A Sense of Humus – Educating, Celebrating and Advocating
A podcast with Regenerative Farmers and Educators – Kate Spry and Charlotte Drinnan
Celia Cavanagh gives us a quick SOIL 101 as she sets up the podcast conversation with two courageous women – both traditional turned regenerative farmers and both educators. And both passionate about soil.
Soil – What is it? How have we cultivated it? And how we’ve used and abused it, releasing its rich organic carbon content into the atmosphere to add to emissions.
Kate Spry and Charlotte Drinnan tell us how they are recapturing that carbon. How to do so to regenerate our depleted soils. And how they are doing it in practice on their land. And in sharing their stories how they are changing the curriculum (The Soil Story) to teach ag students and other farmers about it.
The Outcome: Transforming farming into a practice and sharing it as a science that once again supports the soil to act as a superb carbon sink. In this way they are regenerating their own properties from bare dust and dirt or weed infestations to richer paddocks with diverse plants, teeming in bird life.
As they help protect the planet and grow crops – much to our surprise – with livestock that actually helps the soil get rich again.
As Educators Kate was inspired by The Soil Story – Discovering it back in 2015 she knows that healthy soils foster healthy humans. Inspired by the Soil Story Kate developed an Australian module of Kiss the Ground. It took courage – she went to her supervisor when teaching in her town of Tamworth NSW back in 2016/7 and said she couldn’t teach the existing curriculum – that we would save the planet by getting rid of all livestock. She knew she would be teaching a lie.
Kate was given permission to ‘teach what she knew’ and she did. She captured what she was doing – building on the shoulders of some phenomenal Australians before her including Charles Massy and Bruce Pascoe and others – and turned her course into a curriculum. She was supported to launch it in February 2018 see link. It subsequently spread like a virus – picked up by 50 schools in the first few weeks. The curriculum is now online and accessed internationally!
Think: Feel: Do: Kate Spry wants us to: • Think: Regeneratively, not sustainably, maintaining the status quo but rejuvenating and rehabilitating to the land. ‘It’s not too late!’ • Feel: Get out into the soil and feel it.
o Is it compacted? Is it friable? What’s happening to it? Start analysing it. • Do: Get amongst it and get into it. Start growing some veggies.
Influenced by Kate’s work, Charlotte, teaches both music and regenerative agriculture at Greater Shepparton Secondary College in Shepparton, Victoria – a very large secondary college with 2300 students. Kate is a connector. Hailing from a Tasmanian sheep farm, she and her husband now farm near Shepparton. At the same time, she links farming families across Australia with others – nationally and internationally. During lockdown last year she linked her 15-17-year-old students with a farming family in Montana USA. This triggered parents to be in touch to learn more.
Describing herself as a facilitator, this year Charlotte is now also teaching year 11 students agriculture and horticulture in a way to inspire the inquiring mind – to ask What if? How can I be healthier? And create a practical approach to a Living Earth.
Think: Feel: Do: Charlotte Drinnan wants us to:
• Think: How regenerative agriculture can help us reverse climate change and get rid of the legacy load in our atmosphere. “Done the right way it can do that!” • Feel: I feel hopeful that farmers will continue to be curious and open themselves up to the education and research available to them in their communities.
o In this way they can change their practices so together we can continue to assist getting carbon back down into the soil where it belongs. • Do: I am going to continue my journey on the farm. I am going to continue educating young people.
o I will do more in my community. I have just completed a ‘Farmers for Climate Action Leadership’ course.
o Listeners in the city areas can support regenerative farmers by buying their produce either directly from the regenerative farmer’s website, the Facebook page or existing outlets.
Kate and Charlotte thank you for inspiring us at theBEATS.org – to also continue to do more, to learn more and where we can to inspire us all to be more.
Biodiversity underpins the health of our planet and informs everything down to the taste of a grain, the strand of a cloth and a sip of water. All things we as humnans rely on to support our most basic needs. Yet, nature and wildlife are declining around the world at an unprecedented rate.
Together we can stop it. But only if we join together and chose the most important thing to each of us to protect.
What is the most important element – animal, bird, plant or place – that would you protect if you could?
Ecologist, primatologist and director of biodiversity and nature, Guy Michael Williams, connects us to the forest, delights us with stories of nature, and strategies that can work for all of us wanting to save the planet.
A key part of his work is to connect biodiversity and business to understand the immeasurable value of e.g. where your decking timber comes from and how to source it sustainability.
Climate is inextricably linked to biodiversity @GuyMichaelWilliams shows us how.
Commission on Ecosystem Management
A network of professionals whose mission is to act as a source of advice on the environmental, economic, social and cultural factors that affect natural resources and biological diversity.
Science Based Targets Network
We enable companies and cities to play a vital role in creating an equitable, nature positive, net-zero future using science-based targets.
Restor
Restor is a science-based open data platform to support and connect the global restoration movement
Convention on Biological Diversity
Signed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity is dedicated to promoting sustainable development. Conceived as a practical tool for translating the principles of Agenda 21 into reality, the Convention recognizes that biological diversity is about more than plants, animals and micro organisms and their ecosystems – it is about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live.
The IUCN Red List
Established in 1964, The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.
The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. Far more than a list of species and their status, it is a powerful tool to inform and catalyze action for biodiversity conservation and policy change, critical to protecting the natural resources we need to survive. It provides information about range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and/or trade, threats, and conservation actions that will help inform necessary conservation decisions.
Re:wild
Re:wild protects and restores the wild. We have a singular and powerful focus: the wild as the most effective solution to the interconnected climate, biodiversity and pandemic crises.
Founded by a group of renowned conservation scientists together with Leonardo DiCaprio, Re:wild is a force multiplier that brings together Indigenous peoples, local communities, influential leaders, nongovernmental organizations, governments, companies and the public to protect and rewild at the scale and speed we need. Our vital work has protected and conserved more than 180 million acres benefitting more than 16,000 species in the world’s most irreplaceable places for biodiversity.
Farmer, agroecologist, citizen scientist, and the 2015 Young Farmer of the Year, Dr Anika Molesworth, shares how agriculture can really support biodiversity and is a huge part of how we can tackle climate change as well. She’s also a great storyteller.
Your hosts for this episode of Beating the Drum for Biodiversity are Celia Cavanagh and Louise Denver.
As a young girl, Anika fell in love with the red land she now farms. She was, and still is captivated by its horizons that extend forever. But the Millennial drought that started in the Year 2000, had a huge impact on her family’s farm, on the land around them out Broken Hill way, and on Anika herself.
She became a scientist because of it. She wanted to learn more, and she did. Eventually getting a PhD. At the same time, Anika built an online network: Climate Wise Agriculture.
What WE can do
Because we are all part of the food system, we can all do something about climate change. The choices we make every day at the supermarket, the food we eat and waste, are all critical choices when it comes to protecting our planet.
And ‘hot of the presses’, we get a glimpse of her brand new book Our Sunburnt Country. Filled with stories of farmers and food producers from around the world. They share sustainable and practical solutions to growing our food, protecting the land, and building our future.
Tell us what you think
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Keep up to date
To keep up to date at theBEATS.org, follow us on Instagram at @thebeats_org and join our LinkedIn group. We will soon post on Tik Tok and our RSS feed keeps you clued up to breaking news.
First published in Science.sciencemag.org March 11 2021
A decade ago, an Australian report outlined changes the country must make to halt the decline and loss of species1, but the reforms were never implemented. In the years since, most threatened species have continued to decline, and at least three have gone extinct2,3.
Since the year 2000, more than 7.7 million hectares of threatened species habitat have been destroyed.
In February 2021, the Australian government released a report that examined Australia’s ongoing failure to tackle the species extinction crisis and offered recommendations5.
Australia’s minister for the environment has committed to work through the full detail of the recommendations6, but there are already worrying signs that they will be ignored. The Federal Government of Australia must protect and preserve nature as required by international agreements7. Without fundamental policy reforms, Australia – a mega diverse country home to about 600,000 species8– risks mass species extinction.
The most urgent action Australia must take is to establish legally binding National Environmental Standards
They must be rigorously enforced and under- pinned by Indigenous engagement and participation. An Environment Assurance Commissioner should be appointed, one that is responsible for overseeing and auditing government decision-making in accordance with the Standards5.
This would improve accountability, transparency, and trust in government. In addition, an independent body should be created to be responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the environmental legislation, a suggestion that has already been dismissed9.
Current levels of government funding for appropriate environmental management and restoration are insufficient to address Australia’s extinction crisis10.
Adequate resources must urgently target threatened species recovery.
Alongside more funding, existing environmental laws need to be reviewed to close loopholes, such as the one in the current law that effectively grants an exemption to all native forest logging5, threatening hundreds of species2,3.
Assessments of the state of Australia’s imperilled species show that the government is running out of time11.
The Australian scientific community has been increasingly vocal about the ineffectiveness of Australian environmental legislation for achieving its objectives4,10,12 and preventing the likelihood of an extinction crisis10, but these calls have been ignored.
It is time for Australia’s government to heed the calls of scientists and implement urgent, wide-ranging, and reformative policies before it is too late.
Michelle Ward1,2,3*, Shayan Barmand 4, James Watson 1,2, Brooke Williams1,2 1 Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. 2 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. 3 World Wildlife Fund–Australia, Brisbane,QLD4000,Australia. 4 African Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa. *Corresponding author. Email: m.ward@uq.edu.au
REFERENCES AND NOTES
A.Hawke,“TheAustralianEnvironmentAct—Reportof the independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999” (Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Canberra, 2009).
Commonwealth of Australia, EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna (2019); www.environment.gov. au/cgibin/sprat/public/public threatened list. pl? wanted=fauna.
Commonwealth of Australia, EPBC Act List of Threatened Flora (2019); www.environment.gov.au/cgi- bin/sprat/public/public threatened list. pl?wanted=flora.
M.Ward et al.,Conserv. Sci. Pract. 1,e117(2019).
G. Samuel, “Independent review of the EPBC Act – Final report” (Canberra, Australia, 2020).
Commonwealth of Australia,“Review supports reform for environmental laws” (2021); https:// minister.awe.gov.au/ley/media-releases/ review-supports-reform-environmental-laws.
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, “Preparations for the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework” (2020).
A.D.Chapman,“Number of living species in Australia and the World” (Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage, the Arts, 2009).
Commonwealth of Australia,“Reform for Australia’s environment laws” (2020); https:// minister.awe.gov.au/ley/media-releases/ reform-australias-environment-laws.
B. Wintle et al., Conserv. Lett. 12, e12682 (2019).
I.D. Cresswell, H.T.Murphy,“Australia state of the environment 2016: Biodiversity (Independent report to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Energy)” (Canberra, Australia, 2016).
Australian Academy of Science, “Academy Fellows say it’s time to establish an independent biodiversity agency” (2020); www.science.org.au/ news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/ academy-fellows-time-establish-independent-biodiversity-agency. 10.1126/science.abg9225
