1 Oct 2024. Michael Guerin, AgForce CEO.
In the week of our AgForce state industry conference, it's an apt time to pause and reflect on our recent successes.
It was only two weeks ago that AgCarE was invited to the World Trade Organisation Public Forum in Geneva. An incredible opportunity for worldwide recognition of our organisation's expertise that we couldn't let pass.
So off I went to a four day WTO event involving thousands of participants from around the globe, to tell them about the benefits of our world first program AgCarE - the nation-wide assessment and certification process that values the natural capital of agricultural properties.
But crucially, it was also about telling them how AgCarE gives farmers an important voice in climate negotiations that is currently missing. How that taps into our expert knowledge of the natural capital the surrounds us, and shows what we can bring to the climate negotiations table to make the process more accurate and equitable.
it was a fortuitous moment to present AgCarE's case for why producers are uniquely positioned to strengthen food security at the same time as strengthening environmental outcomes.
As the globe faces significant environmental challenges, there remains a largely untapped opportunity - that is - having food and fibre producers more central to the natural capital conversation.
Strengthening the food security on which our societies rely can and should be intertwined with strengthening environmental outcomes. As I shared at the meeting, the secret lies in baselining, leveraging, and investing in natural capital at property and landscape level.
Industry knows this - but we need to get better at communicating why to the wider community - so they can understand as well. It would shift the dial immeasurably in so many areas of our advocacy work.
This conversation will be come full circle to be front and centre again this week at the AgForce industry conference at the RNA Showgrounds.
We have gathered many politicians from different political persuasions, as well as media representatives, and a range of industry leaders for two days to lift, amplify and broadcast the opportunities our agricultural industry provides to the broader Australian community.
Deliberately timed just weeks before polling day for our state election, conference is designed to provide maximum leverage for all the party's election platforms and set the groundwork for a strong round of early engagement with the politicians who we elect on October 26 2024.
It is vital we engage with the new Ministers as soon as they are announced, to offer our help in informing them of the opportunities they have and to reflect back on the conference as a powerful starting point to those conversations.
