FARMERS looking for education and advocacy in evolving farming operations towards a more sustainable and climate-responsible manner can find support from their fellow farmers at Farmers for Climate Action.
Farmers for Climate Action is a movement of farmers, agricultural leaders and rural Australians working to influence Australia to adopt strong climate policies by growing the number of farmers, farming communities and elected representatives championing ambitious action.
Brett Hall and Pippa Mills were a few of the many farmers from across the state and the country to give their time at Agfest to educate climate-conscious farmers of what they can do to responsibly manage their effects on their farm and the wider world.
“Our big push is for advocacy on behalf of farmers,” said Mr Hall.
“To vocalise that there are a lot of farmers who have a clear message about climate change and want to make a change”
“We offer our members education on climate change, on-farm practice change like what activities they might undertake to minimise their impact and what projects they could do on farm to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
“We try to work with all political persuasions, people need to know we aren’t politically aligned,”
Their ethos is ‘to influence Australia to adopt strong economy-wide climate policies and realise a prosperous and sustainable future, full of opportunity for farmers and farming communities.’
‘We believe that if we grow the number of farmers, their communities and their representatives who are leading on climate-smart farming solutions and championing strong economy-wide climate policy, we can influence governments to implement climate policies that mitigate climate change and benefit rural communities.’
“To me, farmers have always been big users of science,” Mr Hall said.
“They’ve used science to make decisions on things like crop growth and weather for a long, long time”
“Unfortunately, the situation has gotten so desperate in the outside world that on-farm we’re having to make changes to our practice to minimise our climate influence”
More information on the organisation, how to join and support can be found at farmersforclimateaction.org.au.