Soils For Life

Australian agriculture currently has a labour shortage of over 100,000 people. It’s not an easy gig for someone to start from scratch on a farm and many younger generation farmers are moving from farms to urban areas. We rely on farmers to sustain our way of life as they produce our food and fibre. It’s critical that young and new farmers are encouraged and supported to supply for our needs in a way that regenerates soils and landscapes. Some major barriers and challenges that young and new farmers are faced with include access to land and capital, climate change issues and access to learning, particularly learning about regenerative practices. In this episode, learn from a researcher, writer and farmer who has walked the walk, and started her own regenerative farming practice. Be inspired by an additional six young and new farmers who embraced a regenerative mindset to overcome these challenges. Thank you to all our guests: Tanya Massy  https://sustainabletable.org.au/advisors/ Josh Gilbert https://www.joshuagilbert.co/ Harriet Finlayson https://soilsforlife.org.au/womens-day-regenerative-agriculture-chicken-egg-farmer/ Adam Lilleyman https://soilsforlife.org.au/chickens-for-a-change/ Trish Smith https://www.youngfarmersconnect.com/ Luke Winder https://www.tathraplacefreerange.com/ Hosted by Susannah Kable, Grow Love Project and James Diack, Soils for Life

The 8 families farmer group formed more than a decade ago after a holistic management course. Since then, the group has evolved and experienced transitions in all the businesses and families. In this episode we explore environmental markets through the lens of two members of the 8 Families group. The 8 families explain how their motivation to build natural capital was not primarily to gain market outcomes, but rather a desire to fulfill their Holistic Context. This includes building the productivity and profitability of their farming systems, as well as an intrinsic desire to rebuild the function and health of their landscapes in their roles as soil and landscape stewards. In this episode we’ll hear from some of the group about how and why they came together, their consideration of environmental markets and the benefits of working through those together. Thank you to all our guests: Michael Gooden and Rebecca Gorman - 8 families Soils for Life Case Study:  https://soilsforlife.org.au/8-families-land-stewarship/ Kim Deans -  https://www.reinventingagriculture.com.au Rowan Foley - https://www.abcfoundation.org.au Ian Loane - https://www.carbonlink.com.au/ Andrew Ward - https://regenfarmersmutual.com/ Dieuwer Reynders - https://www.bct.nsw.gov.au/ Hosted by Susannah Kable, Grow Love Project and James Diack, Soils for Life

Farmer, forester or conservationist. It might seem like you need to choose one but more and more landholders are challenging this. With the right management, trees on farms can provide better farm productivity and forest products and increase biodiversity. But in many ways forests are still treated as either conservation reserves or plantations, making it difficult for farmers to take this path. In less than 100 years as a nation we have gone from removing trees to wanting to plant them back. Tree planting programs are not achieving the scale of restoration required to repair Australia's landscapes. We need to rethink how we support landholders to invest in trees. In this episode we hear from two farm foresters who have approached farming trees very differently, as well as a scientist and a forest policy professor. They discuss why more farmers have not adopted forestry, how trees can be managed for multiple outcomes and what mindset and policy shifts are required to move to a whole-of-landscape approach.  Thank you to our guests:  Farm forester and grazier - James Henderson https://soilsforlife.org.au/colodan/ Forest scientist and grazier - Rowan Reid https://www.agroforestry.net.au/ Professor Peter Kanowski - https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/kanowski-pj Associate Professor Cris Brack - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cris-brack-233a117a/ Your hosts Eli Court @soilsforlife and Susannah Kable @growloveproject produced by Edgars Greste

There are millions of hectares of degraded soils in Australia's agricultural landscapes. But there are a billion reasons why compost offers a solution to this problem, teeming with micro-organisms and organic matter that can help regenerate soils. But not all composts are the same and there is still a lot that we're learning about this precious, carbon rich resource. How can governments, farmers and industry work together to return organic matter to the soil and close the loop from paddock to paddock? Thanks to all our guests for their time and insights. Soils for life case study with Milgadara, Rhonda and Bill Daly - soilsforlife.org.au/case-study-catch-up-milgadara Rhonda and Bill Daly, Milgadara and YLAD Living Soils - yladlivingsoils.com.au Eric Love - Centre for Organic Research and Education - core.asn.au Amanda Kane, organics manager, NSW EPA - epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/waste/waste-facilities/organics-processing-facilities Virginia Brunton, environmental scientist - MRA consulting - mraconsulting.com.au Gerry Gillespie, compost industry consultant - gerrygillespie.net/about.html Phil Lavers, Moonacres Farm - moonacres.com.au/farm This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with Soils for Life. This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program

How could the emerging market for soil carbon support farmers to regenerate soils? Soil carbon offers so many benefits both above and below the soil surface, from improving farm productivity to revenue raising in carbon trading. But while the case for building soil carbon is clear, the carbon market is still evolving. So what’s the potential, what are the risks and what can be done to unlock the potential of soil carbon as an enabler of better farm management and soil stewardship? In this episode we talk to farmers, scientists and policy makers to explore the soil carbon opportunity. Thanks to all our guests for their time and insights. Stuart Austin, Wilmot Cattle Co. - soilsforlife.org.au/wilmot Craig Carter, Tallawang - soilsforlife.org.au/tallawang-greener-pastures-through-restoring-landscape-hydrology Dr. Susan Orgill - Soil Scientist, NSW Department of Primary Industries Skye Glenday, Co-CEO, Climate Friendly - climatefriendly.com Dr Michael Crawford, CEO, Soil CRC - soilcrc.com.au Konrad Muller, Assistant Manager, Land, Forest and Blue Carbon Methods, Clean Energy Regulator - cleanenergyregulator.gov.au Anthony Bennie, Assistant Secretary, Natural Capital and Markets - Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/natural-resources/landcare/sustaining-future-australian-farming/carbon-biodiversity-pilot Have your say about the new soil carbon methodology - submissions close by Monday 27th September https://consult.industry.gov.au/soil-carbon-method-proposed-new-method For the latest updates please subscribe to the Soils for Life newsletter soilsforlife.org.au/the-newsletter This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with Soils for Life. This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program

This is Soils For Life. A podcast about connecting farmers, researchers and policy makers, to shed light on agricultural best practice and explore current policy barriers and mindsets that are getting in the way of adoption and how to overcome them. Each episode we’ll delve into a topical issue around soil health in agriculture. We’ll hear from farmers about what inspired them to change their practices and we’ll talk to industry experts about the challenges and opportunities to help improve soils for life. Sign up to the newsletter by visiting soilsforlife.org.au/the-newsletter/