Author: 4dit

In Spring 2019 I had the privilege to attend the Pacific Week of Agriculture in Apia, Samoa. The theme of the conference was “Enhanced Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Pacific”. The conference was attended by delegates from the majority of nations in the South Pacific. Delegates came together at the conference to highlight the research and different projects that had been undertaken in the South Pacific in recent years, all with the goal of improving the sustainability of the current agricultural systems in place.

A major threat facing agriculture in the South Pacific is soil degradation caused by continuous same species cropping and lack of inputs. The impact of this is already being felt throughout the South Pacific in the form of reducing yields and reliance on imported food products for survival. Dr Ben McDonald from CSIRO is one of many researchers working in this space conducting crop trials in conjunction with local researchers to combat the issue of soil degradation.

The University of the South Pacific (USP) is also conducting research and trials into improving the agricultural systems currently employed throughout many of the South Pacific Nations. The USP campus in Apia has recently discovered that sheep can be run in conjunction with a taro crop as the sheep do not browse taro plants. Small discoveries such as this are important in the South Pacific as they enable landholders to have multiple enterprises providing monetary and ecological benefits.

A team from CSIRO was present at the conference as part of the Pacific Soils Partnership. They presented the work that they have been doing in the South Pacific funded by Australian Government aid. Seeing the impact of Australian aid funding on the lives of land holders in the South Pacific highlighted the important role that Australia plays in leading the South Pacific region in advancing agricultural practices and technology.

The conference also highlighted the potential to utilise agriculture as a way to combat domestic violence in the South Pacific. Typically, in South Pacific Nations women and girls do not earn their own incomes and this limits the potential for them to leave violent situations. The conference touched on this and highlighted the need for it to become socially respectable for women and girls to work in agriculture, this would provide them with an income and options.

The conference was an excellent opportunity to understand the agricultural systems Australia’s closest neighbours employ and how Australian aid funding facilitated through organisations such as CSIRO and ACIAR can make a difference in the everyday lives of people from the South Pacific.

Greg Hosking

An innovative approach to sharing knowledge on regenerative agriculture to the wider community attracted farmers, artist, and regional and city folk to recent on farm open days. The project, Earth Canvas started this year with a vision from six regenerative farmers between the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers on the SW slopes of NSW.

Leading Australian landscape artist John Wolseley at the Bibbaringa Woolshed, north of Albury on the first open day in the series. John spoke about the synergies of the landscape with the human body, “When you look you see the heart, the lungs and different body parts reflected in the landscape. We need to understand the process of nature,” he said.

Six leading Australian artists were invited to work on their properties and share their knowledge and practice of regenerative agriculture. The artists came up with a body of work highlighted at six open days during November 2019. Over 450 people attended the series of open days. This was a unique opportunity to visit commercial size working farms and see the landscape from the artist’s perspective. Visitors learned how farms are building ecosystems to produce healthy food.

“It is about connecting all ecosystems to produce a healthier environment and food. Everyone is involved in this process. We all consume food, and all rely on healthy soils and agriculture to produce the food”, says chairman of Earth Canvas Gillian Sanbrook.

“The artist can help us see the fragility and beauty of nature and the importance of balancing economic and environmental outcomes. Improved farming practice is part of the solution to climate change and to make the world a better place.”

Earth Canvas artists John Wolseley commented, “The language of art and regenerative agriculture are the same. You must immerse yourself in your subject as an artist and it is no different for the farmer.”

Artist Jenny Bell from Goulburn took a holistic approach in her artwork of 15 images reflecting the importance of decision making by the people who manage the landscape and the effect that regenerative practices have on the soil microbes, animals, water and energy from the sun and the moon.

We are grateful for the support of Soils for Life CEO Rod Chisholm who was a speaker at four of the days. Soils for Life agro-ecologist Kirsty Yeates spoke about cutting edge research at the plant science division of ANU. Earth Canvas looks forward to working with the Soils for Life team when coordinating future events.

The next event will be a Writers and Readers Festival at Bibbaringa north of Albury on April 4 and 5 2020. Follow website for workshops programmes throughout the year.

Gillian Sanbrook – info@earthcanvas.com.cau – 0428696724  – www.earthcanvas.com.au

Its time to implement an Australian Sovereign Wealth Fund

Across Australia we are seeing the effects of more and more extreme drought. The landscape is drying up rapidly, rivers are running well below expectations and aquifers are shrinking at record rates. Trees are dying, pastures are disappearing and the soil is more exposed than ever to potential wind and water erosion. Is it good enough to simply think it will all go away at the end of the next rain? Is this not desert intensification and why hasn’t anyone put forward a plan of recovery? Like a rabbit stunned by the headlights of a coming car, Australia is motionless and seems unable to act as it awaits a perfect storm.

Signs of the perfect storm

The term desertification is a form of land degradation and refers to the expansion of arid areas across a landscape. This is typically areas where vegetation, wildlife, biodiversity and water bodies begin to disappear leaving large tracks of land that have bare soil. This leads to depletion of soil organic matter and nutrients essential for revegetation following rains. It is caused by deforestation, overgrazing and poor agricultural practices (all human induced activities). As shown on the USDA’s Global Desertification Vulnerability Map, Australia has vast areas that have a high to very high vulnerability to desertification (USDA Ref 1)

Read full article here.

The fate of civilization in the mid-21st Century turns critically on food. Success in overcoming the intersecting challenges of climate and resource scarcity will bring peace, plenty and a chance to repair the planet. Failure will bring war.

Worldwide, compelling evidence is amassing that we must urgently re-think the present global food system – or face the risk of spreading conflict and mass-migration triggered by disputes over food, land and water. In short, we have a choice before us – between food or war.

Humans have been fighting over food and the resources to produce it for over 17,000 years. Famine accompanied most of the major conflicts of recent history, as cause, effect or both.

Today up to a dozen conflicts are being fought out worldwide – mainly in Africa, but increasingly in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America – in which food, land and water insecurity has fuelled the confrontation. There are now seven ‘powderkeg regions’ of the Earth, places which harbour most of the human population, where water and soil are running out and food supplies increasingly stressed in the face of insatiable demands.

More than a third of a billion people now leave their homes each year, either as refugees or ‘economic migrants’, seeking a safer future elsewhere. If food continues to be neglected, this could rise to a billion or more by the mid-century, overwhelming national borders and toppling governments.

The same global food system that fed 2.5 billion humans in the mid-20th Century, one based largely on broadacre farming pumped up with technology and fossil fuels, cannot meet the needs of 10 billion people living on a hot planet in the mid-21st. It is unsustainable.

Every meal you eat devours ten kilos of topsoil, 800 litres of water, 1.3 litres of fuel, 0.3g of pesticide and emits 3.5 kilos of CO2. Like most people, you do that three times a day. In total humanity does it 20 billion times a year. We are consuming the Earth in order to feed ourselves – an act that is both unwise and bound to end badly.

These present an irrefutable argument to change our old food system in favour of one that can withstand climate change, which uses vastly less land, water or chemicals and which constantly recycles all nutrients.

A global food system capable of achieving a safe human future will have three main pillars:

• Regenerative farming, replacing current systems, which repairs soil and water, provides clean healthy food, locks up carbon and re-wilds almost a third of our present farmed area to end the sixth extinction.
• Climate-proof urban food production, based on intensive systems that recapture and recycle all urban water and nutrients, currently lost, back into sustainable, healthy food.
• Deep ocean aquaculture to replace the failing wild harvest of sea fish. Algae culture to provide basic feedstock for both aquatic and land-based livestock, using recycled nutrients.

Though much of the world is complacent and supermarkets appear to bulge with food, it is neither healthy nor sustainable. It could vanish in days, if its just-in-time system were to be disrupted by war, energy crisis or climate. No megacity on Earth can feed itself. We are far closer to hunger than most of us imagine.

Just as a clean, green energy revolution is sweeping the Planet, we now need a clean, sustainable food revolution. The ideas, technology and resources to achieve it already exist. We must now apprehend the urgency – and set to work, together, to build it.

Julian Cribb is the author of ‘Food or War’, Cambridge University Press 2019. 

Soils for Life founder Major General Michael Jeffery has stepped aside from his role as Chairman of the Board to focus on his role as National Soils Advocate. As Interim Chairman I will continue the vision for Soils for Life and bring renewed vigour to the commitment to regenerating the Australian landscape which has been ably demonstrated by Michael for more than a decade.

Interest in regenerative agriculture is growing as farmers across Australia manage the challenge of the current devastating drought. Farmers and graziers are adopting regenerative principles and practices that will improve and maintain their lands and waterways. I am determined to ensure that there is renewed effort behind the promotion of integrated management of soil, water, plants and animals to ensure a sustainable agricultural industry providing healthy food and fibre. Management principles and practices underlying the success stories shared by Soils for Life.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Morrison addressed the Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit held in Dubbo. The Prime Minister acknowledged Soils for Life as a national leader in promoting regenerative agriculture and endorsed the critical need to have a national objective to restore and maintain the health of the Australian agricultural landscape to guarantee a food secure nation and sustainable farming communities. The Prime Minister acknowledged that, “Healthy soils with high carbon content are essential for any serious water resource management policy.”

The Coalition government recognizes that any serious water resource management policy must include action to promote healthy soils with high carbon content. The Prime Minister observed that, “Land is becoming increasingly marginal therefore we have to do more with less.”

A soil that is well-managed and has built high levels of fertility, organic matter and structure is more resilient in dry times and responds more rapidly when it does rain.

The ability of soils to sequester carbon as soil organic matter can help to mitigate emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from other sectors and improves soil health. Paying farmers to sequester carbon could benefit agricultural landscapes, and the benefits will flow to the broader community in Australian regions and internationally.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, the Soils for Life team has implemented plans to use the funding provided by the Department of Agriculture to complete a further 30 case studies. Two million dollars distributed over four years enables Soils for Life to continue to publish, promote and advocate diverse examples of regenerative agricultural practices.

Michael Jeffery continues to support our team as the Patron of Soils for Life. We wish him well in his role as National Soils Advocate and thank him for his vision in establishing Soils for Life and his commitment to rehabilitating the Australian landscape.

Alasdair MacLeod, Chairman MICHAEL JEFFERY (CHAIRMAN, SOILS FOR LIFE),

The launch of a Soils for Life documentary outlining the vision and commitment of founder, Major General Michael Jeffery, to a food secure nation and sustainable farming communities.

A new documentary outlining a regenerative agriculture visionary’s commitment to a food secure nation and sustainable farming communities.

The Soils For Life documentary launches on World Soil Day, Thursday 5 December, as drought and dust storms rage in many parts of Australia.

The 10-minute documentary acknowledges the vision and commitment of Soils For Life founder, Major General The Honourable Michael Jeffery. Three case studies are interspersed to provide practical examples of applying regenerative agriculture principles.

Thursday 5 December is the United Nations World Soil Day. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) theme this year is “Stop soil erosion, save our future.”, a theme that resonates as drought and dust storms rage in many parts of Australia. https://www.un.org/en/events/soilday/

The film includes the announcement by Prime Minister Morrison when he addressed the Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit held in Dubbo on Thursday 18 July 2019. At the summit, the Prime Minister endorsed the critical need to have a national objective to restore and maintain the health of the Australian agricultural landscape to guarantee a food secure nation and sustainable farming communities .

The Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Nationals, Michael McCormack endorsed the Prime Minister’s initiatives on the day, commenting, “The overarching principle is that Australia’s soil, water and vegetation are key natural, national, strategic assets and must be managed in an integrated way across the continent.”

The Prime Minister acknowledged that, “Healthy soils with high carbon content are essential for any serious water resource management policy.”

The Coalition government recognizes that any serious water resource management policy must include action to promote healthy soils with high carbon content. The Prime Minister observed that, “Land is becoming increasingly marginal therefore we have to do more with less.”

Soil is an essential ingredient for the growth of crops and pastures. It provides the medium in which plants grow, it stores and provides the nutrients essential for plant growth, and it stores and supplies the water essential to photosynthesis and life.

Australia’s droughts are becoming more intense, the periods between droughts are shorter, average temperatures are rising and the long-term outlook is for a generally warmer and drier environment. A soil that is well-managed and has built high levels of fertility, organic matter and structure is more resilient in dry times and responds more rapidly when it does rain.

The ability of soils to sequester carbon as soil organic matter can help to mitigate emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from other sectors. Sequestering carbon as soil organic matter also improves soil health. Paying farmers to sequester carbon could benefit agricultural landscapes, and the benefits will flow to the broader community in Australian regions and internationally.

The documentary is available on the Soils for Life homepage.

For more information more information about the Soils for Life documentary launch, please call Rod Chisolm, CEO of Soils for Life at 041 967 1483, or email: rod.chisholm@soilsforlife.org.au

It is time for me to step aside from the role as Chairman of the Board of Soils For Life after seven years to be able to focus on my Prime Ministerial appointment as National Soils Advocate.

I leave the Chairmanship of Soils For Life in very good hands. Alasdair MacLeod and I started out together as members of the original Soils For Life Board in 2012. We have worked hard to share regenerative principles and practices and supported changed farming practices to include carbon in our precious national asset, the soil. Soil carbon benefits include resilience and food security, plant nutritional quality, improved water filtration, and reduced erosion and nutrient runoff.

Alasdair is an excellent fit for the role of Chair and will bring renewed vigour to the organisation. Following a 20-year career with News Corporation, Alasdair has interests in diverse agricultural enterprises, including the Wilmot Cattle Company, a grazing operation based in Northern NSW and Cavan Station, a wool growing and Merino stud on the NSW Southern Tablelands. Alasdair is Chairman of Maia Technology, which develops management software for graziers who are focussed on more efficient use of pastures. His agricultural operations are aligned with the Soils for Life understanding of regenerative agriculture.

Recent Soils For Life case studies are highlighted in the documentary, which was launched on World Soil Day Thursday, 5 December. You can view the fresh look at farming on the home page of the Soils For Life website.

As National Soils Advocate, I will increase awareness of the importance of conserving agricultural soil and landscape conditions to benefit the environment, enhance agricultural productivity, realise economic benefits, and secure sustainable food production systems. I will be highlighting the importance of the integrated management of soil, water, plants and animals to ensure the sustainability of our agricultural lands. A strong team in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet supports my Advocate role.

As I say farewell to all the Soils For Life stakeholders as Chairman, I express my sincere thanks for all the friends, associates, benefactors, farmers, scientists and policy makers who I have met along the way. Thank you all for your contribution to building the Soils For Life organisation into the effective ‘change-agent’ it is now. I wish Soils For Life all the very best in supporting farmers to rehabilitate the agricultural landscape to benefit all Australians over future decades and generations.

I remain involved as Patron of Soils For Life and continue to support the rehabilitation of soils, for life.

MICHAEL JEFFERY (CHAIRMAN, SOILS FOR LIFE),

I am behind much of Soils For Life’s social media. I am a land and water scientist with 15 years’ experience working on agriculture and natural resource management in Australia and overseas.

Two beliefs motivate me. First, we need to accord better value to farmers for the food and fibre they produce while regenerating and maintaining the landscape. Second, building bridges between researchers, land managers and policy makers is needed to facilitate this support.

I started off as a researcher. I have a PhD on reaping environmental benefits from precision agriculture in Australia. And, I have explored food-feed-fuel trade-offs from biofuel production in Brazil and Mozambique.

I am now more practical in my work. I combine a technical understanding of farming issues with commmunication skills to connect and engage diverse actors shaping our food system.