organicgardener.com.au^77
ORGANIC VESTON
Q
: (^) How well do you think Australian farmers have
managed their land since European settlement?
A
: There’s enough statistical evidence, historic documents
and national and state government ‘State of the
Environment’ reports proving there’s been extreme
ecological destruction caused by agricultural practices
across three-quarters of the nation. The damage has
included native grass loss, biodiversity loss, soil loss, erosion
and the pollution of many waterways. Ironically, the landscape
remains beautiful but there’s suffering beneath our feet.
We’ve developed an export sector – 70 per cent of what
we produce goes overseas – but at a great national cost.
Q
: (^) What are the most important things we can
do to farm more sustainably in the era of
climate change?
A
: Future agriculture shouldn’t be a repeat of the past.
A new attitude, not new technology, is needed. We’ve
had new and improved technologies all the time, but
that hasn’t changed our attitude, nor improved our
ecological understanding. Farmers need to become proud
environmental champions. To do that we all need to accept
that our industry has done some shocking things in the past.
The No.1 priority is that overgrazing with introduced
animals needs to be banned. If your business requires you
to do that, it’s not a sustainable business.
Q
: (^) In your book, Who’s Minding the Farm?, you write
that it’s not just soil that needs regeneration,
or farming; it’s people. What do you mean by that?
A
: Getting the foundations of any idea right is a good thing.
The mental health of some farmers needs attention.
Mine’s certainly taken a beating during this drought. Soil
development and farmer development really can go
hand in hand. Both need each other.
Q
: (^) You liken the end of industrially produced
synthetic chemicals to the end of slavery. Why?
A
: The 11 Confederate states during the US Civil War
didn’t want slavery to end because they believed their
businesses couldn’t survive without it. Chemical companies
are like the Confederates today; they’re constantly telling
us – the farmers – that we need their poisons to be
profitable and that the world’s growing population
can’t be fed without them.
That’s simply not true. We waste millions of tonnes
of food each year and thousands of organic farmers
around the world grow crops without chemicals.
Q
: (^) How much dedicated wilderness do you have
on your farm and why do you have it?
A
: We set aside 3000 out of our 10,000 acres for rewilding
in 2009. The back of our country is very steep; it feels more
like national park. But since the 1830s it had had sheep on it.
In the agricultural sector it is seen as a bad thing to let
land go back to scrub. Some people come here and say,
“Oh my God! You shouldn’t have that; that’s a bad plant.”
But I see rewilding as a great example of nature finding
its own way. I see beauty in it. The plants have a right to
be there and they’re doing a job. Eventually trees will
reclaim the land and it will find its strength again.
Q
: (^) How confident are you that we will change
our farming methods in the right way, and in
good time, as climate change accelerates?
A
: I can’t look at it like that, otherwise I’d get miserable
meeting a climate denier. There are many in the farming
community who describe this drought as unfortunate and
merely the latest example of difficult weather. If you believe
everything will be right once it rains, your planning will,
mostlikel,bearepeatofthepast.Butif oufeelor
believehumanactionsareimpactingontheweather
(aka climate change), then a new idea can grow.
I’m always inspired by the brave farmers implementing
different techniques that put the health of the ecology at
the forefront of their decision making. We must accept that
agriculture is Australia’s third biggest greenhouse gas
emitting sector. If we stop our present mechanical industrial
ag mindset, we’ll sequester carbon, build soil, cleanupour
water systems and produce healthy things as well.
Who’s Minding The Farm? by
Patrice Newell is published
by Penguin ($35). Available
in bookstores and online now.
Farmes ned to becm prud
enviromtal ch
pions. T d tha we
al ned to cp hat our indsy ha
done sm hcking ts he pat.