Tim Wright regenerative farmer, holistic manager, educator and soon to be published author joins me to discuss regenerative agriculture. There are important things to learn from this episode, whether you are living in the country or city, we are all dependent on agriculture for the food we consume. Tim's family have been connected with the land since the first settlers, so he has deep roots with the land. Today, Eastern Australia is going through the worst drought in our history, if ever there was a time to build resilience this is it.

Selected Links from the Episode

Unstress episode with Allan Savory on holistic land management

Unstress episode with Dr Charles Massy on regenerative agriculture

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Dr Ron Ehrlich:             Hello, and welcome to Unstress. I'm Dr Ron Ehrlich. Identifying and minimizing the effect of stress on our health, and then focusing on pillars of health to build resilience is a theme we revisit in different forms on this podcast. Also, exploring what 'holistic' actually means is another one. I'm also pretty passionate about increasing the understanding of those of us in the city as to what goes on for people in the country. Growing the food, the nutrient dense food, and ideally low or no chemical food we need to be healthy. Well, my guest today is Tim Wright, regenerative farmer, holistic manager, educator, and soon to be author ... a published author, whose family has been connected with the land since the time of the first settlers in Australia. Living on the land and managing that land in Australia's climate is challenging at the best of times. I mean, I've lost count of the droughts that have occurred in the last 50 or 60 years, but today eastern Australia is going through the worst drought in our history. So, if there was ever a time to build resilience, or to hope you already had done it, this would have to be it. There are some important lessons to learn, and things to be aware of, so I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Tim Wright.

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Dr Ron Ehrlich:             Welcome to the show, Tim.

Tim Wright:                  Thank you. Yeah.

Dr Ron Ehrlich:             Tim, I wanted to talk to you today about regenerative agriculture and holistic management of the land, but I think it would be good to set the scene, 'cause you come from a long line of farmers, and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that story, a little bit about the traditional approach to farming in Australia.

Tim Wright:                  Well, gee, we go back a bit there, Ron. My family comes back through a long line. I guess they're the first settlers. They brought the first Herefords into Australia. They also started the first winery at Wyndham Estate Winery. That's the oldest winery in Australia. And my family, Wright married a Wyndham, and that's how it started. Then they went to Queensland and then came back to the Northern Tablelands, because of the climate I guess. And they settled on the eastern side.

Tim Wright:                  I guess my family has been in the agricultural side for quite a few generations, really. And on the closest side to my family, my grandfather was involved with the University of New England, and he was the chancellor there for a number of years, and he instigated Rural Science, the degree, along with a couple of other farmers as well. But, he was one of the main ones behind it with Professor Bill McClymont, who's now deceased, but [crosstalk 00:03:11].

Dr Ron Ehrlich:             I know that name very well because of two very dear friends of mine, Vicki and Tim Poulter, Vicki McClymont, of course. It runs in the history.

Tim Wright:                  That's right, yeah. Yeah, so my father got on well with Bill, and I think ... We're talking about agriculture and where it's sitting, I think it was on the right path, definitely, back in those days, 'cause they were teaching ...