Forest Farm attended the North Coast Farming Forum (and we met Costa!)

We recently spent two great days at the North Coast Farming Forum, held at Banyula Farm at Booyong – just up the road a bit from Forest Farm.

North Coast Farming Forum main stage

Thank you so much to Local Land Services for organising a really worthwhile event and to Banyula for hosting such a big event. We’re hoping that LLS can continue to bring the north coast farming community together to discuss the future here on the north coast.

Many events often bring together like minded individuals focused on a particular industry, whether it’s cattle, cane, other crops or conservation. This event, however, was a brilliant opportunity to connect with others in the farming community who we may not often connect with, may have differing views or challenges we haven’t faced or even thought about, but with a common goal of bettering the sustainability of faring on the North Coast.

Fabulous guest speakers

There was such a broad range of topics discussed. We learned about emissions, climate, soils, finance, extension opportunities, and how to stay positive in light of increasing challenges. There was also a myriad of opportunities to learn about carbon farming, measuring on-farm emissions, disaster management, finance, and economic and ecological opportunities, as well as farm tours to see what Banyula is doing to address the particular challenges on their land.

Highlights Included:

• Rachael Young and Dr Bethany Ellis from DPIRD who delivered a great explanation of what climate change actually means and how it is affecting our weather. In fact, one participant later quipped that this was the first time he actually “got it”!
• Susan Orgill from ImpactAg providing a passionate explanation of how wonderful soils are.
• Anika Molesworth on how to stay positive in the face of climate change and keep doing our bit to help the planet thrive.
• Sam Green from Rural Financial Counselling Service gave sound advice about farm finance and the critical importance of cash flow.
• Richard Heath explained the research being done around emission reduction in agricultural industries in Australia.

Banyula – an inspiring model.

Banyula is committed to restoration of the natural environment, increasing biodiversity and creating a sustainable self-regulating ecosystem.  We resonate with Banyula’s approach and philosophy, and wish them all the best with their endeavours to continue to find ways to blend economics, biodiversity, climate resilience, and climate adaptive farming. Finding financial models that demonstrate a positive link between caring for the environment and financial stability/success is vital at this point.

Ben talks Forest Farm Carbon Project

One of the panel sessions at the forum was around carbon projects. Our Ben Herington was invited to talk about the Forest Farm Carbon Project and joined Tanya Pritchard and Matthew Bleakley from Banyula about their respective carbon projects. Banyula are involved in a WWF/Koala Friendly carbon project, Tanya is the recipient of an LLS Living Carbon grant, both of which are Environmental Planting projects and Ben about our Plantation Forestry carbon project. The audience  about the challenges and opportunities when involved in setting up carbon projects, the difference between various methodologies, the value of high integrity carbon projects, and selling ACCUs into the market. It was also great to witness Banyula’s obvious pride in their project with the farm tour. And very affirming for us to see the pride that Banyula has in the biodiversity co-benefits from carbon projects. That is perhaps the biggest value for us too; we’re not just fostering high quality koala habitat – we’re fostering a thriving biodiverse habitat for an entire community of plants and animals.

Ben talking carbon projects during the field tour of the Banyula WWF planting

And guess who we met?

We found ourselves sitting right behind Costa Georgiadis! Who proceeded to open and MC the event.

 Of course we introduced ourselves and had a chat.

What a lovely, genuine, person Costa is. And a fabulous MC. A wonderful addition to a very well run and successful event. While Costa has a passion for gardening, growing plants and particularly soil, his passion for community and bringing people together shines too, and his positivity is a beacon of resilience and hope for the future.

Of course Costa donned two t-shirts during the event. And he even seemed to remember Nat’s Cupaniopsis Anacardioides t-shirt that she had sent to him years ago.

Meeting Costa was a highlight for Ben, Carmel and Brian Herington

Key takeaways for Forest Farm

The key takeaways for us included;

1. Keep going and maintain momentum by believing in what we are doing to help climate change (and therefore humanity)
2. Don’t forget to stop and celebrate our successes along the way
3. We are part of a broader community and it is always valuable to invest in developing that community. Many of the struggles we face are not in isolation, others in the community have the same challenges and it feels good knowing you’re not alone
4. Take the time to learn and the opportunities to meet other farmers. Even though we do different things on our farms, doesn’t mean we don’t have things to learn from each other.