Kudos where kudos is due Woolworths

This post is a salute to Woolworths. You might just be surprised where they are investing some of their profits.

And that’s just the cows!

Imagine the amount of land!

The people!

The infrastructure!

Supporting business!

The technology!

It takes to get your dairy products from cow to consumer!

Yes we all have to eat and that alone means that agriculture is not only important but vital.

Yet agriculture faces new challenges every day, including activist groups who see livestock farmers as the right hand of devil.

The key to debunking myth conceptions about modern agricultural  farming practices starts with the education sector. The key to success begins with partnering with the 250,000 teachers teaching the 3.5 million students in the 9,500 Australian schools.

Once we have excited some of these 3.5 million students to consider careers in the agrifood sector, it is imperative that we deliver on the promise in order to retain them. Sadly we don’t do this well enough

Like our individual food and fibre industries, we need a better “supply chain” for young people to develop skills that enable them to engage, grow and take charge of their industries.

Currently, we see a number of programs aimed at developing individuals at various stages in life, but many lack the mechanisms to support and mentor and galvanize these people into roles that have meaning within our industries, in the medium to longer term.

There is no point training young people if we then abandon them; believing our job is done after holding workshops and camps for them.

If we don’t continue to develop our young people, we lose a generation of leaders, innovators and workers as they seek opportunities elsewhere.

There will be no-one to take over the farm, or work in our agribusinesses.

Excitingly we don’t have to start at the beginning. There is a great pathway in place. All it needs is more agricultural industries supporting it

This diagram identifies cross industry supported programs whose core business is developing next gen agricultural ambassadors, workforce and leaders  

This post is salute to Woolworths who is heavily investing in this space, albeit I am given to understand not as much as they have in the past.

I have spent a bit of time at Woolworths and yes there people who work there who are only driven by $ in the till and $ in shareholders pockets which ultimately mean $ in their pockets.

There also a lot of people at Woolworths who truly care about farmers. I know because I have met them and they walk the talk.

To help to develop and nurture Next Gen Ag Leaders Woolworths run a yearly program called the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship Program (WABSP) offering 24 young people in agriculture between the ages of 18 and 35 the chance to attend

The course is practical as well as theoretical, and covers topics such as:  

• Business strategy and planning

• Agricultural value chain

• Successful business leadership

• Business finance

• Logistics and supply chain management

• The role of government

• Understanding retail

• Sustainability and environmental issues

• Personal development

You only have to see what the alumni have to say to see the potential outcomes it can deliver

At Art4Agriculture, an important part of our mission is to link our Young Farming Champions alumni with further opportunities within their industry and beyond to continue the journey of growth and leadership.

We actively encourage our Young Farming Champions to apply for the WABSP

2013 Art4Agriculture/Target 100 Beef Young Farming Champion Jasmine Nixon attended in 2012

Jasmine applied because she wanted to gain an increased understanding of the end consumer through broadening her industry knowledge and the paddock to plate concept.

Working in the quality control and assurance team at Teys Australia’s Wagga abattoir, which supplies meat products to Woolworths and other major supermarket chains Jasmine was looking forward to learning more about the end consumer and what is trending.

The meat industry is facing significant challenges and there is a greater focus on meeting the demands of the customer and gaining a better understanding of them – this is something that Jasmine feels is crucial to her role and the success of the company.

She saw the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship program is about filling the knowledge gap and learning more about the supply chain and the logistical challenge of supplying fresh food to the nation.

Extract from http://www.beefcentral.com/p/news/article/2131

As the Australian farmers face all kinds of unrelenting changes in their environment, there is a need for individuals who are capable of turning strategy into reality.

There is a great “supply chain” for young people to help them develop skills that enable them to engage, grow and take charge of their industries.

Is your industry supporting it?

See Next Gen Ag Leaders Pathway supporting partners here

PIEF

PICSE

Horizon Scholarship Program

Art4Agriculture plus NSW Farmers who have just signed on and you can find our community Partners here

Woolworths Agribusiness Scholarship Program

Climate Champions This page needs updating Dairy Australia has withdrawn and AWI have come on board

ARLP

Nuffield

If you take the time to look you will notice some industries and supply chain partners pop up in every single one or almost.

Sadly the dairy industry is very much missing in action

What about the supermarkets who rely so heavily on our farmers.

Did you see Coles? No I don’t thinks so. But you may have noticed Woolworths directly sponsors 4 of the 7 and has provided support to another two in the past and commits more than $140K per year to its own Woolworths Agribusiness Scholarship Program

Kudos where kudos is due I say

Just before I go Here is another great idea Woolworths from one of our Young Farming Champions Kylie Stretton who has certainly crowd sourced for you here 

This post is another in the series. “Success is the journey not the destination and it’s the people you partner with that determine how fast you get there and how rewarding it will be”

Food a Tasty Addition to the Australian Curriculum or not?

Another in my series of “Success is the journey not the destination and it’s the people you partner with that determine how fast you get there and how rewarding it will be”

I have been bombarded with emails from lots of people who thought I would be excited by this press release titled Food a Tasty Addition to the Australian Curriculum

At first glance I was indeed quite excited then I saw who was actually going to be driving this project and I just shook my head

Here we go again. Logic it appears has once again gone out the window and the Primary Industries Education Foundation (PIEF) formed to be the peak industry body to encourage primary industries education in schools through a partnership between industry, government and educators has been by passed in favour of Agrifood Skills Australia who dabbles in a little bit of this and that

After all is was only through PIEF (with funding from Woolworths) that we all now know that 27 per cent of year 6 students think yoghurt comes from trees and not cows

Yet this highly regarded organisation whose core business is being the preferred provider on credible, relevant and factual information on all matters relating to agriculture, fisheries and forestry for Australia’s teachers, students and the community has been overlooked when the dollars get handed out to provide a source of credible, objective and educational resources for schools to maintain and improve community confidence in Australia’s primary industries

PIEF has the knowledge, expertise, experience and networks. They have built Food and Fibre in the Curriculum from the ground up and understand the needs of schools and the needs of teachers yet all this gets forgotten when we have $1.5M to make it happen

Now whilst $1.5M might seem a lot the government allocated $10M for Financial Literacy and that didn’t turn out too well for agriculture it would seem. See Money Smart not so Smart

So we have to get this right we can’t afford to dabble or work with dabblers in this space. There are 3.5 million students, 250,000 teachers, 9,500 schools. We can’t get to them all. We must go with the people/organisations whose core business is primary industries curriculum content for education in schools. We must go with the people who have the runs on the board. That organisation is PIEF. The horse may have bolted but it doesn’t stop us asking the right questions and demanding answers

Questions like

1. Why has Funding been provided to Agrifood Skills Australia? When has a school based project being in the domain of a skills council.

2. Why are we not making use of knowledge learnt, expertise gained and research undertaken by PIEF

3. Why are we wasting valuable $ to develop internal capacity in Agrifood Skills Australia for them to dabble in an area foreign to them

4. Why are we promoting more duplication, more wastage, more division

5. Why has there been no consultation with National Farmers Federation or Primary Industries Education Foundation

6. How can an organisation with no prior experience in this area deliver the best outcomes for agriculture with the best return on investment

7. How will success be measured? Will the evaluations be internal or external

As a farmer, as someone who engages with industry, trains young farmers and runs awareness programs in schools, I work within the fragmented structure that is agricultural capacity building, every day. I know what success means

Success for the Archibull Prize is when schools who sign up for three years in a row say this

As we roam the school students are excited about the prospect working with a new cow. As we have had a couple years’ experience in the program, students now understand what the having a ‘cow’ means to the school.

Students are keen to ask what the THEME is this year, and having seen our cows at the Easter show, are aware of its agricultural implications.

It’s not just the students involved with Archie who benefit. It is very rewarding when families see our cow at the Easter Show or displayed elsewhere as there is a roll on effect. Conversations start, explanations are given to family and friends about the cow. We can explain what the cow is about to them which hopefully passes on our knowledge of what the cow means and how farming affects us all, all this = education!

Source  How can one COW educate one SCHOOL about the WOOL INDUSTRY?

Success for agriculture in the education sector it appears it is going to be a very long journey whilst we let others determine the paths that we will travel and who we have to partner with to help us get there.

We need to position Australian farmers as committed, caring and professional. We need to position agriculture as the career of choice for Australia’s best and brightest.  But this cannot simply be a “push” situation by industry and government, it needs agriculture to step up and define the “pull”

Success is a journey

Have you ever upset someone or gotten into trouble for something and you weren’t quite sure why.

I remember when I was a kid I got into very serious trouble from my father for calling some-one a ‘dag’. It was a word that was popular culture in the classroom in the 70’s and I had no idea why my father would find it so offensive but then my father was a sheep farmer.

To me the word meant ‘someone who is, or is perceived to be, unfashionable, lacking self-consciousness about their appearance and/or with poor social skills yet affable and amusing’

To my father the sheep farmer the word meant ‘dung-caked lock of wool around the hindquarters of a sheep – an abbreviation of “daglock”

What the incident taught me was twofold. You can do or say things with all the best intentions that can hurt people and how important it is to have the right mentors along the way to share your journey to empathy.

This week when the Adam Goodes incident broke and just got worse every day I must admit before this happened I thought calling some-one an ape meant they were hairy.

I was obviously very naïve and looked up the slang dictionary to see why Adam Goodes was so upset and when I understood I would have been upset too.

Today the Conversation has delved much deeper with this article The ape insult: a short history of a racist idea and now I can really see why he was upset.

What I can also see is Adam Goodes must have had some great partners in his journey to where is today – how gracious is he. What a role model he is

What does this all have to do with agriculture?

As Australian farmers face all kinds of unrelenting changes in their environment, there is a need for individuals who are role models capable of turning strategy into reality.

We have a whole generation of urbanised Australian’s who have no-one to take them on the journey to understanding of modern farming practices

Our schools only have so much space in their curriculum to debunk the myth conceptions and perceptions. The Adam Goodes story reminds us just how many issues they have to tackle to turn out well-grounded Australians.

We need to position agriculture as innovative and dynamic and exciting and profitable and a career of choice for Australia’s best and brightest.

We need to position farmers as committed, professional and caring

But this cannot simply be a “push” situation by industry and government, it needs agriculture to step up and define the “pull”

The ‘pull’ starts with collaboration between all partners to share the journey. Is your industry a genuine partner on the road to success?

Special Friday Shout Out to all those special people who have been there for me on my journey. There is often a lot of pressure being in my camp – You are brave brave people

BTW Even the people who not been so supportive have made me stronger so happy Friday to you too.

Strategy failing to win the hearts of consumers

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 04:17

Todays guest blogger is Steve Jones (see footnote) 

Reblogged from Dairy News Australia

Almost weekly I watch with interest an essential Australian industry losing credibility through its own actions.  These include degrading its power base to being not only ineffective but counterproductive; ongoing non-compliance to consumer/voter expectation that causes massive disruption to their own business and the unintentional attack on the largest and most influential unofficial lobby group buying their products, the city consumer/voter.

This is the wider agriculture sector I observe.  I appreciate dairy is heavily regulated and, by enlarge, complies. Unfortunately however the city consumer/voter lumps all farmers together.

I was raised by a builder in Gippsland and for many years our lives were affected by the fortunes of farmers.  My old man would follow the wool price and if they were high he could count on some new sheds to build and if there was a drought or prices fell, we went from eating roast to mince.  This developed true empathy for the ag sector, reconnected in the last few years with meeting my partner who works across most of the ag sector.

My path was 30 years in the oil and gas sector that culminated in co-founding engineering and design company Plexal Group.  In 10 years we expanded from our head office in Perth to Brisbane, Thailand and Bangladesh, with a workforce nearing 200 and servicing majors such as Chevron and Woodside.  At the beginning of this year a multi-national acquired the company and I no longer work in the industry.  The views I share are mine alone and in no way do I represent Plexal Group.

In those 10 years we had our share of droughts and floods.  The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) wiped out years of earnings; the flood in Queensland saw our office shut for weeks; floods in Bangkok virtually shut down our operation for two months and the Bangkok airport was taken over by protestors, isolating us for several weeks.  We never received an ounce of financial support or direct bail-out. 

Nor was this the case for the 30,000 small, privately owned and often family-run businesses that went under during the GFC.  Reportedly the rate of small business collapses is 12% higher today than during the GFC and rarely talked of in the media.  Their cries for a bail out don’t make the light of day.

During my time in the resource sector I witnessed significant growth and with it their power and influence.  They understand their power base and how to use it effectively.  They have adapted to the expectation demands of consumer voters far quicker than ag in the last 3-4 decades and do consumer compliance exceptionally well.  This has helped grease the wheels for approvals, influenced legislation and enabled them to continue even after a major non-compliance.  

It seems to me that the ag sector has the biggest stick of all in terms of power and influence over government policy – it provides 93% of all our food.  History will tell us repeatedly that anarchy is only an empty belly away.  In no way do I advocate blocking of supply as it is a form of blackmail.  Nonetheless it is a massive stick and one I see thrown away or broken into pieces time and again by the owners of it.

Last week I watched in amazement as the WA Farmers Federation and the WA branch of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association very publicly disagreed with each other over whether the WA wheat growers should get another finance assist package or not.  Divide and conquer is 101 ‘art of war’.  But one you are meant to inflict on your enemy, not yourself.  

Behind closed doors government members must shake their heads in bemusement and largely ignore because they are handed this gift.  Then for a moment put yourself in the shoes of 70% of the nation’s voters, living in our cities.  They see farmer against farmer squabbling over a finance assist package that their tax dollar is paying for…meanwhile their job is under threat if they happen to work for an east coast government or a small business.  It doesn’t feel like winning hearts and minds.

And then this week my lounge is filled with sad and terrible images of mistreatment of Australian cattle in an Egyptian abattoir.  Yet another non-compliance with immediate and crippling affects on the industry.  I admire the swift response by the ag sector with the self-imposed ban however the NGO produced footage it is another step closer to the cliff of total abandonment of this important industry.  

Self-regulation often presents internal conflict with trying to justify the endless compliance cost. It can be hard to swallow the expenditure when more pressing issues of commodity prices, falling equity, exchange rate all threaten viability.  However non-compliance to regulations or, worse still, betraying consumer/voter expectation, inflicts costs that make the alternative pale to insignificance.  Although the live export industry is making significant inroads to detecting and rectifying the non-compliances, it is a process than needs to be better regulated.  It is fantastic to see the industry come so far and improve animal treatment in places outside of Australia.  I just hope they can find the improvements to limit opportunities for NGOs to brand the whole effort as a failure before it is too late.

Unfortunately the city voter is largely disconnected from the real issues and efforts of farming groups.  Compliance is not just about legislated regulations, the ag sector must always strive to hold the high ground in the eyes of voter sentiment.  If the city consumer feels trust has been breached they will happily bite the hand that feeds them.  ‘Consumer Expectation Compliance’ is not optional, get on board or be forced out by new and more onerous legislation.

As a CEO and then chairman I had one not negotiable policy -  never, ever publicly criticise your client.  Of course we had robust negotiations behind the scenes but there is nothing to gain through public spats other than alienation with the client and their customer – the public consumer/voter.  We actually sang the praises of our clients in the press and I wish to point out that for 25 years there was a monopoly in the Australian Liquid Natural Gas sector.

On almost a weekly basis I can find examples of farmers and their lobby groups publicly flogging Coles and Woolies.  For example I watch the milk price fight with Coles in complete bewilderment.  Put yourself in the lounge of a city voter – 70% of our nation – most with a small asset and struggling to meet the mortgage payments, compared to their perception of farmers being wealthy. A ‘hectare’ in the city costs $10,000,000 if you consider an average home of $500,000 on 500m2 block.  In their lounge they see the dairy farmer being interviewed lamenting how hard they are doing with hundreds of hectares of prime land in the background and discard the cry of going broke.  I realise this is not reality but it is all about perception.  

The government health department and health groups advertising campaigns stress you must eat a balanced diet of fresh produce.  So you’ve just bought some nutritious milk for $1/litre over a bottle of coke at $2.25/litre for your kids.  Coles have told you they are have provided that great personal achievement cheaper.  You’re feeling pretty good about yourself.  You don’t care how it has come cheaper, after all we’ve all been conditioned to expect cheaper goods for the last three decades and it has become our right not a gift.

Then they see farmers attacking Coles and that they are sending them broke.  

City employees rarely understand the daily struggle of the very business that pays their mortgage let alone a farm business.  So every time farmers attack Coles, they are attacking the most influential lobby group that all political parties jump to – the city consumer/voter.  This does not feel like a winning strategy.

Even though the resource sector is selling all their product overseas they know they must have the heart and minds of the city voter.  Next time look a little closer at the “We Agree” campaign Chevron is running.  It is all about winning empathy of the Australian voter – to ensure they support their developments rather than calling for them to be stopped or shutdown.  Perhaps the ag sector can learn from the resource sector?

Footnote. Steve Jones will be the keynote speaker at the 2013 Dairy Research Foundation Symposium in Kiama on 3rd July 2013

We have given Steve the brief

RETHINKING THE POWER OF AGRICULTURE: The mining and energy sectors are clashing with NSW agriculture over land use – to an extent where one could be excused for thinking that agriculture has little power or influence when it comes to mounting its case. Steve Jones is an oil and gas industry stalwart and former chairman of oil and gas engineering company Plexal Group. Steve is in a unique position to observe
the missed lobbying opportunities for agriculture and believes ag has a ‘big stick’ – it just doesn’t know how to use it! This is a powerful presentation that will force some out of the square agricultural thinking.

More information of the Symposium can be found here

Its time agriculture stepped up and defined the “pull”

On Friday I am participating in the Blueprint for Australian Agriculture Forum. The Blueprint will map out where we as an industry want to go and how we are going to get there.

The big ticket question participants are being asked to answer on Friday is   

What do you see as the most pressing issues and therefore the most important goals for us to focus on right now?

I have given this a lot of thought and I believe the elephant in the room is the most important issue  – its people. Agriculture is yet to acknowledge before we do anything else we must build the capacity of agriculture to nurture our people and we must start with our young people.

As a farmer, as someone who engages with industry, trains young farmers and runs awareness programs in schools, I work within the fragmented structure that is agricultural capacity building, every day.

Like our individual food and fibre industries, we need a better “supply chain” for young people to develop skills that enable them to engage, grow and take charge of their industries.

We have to start with our young people. But long term capacity is not going to result from engaging with them through government and industry programs in the usual way.

 

Currently, we see a number of programs aimed at developing individuals at various stages in life, but many lack the mechanisms to support and mentor and galvanize these people into roles that have meaning within our industries, in the medium to longer term.

At Art4Agriculture, an important part of our mission is to link our Young Farming Champions alumni with further opportunities within their industry to continue the journey of growth and leadership.  There is no point training young people if we then abandon them; believing our job is done after holding workshops and camps for them. If we don’t continue to develop our young people, we lose a generation of leaders, innovators and workers as they seek opportunities elsewhere. There will be no-one to take over the farm, or work in our agribusinesses.

Because of the skills sets our Cotton Young Farming Champions have gained through the program we have been able to include them in a number of events to engage the community well beyond the school students participating in the Archibull Prize.

They are young, smart, articulate, passionate, from a variety of backgrounds, living in a range of locations, involved in interesting, rapidly changing fields of agriculture, taking advantage of the plethora of exciting opportunities available to young people – they don’t just tell the message we want current students and teachers and the community to be taking on….they are the message. Sophie Davidson Cotton Australia

A range of factors make it difficult for farmers to employ staff on farm. This lack of opportunities for farmers and young people will only be exacerbated by climate change, exchange rate issues and farmer returns and agriculture’s reputation for not being an employer of choice .

Therefore, we have to ensure the skills and capacity we are providing our young people align with industry identified needs. I’ve met too many young people who found themselves trained or developed for roles that just don’t exist in our industries.

We need to position agriculture/agrifood as the career of choice for Australia’s best and brightest.  But this cannot simply be a “push” situation by industry and government, it needs agriculture to step up and define the “pull”

Further, it’s not enough to simply develop our young people, but we must create opportunities for them to engage with consumers and supply chain participants.
They must understand and feel confident to engage along all the full breadth of the supply chain, if we are going to build creative and sustainable agricultural industries.

Its time for agriculture to step up VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Mike Logan says it all in this comment below

The Blueprint is a work plan.

We need a vision.

The Blueprint tells us what we are going to do.

Not why.

The ‘why’ question is integral to our own understanding of our role in society, but also in society’s understanding of us.

Why have agriculture?

To feed and clothe a portion of the world?

With healthy food. Full of nutrition.

From healthy environments?

By people who care?

If we can develop messages like that, then we earn a social licence to operate for agriculture.

Times they are a changing

I sit in my office and get to watch the sun come up and the seasons come and go and I never cease to be inspired. Like agriculture I am taking on new challenges and feeling a little fragile so I added a little of bit of Darwinism to one of my more spectacular office views and began this blog.   

Recently my vision page which says

I have a big picture vision for agriculture in this country. I want an innovative, dynamic, exciting and PROFITABLE agrifood sector. A sector that our next generation’s best and brightest see as the place they want to be.

My mission is to get everyone to share my vision AND HELP ME MAKE IT HAPPEN

Generated this question from a reader

What can we ordinary suburban Aussies do to help you achieve it? I’m up for the challenge, and am avoiding the big 3 as much as I can. But it is a bit lonely out here. I just don’t get why so many flock to them when real convenience, quality and value could be delivered to their door, or damn well near it, without any interaction with the Woollies and Coles of the world. My spirit, and my wallet is with you and other like mind people. Jac

And it made me think just what is the Farmer Call to Arms?

What is the most important thing that we can ask Jac and other like minded people to do?  

and from another reader

As an ardent admirer, I think Australian agriculture has an incredible life of its own. It is innovative, ready to respond to the needs of its markets, be it noodle manufacturers in Indonesia or a consumer in Victoria seeking some organic dairy products. There are big players and little players supplying produce that is of enviable quality to local and overseas markets. The food and fibre produced by farmers here create jobs and money into our economy. Lisa Claessen

Says Veneta Chapple  

I think the answer is simple but the solution much harder to execute. Ag needs a common goal to unite behind and then a leader to bring us all together.

So what is the common goal.  What is our action plan. What answer do I give Jac?  

Next Friday I am off to the Blueprint for Australian Agriculture forum. This will allow me to ask questions about the Blueprint and share some successes the organisations I am working with are having. Then we get to define the most pressing issues and therefore the most important goals for us to focus on right now?

Very excitingly I was given a task, pre viewing if you like and it just turned out to be one of my most favourite YouTube videos.

Where Good Ideas Come from by Steven Johnson

If the popularity of this post is anything to go by Tens Reasons why the World Should buy Australian produce then maybe just may this could be our common goal and our call to action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. HIGH QUALITY

Australian agricultural products are regarded as being of the highest quality by fussy consumers in places like Japan, Korea, Singapore, the US and the EU. Australia is one of the few nations that has consistently exported agricultural products to all these nations for many years, and the high quality of Australian produce has helped to retain access to these markets.

2. SAFETY

Australian agricultural products have a very high level of safety for consumers, being free of disease and chemical and biological contaminants. This is regularly highlighted by the results of the National Agricultural Residue Survey and the National Antibiotic Monitoring Program. The fact that only Australia maintained access to both the Japanese and Korean beef markets during the entire period of the Mad Cow Disease incident is just one example of the high levels of biosecurity associated with Australian agricultural products.

3. TRACEABILITY

Australia has the most advanced national livestock identification system (NLIS) of any nation on earth – a fact that is readily acknowledged by competitor nations such as the US and Brazil. This provides Australia with an unmatched ability to ensure the integrity and safety of meat and other products. Similarly, advanced logistics and supply chains used in the grains, horticulture, sugar and wine industries ensure the integrity of Australian products.

4. COST TO CONSUMERS

Australian agriculture operates with the lowest levels of taxpayer support of any agriculture sector in the world, according to annual surveys carried out by the OECD. This means Australian taxpayers do not pay any hidden or extra costs for Australian agricultural products, unlike consumers in most developed nations whose taxes subsidise farmer incomes.

5. LOW AND DECLINING GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS.

According to the Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Australian agriculture is the only sector of the economy to have reduced greenhouse emissions over the last two decades. Were it not for the 30% reduction in emissions from the agriculture sector over this period, Australia would have exceeded its Kyoto Protocol national emission target by a considerable margin, and taxpayers could have experienced a considerable cost if Australia decided to purchase international carbon credits to offset the additional emissions.

6. FAIR TREATMENT OF WORKERS

Australia has the fourth highest wages in the world, and some of the highest standards of workplace health and safety enforced by regulation. Even in cases where overseas labour is used, these workers enjoy the same award rates, and health and welfare benefits of Australians. This is in stark contrast to the agriculture sectors of many overseas nations, which rely on low-paid immigrant labour, or have much lower wage and safety standards than Australia.

7. ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY

Australian agricultural businesses operate under some of the strictest environmental controls in the world. Australia’s most recent ‘State of the Environment’ report noted the substantial improvements that have been made to land management in Australia, with the adoption of conservation tillage practices higher in Australia that in any other nation. A recent ABARES report has detailed the very high level of engagement of Australian farmers in biodiversity conservation, and Australian water management policies are acknowledged as world leading by international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank. Australian farmers utilise much lower rates of chemical and fertiliser use than farmers in virtually any developed or developing nation, and are rapidly adopting precision agriculture technologies to make artificial input use even more efficient.

8. SUPPORTING AUSTRALIA’S REGIONS

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian agriculture sector is a much bigger direct employer of people than the mining sector, and has been and remains the main source of employment in many Australian regions, bringing important income and helping to maintain services and infrastructure in these regions. Purchasing Australian agricultural products directly results in the creation of Australian jobs.

9. HIGH ANIMAL WELFARE STANDARDS

Australian farm animal welfare standards are some of the highest in the world, with many practices and production systems banned in Australia that are still utilised in overseas locations that export products (such as pigmeats) to Australia. Australia is also the only nation in the world that has major programs aimed at improving animal welfare standards in markets that are destinations for Australian livestock exports. Purchasing Australian livestock products is the best way to ensure high standards of animal welfare.

10. SUPPORTING FAMILY FARMING

Australian agriculture overwhelmingly consists of family farming businesses, a contrast to many overseas locations where large-scale factory farming is carried out in intensive production systems that use very high levels of inputs and create significant waste and pollution problems. Purchasing Australian farm products directly supports Australian farming families.

Source Australian Farm Institute.

Thanks Jac for your question. I will be giving it some very serious thought on Friday 

Why cant Agriculture fight the good fight together

I have found there are two main types of people in agriculture and this of course is generalisation

There are people who are focussed on doing the right thing and people who predominately want to do their own thing and of course there are some people who manage to get a nice balance between the two (most impressive).

I find this in our business. My husband and my son love farming, they like the solitude, they love their cows and they hate the politics. They just want to do their own thing and they worry about me and cant understand and hate the fact I put myself out there and ride the ridges and sometimes get shot out.

So I get this mindset and you wont change people like my husband and son but I cant forgive industry bodies who cant see why the big picture is so important. Who cant see why silo thinking is destroying agriculture

Recently I have become actively involved in the AgChatOZ LinkedIn discussion group and must admit I am fascinated by the two way conversations and other people opinions and most importantly the thought they have put into the solutions and what they think the solutions are. The current active discussions are

Julia Hausler posted this question this morning

So we do have a rural urban divide and it does matter. (refer earlier discussions). What are YOU going to do about it?

John Keily can back with

What am I going to do? Well, I’m going to ask you what you think of this ad

and I replied (BTW my previous comment on the ad here )

It generated this

Whilst the first video reached over 15 million people (compared to 35,000 for the spoof version ) and over $1Million was donated by RAMs to feed the poor together they highlight the polarising views in America

To me its imperative Agriculture doesn’t preach at people.  Charlie Arnot and his team are doing an awesome job of doing it the right way by providing farmers with the skills sets to tell their own story.

Australian farmers have a great story to tell and its time to say YES to the Australian Centre for Food Integrity so we know how to tell our story well. Not just for 90 seconds at the Superbowl. We want our story remembered everytime our consumers reach for a product on the supermarket shelf and take that little bit of extra time to make sure it was produced by an Aussie Farmer

What really makes me cranky is.  Why doesn’t  Australian agriculture do this together?

MLA through Target 100 is telling the story and very impressively on behalf of all cattle and sheep farmers.

AWI and Cotton Australia are working together to debunk the myth that cotton grows on sheep. See here for this great example

Dairy Australia on the other hand is spending $21 million plus on the Legendairy campaign  to tell dairy’s story

Yes your are right Dairy Australia

The Australian dairy industry has a magnificent and Legendairy™ tale to tell. This is an industry underpinned by some of the best people and practices in the world producing a truly amazing product. It defines the social fabric of many Australian agricultural regions and affects the lives of almost every Australian in some way.
The nation’s dairy industry is literally brimming with inspirational people and their stories — Legendairy™.

Yes and so do all  Australian farmers. Our dairy farmers rely on the grains industry, the vegetable industry, the cotton industry, the sugar industry, the list is endless. They rely on agriculture being dynamic, exciting, innovative and profitable.  Its not a competition about  which industry has the most impressive farmers.

Just imagine what we could achieve if Dairy Australia joined forces with MLA for example. I am an MLA levy payer as are all dairy farmers. MLA invited me to tell my story. I haven’t yet. I haven’t needed to – the beef farmers are doing on awesome job on my behalf. I salute them all.

Call to arms farmers. We can do our own thing but we cant afford to let industry do it in isolation. We must all ask the right questions and lobby hard for the greater good.  Its not just our future that depends on it. Australia’s health, wealth and happiness depends on it

Today everybody is a con artist or a cynic

In 2007 I had a call from a lady who told me that the region had selected me as their ‘local food hero’ and I would be featured on the front cover of the phone book. I laughed I thought it was a radio prank. Believe me it took the nice lady quite some time to convince me not to hang up on her. I don’t think I really believed her until the photographer turned up

Three years later when I was selected again as the person ‘most making a difference in the community’ I was wary but much more polite but that guy on the local radio can be very convincing.

These days if I win an award I get inundated with these.

If I apply for a trademark I get inundated by letters from lawyers who can fast track the process for mega bucks.

Anything I watch on YouTube suddenly there is something in my face advertising a product that is similar. YouTube has decided that at the moment I am a camera fanatic fascinated by short, sharp clever footage about agriculture (currently surfing the net for great ag footage for Archibull Prize curriculum)

Facebook has decided that I am obese. Apparently they can tell that from my picture?

Twitter tells me the world is laughing at me. So on one had I am a vane obese celebrity and on the other a vane obese laughing stock.

Then of course there are the regular emails from various banks, Nigeria and Microsoft who are crying out for my password. I have so many different passwords these day I am lucky to remember what they are let alone share them with people I have never heard of.

Then Fedex et al want to fill my computer with viruses

Yes all these first world problems turning me into a cynic and causing me to once again sweat the small stuff. But I so worry about all those people out there who get conned by this stuff

What the world eats and wastes

This has been reblogged from 

As the 2013 Archibull Prize starts to roll out in 40 school across Queensland, NSW and the ACT we are putting the final touches on the 2013 curriculum with it currently being scrutinised by our primary and secondary teacher panel.

One of the questions we ask the students is about waste and why is there so much. We ask them to write a blog about how food wastage occurs, discuss poor food purchasing choices and suggest sustainable strategies to reduce wastage. If Eisenstein is right then this is a very important topic for discussion

This fascinating book the ‘Hungry Planet: What the World Eats’ by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluision is an inspired idea, to better understand the human diet and explore what culturally diverse families eat for a week.

The photographs in the book feature pictures of families from different countries at their dining tables with a week’s worth of food purchases. You can find all the images here. We soon learn that diet is determined by different things in first and third world countries.

Fascinatedly for me from the picture it would appear first world problems in Australia would include things like just how many bottles of 2 litre soft drinks can you fit into a plastic shopping bag before it breaks. No idea how they carry all that water. This must be a family that eats together and shops together.  For my dairy farm its a bit of a worry their bottled water consumption seems to leave their milk consumption for dead. However I imagine the egg and livestock industry would be pleased to see this table. Not sure if this Aussie family is getting their five serves of fruit and veg per day though. What I do know is my grocery list looks nothing like this yet my health is nothing to skite about either.

Interestingly soft drinks and how to get them home in one piece without spraining your back would appear to be an even bigger problem in Mexico but it would appear they are getting their five serves of fruit and veg per day

In Britain which appears to be supporting the wealth of the confectionary giants a common topic of concern would be “does chocolate really cause acne”?

Enough of the flippancy. This picture of a family in Chad is very sobering

This image below outs the US and Iceland as the countries with the biggest wasters in the world. I wasn’t game to do the sums on OZ and covert the metrics to whatever prehistoric system the measure ‘pounds’ come from. Com’on pounds, shillings and pence or was that pounds and ounces went out of fashion when I was six.  According to this article the average Australian wastes 200kg of food a year (see footnote)

I look forward to hearing what next gen has to say on the topic of waste and wise food choices because my generation doesn’t seem to have any answers to this very wicked wicked problem

Footnote-

The average Australian wastes 200kg of food a year – yet two million of us also go hungry. Why?

This article makes some very strong points. Some that particularly resonated with me

• 75% of Australians believe their country is immune to poverty and as such do not think of hunger as a problem.
• The pantry of Australia’s national food relief effort is a low profile outfit called Foodbank, a national operation using a big business model to channel surplus food from the food and grocery industry onto welfare networks. Despite the important expression of community altruism and other frontline welfare agencies, the problem of hunger is far from being solved. In 2011, Foodbank distributed 21 million kilograms of donated food and groceries, making the equivalent of 28 million meals to help 75,000 people a day through a network of 2,500 welfare agencies.
• Foodbank relies upon a workforce of 3,500 volunteers to operate its warehouses across the country. Occasionally, state governments and councils provide grants for specific projects but largely, the organisation survives on donations. Only recently the Australian government has started to contribute $1 million a year to assist Foodbank in providing vulnerable Australians with what most of us consider as a human right, the right to safe and nutritious food.
• This should prompt some hard questions. It is common for liberal market economies to off-load welfare responsibilities from federal and state governments to the voluntary sector and Australia is no exception.
• Allowing hunger to be de-politicised in this way fosters the notion that it should fall to non-government organisations to answer pressing social problems, while governments are best at fostering self-reliance and self-provision.
• The silence of the Australian government around domestic food security not only confirms its denial of the issue, but indicates a failing welfare system.
• Also at issue is the environmental consequences of rampant food wastage. It is now reported that about 4.5 million tonnes (200kg per person) of food are wasted every year in Australia. The annual retail value of Australian food waste is estimated at more than $5 billion.
• Among the reasons at the supply end are blemishes or imperfections, over-ordering or short shelf life, while consumers demand perfectly shaped products and plan their pantries poorly.
• Food waste in Australian landfills is the second largest source of methane emission – a gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. If one tonne of food waste generates 3.8 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emission, then Australian food waste is responsible for 15 million tonnes of CO₂equivalent emissions every year.
• Despite this happening in its own backyard, Australian policy makers still have ambitions to contribute to global food security initiatives. For instance, the 2010 budget committed $464 million over four years to assist countries in Asia, Africa, and in the Pacific region to build community resilience and improve agricultural productivity.
• But if Australia refuses to consider hunger as an issue of public policy and continues to consistently undermine adequate financial assistance to its own people, a nagging question remains about the nature of its ambitions for addressing food security beyond its shores.
• How should we understand the Federal Government’s proclamation of rights to adequate food, clothing and shelter in international law, while hungry Australians are receiving support from privately run charity organisations?
• If the problem of hunger in wealthy and technologically advanced Australia is to be eliminated, it must be recognised as a political question and a fundamental issue of human rights and distributive justice.

As you can see a  great deal of this article resonated with me. I say lets tidy up our own backyard before we jump over the fence

The question is engage or educate and why it matters?

If we want our children to know where their food comes from; if we want them to be motivated to care about the lives and livelihoods of farmers; if we want them to take seriously the environmental impacts of their food choices; and if we want them to know more about how their health is affected by the way food is made, perhaps we need to rethink the place of food production

This knowledge has been lost since we all became so reliant on the industrial agriculture system; we should talk to the experts – the farmers – so we can get it back. We don’t just need more urban agricultural initiatives, including food-producing back, front and median-strip gardens, school kitchen gardens, community gardens and city farms. We also need a transfer of knowledge from rural farmers. We need Australia’s farmers to be intimately involved in the development of innovative and efficient urban agricultural practices to assure our future food security.

The Conversation https://theconversation.edu.au/urban-food-knowledge-does-yoghurt-grow-on-trees-in-cities-5777

Art4Agriculture has taken up this challenge through the Archibull Prize. The program uptake this year has been phenomenal with 40 plus schools participating in this fun and engaging initiative that uses art and multimedia to tap into a whole new generation of young people

Original landscape image by Peter Dalder

Our ability to reach more schools particularly in NSW where the program has been running for 3 years has only been limited by funding.

Queensland has been a little more challenging, but experience tells us word of mouth amongst schools, teachers, friends and parents will mean Queensland schools will be queuing up in 2014 at the same rate NSW schools are.

The Archibull Prize is not about ‘educating’ people per se about agriculture. We believe it is the only program in the world allowing young people in the agrifood sector to go into schools and engage with the next generation of consumers and decisions makers to build an understanding of each other’s challenges and constraints

I have created this program for two reasons

1. We ALL have to eat so farmers are important and as farmer I know it’s challenging to produce food and fibre in the current climate

2. Young people are our future and its important we invest in them

Personally I am not particularly worried that 27% of kids think yogurt grows on trees or that cotton grows on sheep.

• What is important to me is that young people think farmers are committed, professional and caring
• That the next generation of consumers, decision and policy makers think responsible agriculture is a legitimate user of Australia’s land and water
• That young people don’t hear agricultural intensification and automatically think “factory farming”
• That young people have the knowledge to make informed decisions about genetic modification
• That young people think that farmers like everybody else are entitled to use technology
• That young people want to work not only on my farm but see the agrifood sector as the place they want to be

And it’s working. We know this because the programs outcomes are measurable. Visibly through the artwork the students generate and the blogs, videos and PowerPoints they create. Quantitatively though program entry and exit surveys

What is exciting is our students are very receptive to putting their thinking hats on not only through the progression of their big ideas for their artwork design and also when we pose blog questions like:

1. Why is food production so important for us nationally and globally?
2. Choose one of the challenges faced by farmers and discuss the possible solutions.
3. Why are regional towns and centres so important to the farming community? How will they be affected if changes to farming practices occur?
4. Why is it so important for Australia to produce food for people outside of the country? What do you think would happen if we only worried about ourselves?
5. Why do you think so much food wastage occurs? What actions will you take to help this problem?
6. What does sustainability mean and how can you contribute to the cause? What different choices may you take as a consumer?
7. What is natural resource management? Why do you think it is so important to get right? Think about some of the consequences if we don’t manage these resources properly.

For all those people who are concerned about students’ lack of paddock to plate knowledge our beef, wool, cotton and dairy industry resources our industry bodies send them do an amazing job of sharing this story

Just to prove we have got our strategy right the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries released the results from the Victorian Attitudes to Farming survey in 2012

In summary they found

It is clear that among the Victorian public there is widespread support for farmers and sympathy towards them for the difficulties they face, but also a level of unease about some aspects of the industrialisation and corporate control of agriculture, especially among particular segments of the population.

There is substantial public concern about:

1. Animal welfare
2. Environmental sustainability
3. Farmers’ ability to make a living from farming.
4. Food safety (along with healthy, nutritious and good-tasting food) was viewed by the public as being more important than all other factors.

The research literature shows that concerns about environmental and animal welfare, and about certain other ‘credence attributes’ of foods, have grown among consumers in industrialised countries. In part, this trend stems from the success of industrial agriculture—and of modern distribution systems—in fulfilling western consumers’ basic food needs, by making affordable food abundantly available to most consumers in industrialised nations (though not to the consumers of all countries). Yet the dramatic increases in agricultural productivity achieved during the 20th century have not come without some costs to environmental sustainability, to animal welfare, and to other ‘ethical’ dimensions of food production (even though the severity of these consequences is contested). It appears that, as consumers become more food-secure, wealthier and better educated, many become concerned with addressing these negative consequences.

Our survey indicated that 31% of survey respondents had taken some action—such as protesting or, more often, altering their shopping habits—that could be interpreted as being critical of conventional agriculture (‘critical activism’).

The survey also indicated that 32% of Victorians valued environmental sustainability or animal welfare (or both) highly, and had a relatively low level of trust that farmers would address these issues without coercion.

Most of the individuals surveyed made expressions of unease about some aspects of contemporary agriculture, and such latent concern creates the potential for agriculture to experience periodic controversies or even crises of ‘social authorisation’, as has occurred previously with GM foods, mulesing and (in Europe) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and in Australia Live Export

The paper then asks and answers the questions

1. How should government interpret and respond to those segments of the population that are critical of current farming practices?
2. Are these individuals’ uninformed and forcing unnecessary and costly restraints on farming practices, or are they well-informed drivers of much-needed progress?

Where do Art4agriculture and the Archibull Prize come in? It would appear that these researchers strong agree with our philosophy

A number of agricultural stakeholders have aspired over the years to resolve controversies over farming issues by educating and engaging the public. The research in this project indicates that while this can make a contribution to resolving such controversies, it will not be sufficient.

The rationale for solving farm controversies by educating the public is premised on the assumption that farm controversies are waged between an ignorant public which needs to be educated and knowledgeable experts who can do the educating. The findings presented in this report show that individuals’ professed levels of knowledge about farming issues are relatively independent of their viewpoint about the issues.

The published literature indicates that differences in individuals’ views on ‘technical’ issues such as environmental sustainability and animal welfare derive not only from their level of attentiveness to scientific or expert knowledge, but also from partially subjective and social judgements about which sources of expert knowledge to trust, in the face of contested expertise

It also shows that cultural perspectives influence experts as well as the lay public, and that such perspectives can become institutionalised.

This suggests that divisions in public opinion cannot be reconciled without some engagement and conciliation between different experts and stakeholder groups. As well as educating the public, agricultural groups in government and industry will also need to listen and respond to concerns raised by the public and by other stakeholders groups (including lobby groups and other branches of government).

Testimonials to the way Art4Agriculture is listening and responding

THE IMPACT ON OUR YOUNG FARMING CHAMPIONS

“At the [school] environmental club, the students were really interested in the environmental impacts and challenges the beef industry faced and their questions reflected this rather well. I found myself answering a lot of questions about the need for feedlots, waste management from processors and feedlots and how we can manage beef systems to ensure they are sustainable. The students were very switched on.”

Steph Fowler, Beef Young Farming Champion, 2012

The students had quite a few questions regarding different areas of cotton production – some science questions, some general farming, and others from the teachers that just wanted to know more. I loved the questions I was asked and they weren’t afraid to fire them at me!”

Tamsin Quirk, Cotton Young Farming Champion, 2012

“The school visits were great!  I really enjoyed talking to the students and the teachers.  Everyone was so excited about their Archibulls and I loved having the chance to look at what they were doing and listen to things they had discovered about agriculture. I also enjoyed being able to talk about my university course and I hope I was able to encourage some of them to think about a career in agriculture.”

Sammi Townsend, Wool Young Farming Champion, 2012

THE IMPACT OF THE “ARCHIBULL PRIZE”

“I had this idea in my head that genetic modification is this horrible idea and agriculture should just go back to the way it was in the ‘50s and after talking about it with our Young Farming Champion and learning about it I cannot love it more, I think science and technology have a definite future in the industry.”

Laura Bunting Student feedback, 2012

You can see Laura talking her school’s experience here

We rest our case