Amazing Carbon

 

South East regional GAIA awards

The South East Regional Green Agriculture Innovation Awards (GAIA) will be presented at a gala dinner in Bega on Saturday 8th September 2012. Further information will be posted to this website shortly.

Meeting the Challenge for Change

    Bega Showground Pavilion, Bega, NSW, 28-29 February 2012

    This event is now completed. A second 'Meeting the Challenge for Change Forum will be held in Bega in 2013.

    An assessment of all the things likely to impact on agriculture over the next 10-20 years leads to the conclusion that we are entering a period of extraordinary change. Our challenge as a society is to work with the farming community to restore the ecological and hence productive base on which the future security of the Australian nation depends.

    Teleseminar: Click here to listen.

    Presenters...

    Individually and as a team, the presenters will deliver a strong message for fundamental redesign. Their shared vision is to restore life and vitality to agricultural soils. Rebuilding the foundations on which farming depends has multiple benefits including improved landscape resilience and better community and catchment health - for both present and future generations.

    Garry McDouall: The imperative for change - food, fuel and finance. Developing key principles for regenerative agriculture

    Garry believes we are facing a period of extraordinary change and that the broader community and the rural community are fundamentally unprepared for it. He will challenge forum delegates to consider the implications of this changed future, not in terms of threats, but in terms of opportunities - and there will be many!

    Garry is concerned about the gap between the scientific community and those involved in a holistic approach. He does not believe we can afford to waste the energy and intellectual effort on this divide. Garry considers that the answer, in part, lies with identifying a series of principles for regenerative agriculture. He will work through these principles in his interactive opening session.

    Tanya Massy: Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Farmers

    Tanya grew up on a grazing property in the Monaro region of NSW and has directly witnessed and worked with a range of challenges and shifts that have affected the agricultural sector in recent years. This background, together with her experience working internationally in communities where the issues of food security and sustainable regional livelihoods are matters of daily survival, has made her passionate about the central role agriculture plays in the lives of everyone who eats! It has also left her full of questions as to the best way forward for a young person seeking to contribute to the future. With an aging farming population, and less and less young people turning to life on the land, what will agriculture look like in 20 years time?

    Christine Jones: Soil carbon - getting the basics right

    One teaspoon of healthy carbon-rich soil can contain almost as many organisms as there are people on the planet, that is, close to 7 billion living things - and a greater diversity of life than the Amazonian rainforest. What are these billions of living things in the soil - and more importantly, what do they do? What role does soil biology play in carbon sequestration and food security?

    Christine will discuss the key principles for rebuilding soil - be it on farms or in gardens - and explain why soil regeneration is of fundamental significance to the health and future of us all.

    Tim Marshall: Eating the future

    The development of settled agriculture permitted the growth of cities and the rise of modern civilisation. A feature of civilisation, wherever it develops, is increasing specialisation, and increasing alienation from food production.

    Coincident with this development, western agriculture has actually become much less energy efficient. We have sought higher yield but ignored the energy and carbon cost of increasing yield. With new awareness of this dilemma, agriculture is now central to any discussion of sustainability and there are two dominant views of the future of food supply.

    One view sees us continuing down the path, with agriculture being even more technological, specialised and commoditised, genetically modified and with a narrowing ownership.

    Another view emphasises food security, local self reliance, seasonal eating and moving beyond sustainability to regenerative agriculture, and seeks to re-engage consumers with the production process, using tools such as farmers markets, farm stores, direct delivery schemes and community supported agriculture.

    Geoff Pryor: Waste not, want not

    Geoff is the South East Resource Recovery Group Coordinator with the South East Regional Organisation of Councils (SEROC).

    The vision and achievements of SEROC provide a dynamic model for integrated community action.

     

    Program - Click here for program …

    We welcome you to join us for this exciting event!!

    GAIA awards

    Tim Marshall, world-renowned and highly respected author, founder of Acres Australia and Deputy Chair, Organic Federation of Australia, will present the A&K Hill Green Agriculture Innovation Awards (GAIA) at the forum dinner, Kianinny Resort, Tathra, 28th February.

    Pre-registration for the dinner is essential. Dress: formal (black tie).

    The GAIA awards provide recognition for individuals with a passion for promoting the adoption of regenerative land management practices that simultaneously improve soil function, agricultural production, biodiversity, food quality and carbon sequestration outcomes. Read more …

    The 2011 GAIA recipients are Darryl Cluff, Colin Seis, Tom Nicholas, Charlie Sexton and Barry Hardwick. See below for more ...

     

    Sponsors

    GAIA recipients

    Darryl Cluff. Originator of the Pasture Cropping technique and founder of the Stipa Native Grasses Association. Darryl’s property ‘Olive Lodge’ Birriwa, NSW, has been in the Cluff family since 1889. In recent decades Darryl has observed that although 50% of the area is bushland, 90% of the wildlife, especially the birds, exist in the farmland areas. He will be discussing the possible reasons for this.

     

    Colin Seis. Since the early 1980s Colin has sought ways to reverse the degradation caused by conventional farming techniques on his property 'Winona' in the Central West of NSW. Colin realised that problems such as crop disease, insect attack and the need for high fertiliser inputs were due to an ecological imbalance, although rarely approached in that way. Since restoring the ecological base for his farm, crop yields have been equal to conventional while profits have increased significantly, due to much lower input costs.

    Tom Nicholas. Farmer from Claremont, Central Queensland and Chair, Healthy Soils Australia. Tom's message is clear, simple and powerful. To restore vibrant rural and regional communities, farmers must have sovereignty over the carbon they build in the soil through their management, regardless of tenure. The benefits of increased levels of soil carbon for the Australian landscape, the farming community and the nation as a whole, are too great to be ignored.

     

    Charlie Sexton. Regional Landcare Facilitator, Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Benalla, Victoria. During the drought, Charlie observed that conventional agricultural techniques were failing, expensive to maintain and were pushing farmers backs against the wall. He began working with innovative landholders with great success. He strongly believes farmers are in the best place to provide positive outcomes for the land and has been promoting farmer input to government organisations to develop strategic direction for agricultural, environmental, biodiversity and community outcomes.

    Barry Hardwick. Regional Landcare Facilitator, NRM South, Southern Tasmania. Barry is astounded that it took him so long to realise the benefits and great opportunities that are presented in regenerative land management techniques. Now that he’s ‘seen the light’ he realises that the future is only limited by our capacity to understand biological systems in the holistic sense, to think differently and imagine new futures.


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Contact Christine Jones: christinejones222@gmail.com