Agriculture and Climate Change

I believe farmers have got guts. They stare despair down every day. They get knocked down and they get up again. They take more risks than city-based businesses. They take on the climate, everyday.

Farmers are treated unjustly. The community expects them to work as unpaid environmental officers, but it refuses to pay a decent price for their produce.

They must have the right to make choices about managing their land to be economically sustainable. The real farmer does not want to destroy the natural resource base that they rely on to make a living. If Governments want woody weeds to cover pasture or croplands, the landholder must be compensated. A city-based business that had its profitability severely impacted by government policies would have every television channel championing their cause. Farmers who are working as environmental managers should be rewarded with stewardship payments.

I believe government scientists and advisers should live and work on a working property (or have done so) to understand the reality of farming. Research based on unrealistic methodologies creates bad science and leads to bad conclusions and bad decisions. The science of climate change is about to change the way every primary producer can manage their property. If that science is based on unrealistic methodologies, rural communities will be dealt another blow. The science of methane emissions is a good example.

I believe that land managers deserve the right to trade carbon credits based on the soil carbon they can grow with changed land management. The science of soil carbon has been misinterpreted and misused, to the farmers’ disadvantage. We want a fair go.