Good People to Know

With women officially representing 33% of the workforce according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Australian Agriculture is an industry that has historically had a significant gender imbalance.

In today’s special International Women’s Day episode of Good People to Know, Andrew finds out more about this gap in diversity by shaking hands with President of Australian Women in Agriculture and National Farmer Federation’s Independent Board member, Nat Somerville.

Nat is a farmer of Torres Strait Islander descent that lives and works on Ngadjuri Country in South Australia’s Mid North. Her own participation in the National Farmer’s Federation (NFF) Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program in 2018 has led to some amazing next steps in her career and she is a passionate advocate for greater diversity and representation in all its forms.

Make sure you listen in to hear Nat talk about the gap in diversity, how the industry will benefit from being more inclusive and how the National Farmer’s Federation aim to address this through their Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program.

Registrations open for the Program today! You can find out more information and register at https://nff.org.au/programs/diversity-in-agriculture-leadership/.

In this episode, Andrew Beer chats with GIVIT CEO Sarah Tennant, about how GIVIT is helping Australians who have been impacted by natural disasters. Disclaimer: WFI’s parent company IAG, is the National Disaster and Emergency Partner of GIVIT. As part of this partnership, IAG has provided funding to GIVIT to help support pandemic and disaster impacted communities. 

This year to date, there have already been countless storm, flood and bushfire events impacting communities across Australia. Regional communities are particularly vulnerable to these weather events, and people sometimes find themselves in precarious situations having lost all or most of their possessions.  

That’s where GIVIT comes to the fore, helping those in need. Partnering with governments and other businesses, GIVIT is a unique Australian organisation that acts as a “matchmaker” between those who need support, and people who want to offer their help or donate goods.  

As you’ll hear in this podcast, their impact in helping people recover from disasters has been remarkable.

In our last season we spoke at length about the increasing frequency and severity of weather events due to climate change, and it’s a topic that regularly comes up when talking to our farming communities.

With natural disasters impacting more regional Australians than ever before, Andrew shakes hands with El Carter, National Emergency Response Lead with Australian Red Cross. They discuss her experience and how regional communities can better prepare for future weather events.

With over 17 years at Australian Red Cross leading their response to some of the nations’ biggest disasters, El truly is a good person to know.

In October the National Farmers Federation held their annual conference where the theme was ‘Australia to the World’. With around 70% of Australia’s produce being exported, it’s an important topic to Aussie farmers.

We were there shaking hands and speaking with leaders and experts on Australia’s moral and financial obligations in feeding a world heading to upwards of 10 billion people, the issues that affect Australian exports and the role sustainability plays in a warming world.

This is the final episode of the first season of Good People to Know. We would be very interested in your thoughts on the first season and would love to know what other topics or initiatives you would like to see in the future. Please click here to share your thoughts.

In today's episode Andrew continues his conversation with Scott Hammond, CEO Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast about mental health and the unique challenges faced by Regional Australians.

During this second part of the conversation they discuss the role of social media, the pressures faced by the farming community, the under-resourcing of mental health support services and how people can care for the mental health of themselves and others.

This episode contains discussion of mental health, suicide and suicidal ideation, which some people might find disturbing. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or use their text service on 0477 13 11 14.

Mental health support is available at the below links:

• Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast - https://www.llbhc2c.org.au/

• Lifeline Australia - https://www.lifeline.org.au/resources/

• Chat service - https://www.lifeline.org.au/crisis-chat/

• 13 YARN (13 92 76) - https://www.13yarn.org.au/ - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis support line

Roughly one in five Australians will experience a mental health condition at some point in their lives – a statistic that’s true for the city and the bush. But it has been suggested that mental health conditions in Regional Australia are under reported and to make matters worse, the age-standardised suicide rate is 60% higher in regional areas compared with capital cities, with the rate increasing with remoteness.

To chat about this important topic Andrew is joined by Scott Hammond, CEO Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast. With over 20 years’ experience and managing an area of over 1.2 million km across NSW and SA, Scott lends his important insights to a conversation that will open your mind to an issue that is seldom discussed.

With so much to discuss this conversation will be released in two parts, with part two being released next week.

This episode contains discussion of mental health, suicide and suicidal ideation, which some people might find disturbing. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or use their text service on 0477 13 11 14.

Mental health support is available at the below links:

Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast - https://www.llbhc2c.org.au/

Lifeline Australia - https://www.lifeline.org.au/resources/

Chat service - https://www.lifeline.org.au/crisis-chat/

13 YARN (13 92 76) - https://www.13yarn.org.au/ - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis support line

Australian farms consistently top the list of most unsafe workplaces in Australia, with roughly one in six people killed on the job in Australia working on a farm.

Andrew chats with John Darcy from the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) about how we address safety on Australian farms.

Free safety materials are available to farmers Australia-wide by visiting makingourfarmssafer.org.au.

Traditionally farms get passed on from generation to generation, but with many farmers not having children to pass their farm onto, the average Australian farmer is now in their 50s leading to economic and social challenges for agricultural communities.

This week Andrew is joined by Cultivate Farms CEO, Sam Marwood to talk to about how we keep more older farmers on the land, bring new families onto farms and revitalise regional communities through investment.

You can find out more by visiting Cultivate Farms.

The development and adoption of new technology on farms is touted is one of the key drivers in the National Farmers Federation’s 2030 Roadmap.

To demonstrate the future of farming through robotics and artificial intelligence, as well creating new sustainability and carbon models to drive improvements in farming practice, Charles Sturt University recently launch a ‘digital hands free farm’ in Wagga Wagga.

To tell us more, Andrew is joined again by the projects chief scientist, Professor David Lamb.

In today’s episode Andrew digs into Australia’s emerging carbon economy and what’s in it for farmers with Professor David Lamb - Chief Scientist at Food Agility and Adjunct Professor at University of New England (AU). Working in precision agriculture for more than 25 years and leading more than 40 industry-funded R&D projects, David really is a good person to know.

During the conversation they discuss how farmers can help the fight against climate change by not only reducing their carbon footprint, but also helping to draw carbon out of the atmosphere whilst opening new revenue streams and improving the health of the land.