Andrew Mahony | Melbourne, Australia

Fernleigh Farms paves the way to organic produce. Image: Andrew Mahony

On a fresh morning two hours north-west of Melbourne in the small town of Bullarto, two farmers trudge between sheds sharing a laugh.

Their heavy boots are all the more cumbersome with the mud they’ve collected over many similar walks. There’s a faint smell of something burning in the distance amongst the potent farm odours that greet visitors.

Fernleigh Farms co-owner, Nicholas Chambers, has a strong hand shake and a busy office decorated with papers and folders. “The farm’s about 50 hectares,” he says.

He started the business with his wife Fiona about twenty years ago, when it “was just conventional potatoes and sheep.”

But Chambers had a business eye that shone with experience.

“Through my involvement in the [wholesale] market I saw the commercial opportunity for organics,” Chambers says.

“But also, I had grown up where there had been a lot of soil fumigation, and a lot of damage from that.” Meanwhile his wife had been selling veterinary pharmaceuticals, and was witness to the overuse of chemicals and antibiotics in intensive animal farming. “[I was] talking to some guys the other day about the prophylactic use of antibiotics in animal feeds, it’s huge… What they use in animal feed is just scary.”

The venture that the Chambers started back in 1989 is a style of farming that has been used and improved over the last 70-80 years. “We came at it probably more from that commercial perspective rather than just a cool and groovy thing to do,” said Chambers. Many believe it could be the future of farming.

According to findings released by global industry researcher IBISWorld earlier this year, it is expected that organic farming in Australia will be one of the top two growth industries over the course of 2010. The study found that it could be worth $430 million, up 14.8 per cent from last year.

IBISWorld general manager (Australia), Robert Bryant, says that a growing understanding of the need for environmental sustainability, along with higher disposable incomes, means that buying organic is a viable option for many Australians. Bryant says that climate change is also playing its part in forcing the hand of some farmers to make the switch to organic.

“Not only does organic farming offer higher returns for farmers, but recent studies suggest it is more resilient and adaptable to changing conditions wrought by climate change – encouraging some farmers to switch from conventional to organic farming,” he says.

The switch to organic farming can have many positive benefits. Chambers says taking care of the soil is imperative to maintaining the farm. “We’re on very rich soil here, we’ve got organic matter up around 10-11 per cent, which is huge,” he says. “Your organic matter is basically what holds your water. Looking after soil like that stores a lot more carbon.”

The importance of healthy soil to the environment is emphasised by Deborah Hart, founder of LIVE (Locals Into Victoria’s Environment). LIVE is an organisation that, among other things, aims to raise awareness of the impact of climate change and place pressure on government and industry groups to be more environmentally friendly.

Hart says farmers should be encouraged and paid to restore and revitalise soils. “Soils are one of our greatest carbon sinks,” she says. “I think it would be a very quick way to pay farmers to re-vegetate and sink carbon back into our soils, [it] would be a very quick and easy way to go about creating a transition, getting people back on the land, and nurturing the land, rather than stripping it.”

Another topic of debate in regard to farming practices is the impact of animal agriculture, including deforestation and methane emissions. One person who disputes the notion that conventional farming practices are harmful to the environment, is air quality specialist and associate professor at the University of California Davis, Frank Mitloehner. Mitloehner says that consuming less meat and milk is not the answer to reducing greenhouse gas production. “Smarter farming, not less animal farming, will equal less heat,” he says. “In developing countries, we should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices, to make more food with less greenhouse gas production.”

But according to others, the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to cut back, and in some cases, cut out animal food production altogether. Professor Barry Brook is the director of climate science at the University of Adelaide. Brook says that it is unrealistic to expect people to become vegan to stop animal agriculture’s impact on global warming altogether, but if they simply reduce their intake of red meat they can reduce the damage. “It’s just when we’re making decisions about our own diet, if people are conscious about their contribution to climate change, they need to think about the impact that meat has, because it’s disproportionately large compared to vegetables,” he says.

The production of meat and its impact that Brook described is supported by author and environmental activist, Geoff Russell, who says the impact that animal agriculture has on the environment is vast. “Livestock are responsible for about two-thirds of the human-induced burning that happens every year. About two million tonnes of dry matter vegetation gets burned every year for the pastoral industry – sheep and cattle – and that has to stop in order for massive reforestation to take place.”

In Australia, a significant number of forests have been and are being cleared, according to Gerry Bisshop, who was the principal scientist at the Queensland Department of Environment and Resources Management from until this year. “From 1987 through until 2008 … if you take the average clearing in that period, it’s about 340,000 hectares per year,” he says. “Over 90 per cent of that has been for livestock grazing.”

According to Bisshop, the solution to the problem is simple: “The real solution is to stop the demand. If there’s no market for sheep or cows, then that activity will stop.”

Former Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett says that it won’t stop if people remain unaware of the impact on the environment, and politicians remain unwilling to seriously address the issue. “Anything that’s seen as against a particular rural industry is usually not the done-thing politically, so governments of all persuasions tend to stay away from that,” Bartlett says.

Kate Auty, the Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, says that farmers have adapted to the changing conditions around them and will continue to do so. She points out that it is damaging that many people believe farmers are stubborn and traditionalist in their ways.

“It’s unfortunate in some respects that with agriculture, there’s this general view that they are resistant and recalcitrant.”

In fact, that agriculture sector often adapt to their circumstances. “People will adjust, they will adapt, they will respond, they will do what is required of them, but they need some leadership,” Aunty says.

This need for necessary leadership, coupled with society’s focus on sustainable agriculture, is very important. To Nicholas Chambers, it is something that will only happen with time.
“To get people actually seeing what benefits the organic industry can provide for the environment, that’s where we can pick up a bigger percentage [of the market]. You actually want people that feel that they can do something to help the environment,” he says.