right thing and recycle their cup may be doing more harm than good. The plastic waterproof lining of many paper coffee cups means they can’t be recycled with collections of paper and cardboard and may actually contaminate a load, causing the whole lot to be sent to landfill.

Factor in the hefty use of resources that goes into producing them, and coffee cups are landing a triple blow to our environment.

Now I do have a Keep Cup – in fact I have had half a dozen of them. I am paranoid about washing them up ( because I know refrigerated milk even little bits of it go off very quickly) and I leave them places – well at least they can be recycled or the glass bits can

Now we all know about disposable nappies. At least I dont have to feel guilty about this one. I soooooo remember all that soaking and washing and drying and folding of nappies that just having one child demanded. So totally understand the appeal of disposable nappies BUT here’s a staggering number – every day 5.6 million nappies are used in Australia.

After they’re used, 5.6 million nappies go to landfill where they sit and release greenhouse gases for approximately 500 years until they break down. The plastics, the fibre, the super absorbent polymers (SAPs) they contain that could be recycled are buried as well.

But as I approach that age where incontinence may become a problem it appears my footprint could go up considerably

With incontinence products, that number jumps to 7 million a day – Note to self Lynne remember to keep working on those pelvic floor exercises

Aged care centres estimate that a massive 40 per cent of their waste is absorbent hygiene waste (AHW), and with our aging population, tonnages are growing fast. Often this waste also contains medications that have passed through the body.

Then there is the evil wet wipes – I must admit I thought these were the bees knees until I heard people were flushing them down toilets. Green star for me I have never done that

Just how bad are they – a report by the Marine Conservation Society revealed that wet wipes have become the fastest growing cause of pollution on our beaches. Its volunteers are picking them up from our coastline at a rate of 35 filthy wipes per kilometre.

Now the Relivit people are on a mission  to find a better solution.

As they acknowledge disposable nappies are here to stay and it’s easy to see why – they’re convenient, effective and require no washing. Let’s also make them sustainable by reclaiming the materials and reducing waste by more than 95 per cent.

If you would like to see nappies, incontinence pads and feminine hygiene products reclaimed from landfill and recycled please pledge your support on the Relivit  Facebook page.

Goodness gracious me its time  somebody made being good a lot easier than it is now

Peta Bradley – young women in wool going places

Today I was invited to share my story in a forum that would see me follow in the footsteps of people who certainly don’t mix in my regular circles

As a I read down the list of people they had interviewed in the past Tara Moss’ name hit me in the face. Déjà vu I just happened to be staying in the same hotel I was five years ago when I found myself standing next to Tara Moss. Can you believe it she is even more beautiful in real life?

So, somebody gives you an opportunity to share your life story in 45 minutes in an international forum. 45 minutes is quite a long time – what do you say or my case what do you not say. Here I am, self-identified non-role model driven to provide young people in agriculture with the life skills necessary to thrive and NOT make the same mistakes I have.  I will have to give this opportunity a lot of thought – not sure I am brave enough to talk about the person, the pivot points and the drivers behind the facade.

Speaking of role models it has certainly been rewarding to be part of this three part series in The Land newspaper. It has been said you are a product of the people you learn from. What a pleasure it has been to to invite Max Edwards and Peta Bradley to talk about the role models that have helped shape them.  Next week The Land will feature Dwayne Schubert whose story first inspired the series. I look forward to this being  one of many features in The Land on young people leading transformational change in agriculture

 

I was recently in charge of ordering the catering at an event for a highly environmentally aware group of young people from non livestock agriculture backgrounds, only to discover that, that all important question for caterers (dietary requirements) was left off the survey. We will blame SurveyMonkey it should be a given in every survey

So there was a last minute guessing session for the caterer. Highly environmentally aware/non livestock farmers = 60% vegetarian, 20% vegan, 10% gluten free, 10% meat eaters.

We got it all wrong (no vegans, no gluten free) but we all got stuck into the Vegan Chocolate Balls.

 The vegan chocolate ball 

Its been a tough week. Too many important decisions to make.

The Leadership Search – a tough gig

One in particular is causing some major pondering with applications now closed for the inaugural 2017 Picture You in Agriculture Scholarship  Fifteen applicants have been invited to move to the next round which is writing a blog post for Art4AgricultureChat . As you can see from the quality of #youthinag blog post content the applicants are nothing short of phenomenal

The committee is so torn. One scholarship so many great people. Who to choose?

Having applied for many things in my lifetime. Sometimes being successful and other times not. What I have learnt from being on the other side and sitting on the selection committee is often selection is a matter of luck, being that person who ticks all the right boxes at that point in time.

It has been highly rewarding to know that we are not the only ones who are excited by the quality of applicants and in typical cotton industry style (never miss an opportunity to nurture potential best and the brightest cotton industry advocates and professionals) Nellie Evans has now been offered a CRDC Young Farming Champions position in the program. We are now in talks with two other organisations to see if we can ensure some more of these amazing young people don’t slip through the cracks.

Congratulations to Nellie Evans who has just received an opportunity to enter the Young Farming Champions program as a Cotton YFC thanks to the generosity of CRDC 

The expression of interest process has also elicited some fascinating insights from #youthinag into the questions.

1. What do you think are the greatest challenges facing the agriculture sector?
2. Why you believe it is important for the agriculture sector to build relationships with the community

The biggest challenges that face the Australian agricultural industry is maintaining reality in a virtual orientated world. Providing the opportunity for people to touch, feel, smell and experience the reality of farming. Empowering people to experience the magic of sustainable harvesting of country and building a genuine ownership of the physical world where we live and what’s around us.

Not only is it a social obligation to build relationships with your customers, from an economic stand point it is highly beneficial to foster positive community relationships to ensure ongoing support, markets and consumer appreciation of value in products and financial resilience in the Australian agricultural sector. All good businesses are built on solid relationships and secure and profitable channels to markets to drive on farm profitability.

I look forward to introducing you to the inaugural Picture You in Agriculture scholarship winner

Young Farming Champions Geoff Birchnell and Felicity Taylor are very excited so see FARMECCO, the software program program that they have been working on with rural entrepreneur and visionary James Walker  reach the market place

The program aims to help Australia’s 70,000 beef producers improve their business skills and take control of their beef enterprises and finances.

‘I have been involved in some of the platform testing . It’s a great feeling to be involved with something that will shape farm management as well as seeing the hard work behind how it came together. 

Farmecco is user-friendly, forward-looking and encourages farmers to innovate financially. I see several useful applications for my own business, both presently and as I plan for the future. I’m so fortunate that products like this will be available to farmers of my generation for the lives of our businesses.  said Felicity 

Felicity Taylor Beef Producer and FARMECCO Reviewer

The program is based on the concept of producing a level of meaningful insight into a user’s business that will directly drive improved performance. Users can typically input all elements of their business within 30-40 minutes and the program will then prepare a 12 month forecast for the business. This forecast is rich in information and provides a level of insight and analysis that is not commonly practiced in small-medium business. The results of this insight and analysis facilities more meaningful engagement of internal & external stakeholders of the business. When everyone intricately understands the business strategic plans and better decisions are readily made.

Some of the features of the program include;

• Instant 30-40 page report containing a detailed overview of the business and personal aspects of the user;
• Increased user awareness of business performance including cashflow requirements, livestock production, sales revenue, business equity and household wealth;
• Increased financial literacy for users including benchmarking business performance against regional and national peers;
• Live valuing of livestock based on daily market data;
• Unrivalled simplicity of data entry to calculate key financial metrics;
• Ability to run scenarios of change in business structure – particularly beneficial for young farmers with expansion aspirations or older farmers looking to succeed their business to family;
• 12 month forecasting of business cash flow;
• Detailed information inc Cashflow Budgets, Asset/Liability Summary, Livestock on Hand Schedules etc are instantly generated for financial focussed external stakeholders;

According to Geoff Birchnell who accountancy background was instrumental in fine-tuning the  program over 80 users have reviewed FARMECCO and they have been overwhelmingly positive. 

To start with a vision and work to see this materialise is immensely fulfilling. When you then see your effort generating real benefits to beef producers it is beyond satisfying. In agriculture, challenges are all too common, but I truly believe beating these challenges and achieving dreams is now within reach. 

Beef Producer and accountancy guru Geoff Birchnell 

The program is being launched via a webinar on Wednesday March 10th 2017. You can registered for the webinar here

Want to know more check out  this Beef Central wrap up

While the Australian Competition and Consumer Council watchdog is working tirelessly to clear the muddy waters that dog Australian dairy farmers efforts to get a fair playing field this article in Bloomberg gives very interesting insights into how Canada and the US nurture their sacred cows

Both countries are guilty of manipulating milk markets. Canada has followed a policy that insures that a cartel of producers limits supply (and imports) in order to keep prices high, with consumers footing the bill at the grocery store. The American policies effectively lead to unlimited supply, cheap milk (and a desire to find foreign markets to dump surplus milk). Consumers don’t pay the price; instead, taxpayers do. 

The president can milk this issue all he wants. But he should realize there are no innocents in a trade war like this — unless you count the cows themselves. Stephen Mihm

 

 

My final thoughts on the Australian dairy industry situation are summed up by this image

In reality both Australian dairy farmers and milk processors who supply the domestic milk market in Australia are lambs to the slaughter  in the Woolworths vs Coles supermarket milk wars. Its time to give our dairy cows the respect they deserve