Lachlan Hughes Foundation Regenerative Agriculture Day of Learning
In May, we were honoured to attend the Lachlan Hughes Foundation Regenerative Agriculture Day of Learning at Dulacca, on Barunggam Country. The Hughes family are incredible ambassadors for the regenerative agriculture movement. Through the Lachlan Hughes Foundation, they are fostering the sharing of knowledge creating a network of likeminded landscape managers who want to increase the productivity of their landscapes as well as the ecological diversity, by implementing sustainable agricultural practices.
The Regenerative Agriculture Day of Learning was an inspirational event with landholders and community members sharing the same vision – applying regenerative agricultural practices on their property. There were three guest speakers on the day – Charles Massy (farmer and Author of Call of the Reed Warbler), Gwyn Jones (Integrated Agri-Culture) and Phil Tickle (Cibolabs). The works of Charles Massy and organisations like the Lachlan Hughes Foundation, Cibolabs and Integrated Agri-Culture assist producers to plan for the future in a way that strengthens their businesses financially, environmentally, socially, and culturally. At the event, we also heard from last year’s Lachlan Hughes Foundation scholar, Beau North and the 2022 Scholar recipients were also introduced – Joel and Emma Muirhead of Mundubbera.
Environmental Social Governance (ESG) is a key driver of change. Consumers and industry groups have become increasingly aware of the need to apply ESG to their decision making. This means Agricultural production that is sustainable, profitable and adds biodiversity value to the landscape has become a consumer driven change across the agricultural sector and it is influencing every step of the supply chain from paddock to plate. People increasingly want to know not only where their products have come from but if they have been produced in a way that benefits the health of the landscape. The integration of primary production and holistic landscape management creates benefits by increasing and retaining the biodiversity of soil, a key foundation on which all other production is based.
QTFN is a proud sponsor of the Lachlan Hughes Foundation and provides ecological assistance to the scholars each year. Beyond this, the Foundation’s vision of “improving landscapes and communities by fostering regenerative agricultural thinking and practices” deeply aligns with our values as we aim to tackle environmental challenges to ensure food productivity, rural livelihoods and natural systems are maintained into the future. Increasing biodiversity is at the core of QTFN’s business and, as producers on our Aroona Station, the link between healthy landscapes and ethically produced beef is a shared thread. We’d like to congratulate the Lachlan Hughes Foundation Scholars who have been rewarded for their demonstrated commitment to making the production landscapes they manage more sustainable.
“The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible.”
Sir Albert Howard, English botanist, and organic farming pioneer.
(1873 – 1947)
Learn more about the Lachlan Hughes Foundation: https://www.lachlanhughesfoundation.org.au