From Hilltops Council – Tony Flanery

Last week I attended the Rabobank Farm 2 Fork summit held at the White Bay overseas passenger terminal in Sydney. It was an amazing day with 1600 farmers and industry leaders in attendance, which showcased the technology that is going to take agriculture into the future.

Rabobank is the largest agricultural bank in the world, so they don’t shy away from our industry when the going gets tough. They understand agriculture and the ever-changing environment in which we live. Therefore, the focus of the day was sustainability and the impacts on our businesses.

There were presentations from both Australian and foreign experts as well as people who are at the forefront of technological innovation which will have a huge impact on agriculture and society in the years to come. We saw robotic dogs, robotic gloves and cling wrap which is made from potato peels (with a commercial factory now established in Victoria). A fellow who once worked in counter-terrorism has developed technology to monitor bees. The bee population has declined by 40% in the last 10 years or so, which is a problem for society as bees are responsible for fertilization of 70% of the food we eat.

The robotic glove was quite amazing as it senses the work that each muscle in the hand is doing and then works to counteract the stress to avoid RSI injuries. I can see it being beneficial for shearers, fruit pickers and the like.

The final presentation was given by the head of Rabobank and it was very illuminating. Many governments, including the Australian Government have signed up to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as we all know. What we haven’t been told is that agriculture is being asked to bear the burden of the emissions reductions on a par with the increase in wind and solar generation.

Governments have unilaterally said soil sequestration and reduced land clearing will contribute significantly to the cuts. This is at the same time that the world is heading towards 10 billion people.

How we are going to feed the world’s population and at the same time have less productive land available to do it with will be a real challenge. The reality is that there is no guarantee that it can be done.

The message I took away was that farmers are critical to society’s existence for food, clothing and timber for housing, yet we sit meekly by when governments dictate to us how we can and can’t operate. If anything is going to save us it will be innovation, which is happening faster than ever.

As was stated, “Without farmers, we would be naked, hungry and sober”.

Tony Flanery