Humans of Agriculture

Josie Clarke is blazing a trail, just this year she has been in Mexico for her PhD, on the stage as the winner of the NSW/ACT Rural Woman's Award, a finalist for the National Rural Woman's Award and most recently named a 2023 EvokeAg Future Young Leader.Josie founded an organisation called Ability Agriculture, they help give a voice to people with a disability working in agriculture and to shift the perceptions of their capacity within the sector.EvokeAg Tickets & Info: If you're keen to head to EvokeAg in Adelaide from the 21-22 February, get your ticket or apply to be an exhibitor today at www.evokeag.comLAWD Sponsorship: We're excited to share that LAWD have come on board to support Humans of Agriculture for a further 12 months, if you want to read about it - check it out here. Content, Marketing and Community Specialist:The CMC Specialist role is open till Friday the 7th of October. Apply now by following this link HERE

"If you look after the little things, the big things will take care of themselves"Campbell Chesworth is a new generation of dairy farmer. A millennial with a master’s degree in urban planning, he’s driven to make a tangible, positive impact on the world. As business development manager of The Little Big Dairy Co., Campbell oversees the company’s sustainability program and its mission to become Australia’s first circular dairy by 2025. Campbell's story will be so relatable for many of our listeners. Finishing school he was unsure of the career path he was looking to take and so undertook study at Sydney University. It led to him gaining valuable life experience including heading to Malawi, a landlocked country in Africa to work with subsistence farmers. Back in the family business today, Campbell has big dreams and a driving passion for the business to continue to improve and do better by the cows, by the community and managing the environment.Check out Little Big Dairy.We also have a job advertisement - Content, Marketing and Community Specialist.

Penny Schulz is a red meat and wool producer from South Australia, well that’s the first of many hats she wears, she also runs her own consulting business, is a university lecturer, an industry advocate and has a number of advisory roles as well. In today’s chat Penny and I chat about her journey and specifically around one of her areas of expertise, the AgTech scene - it’s challenges, opportunities and in answer to one of my favourite questions, Penny believes that when younger people can see the technology and science that goes into agriculture, that will completely change people’s opinions.This episode is part of our collaboration with EvokeAg which is going ahead in Adelaide on February 21-22, 2023. You can get your tickets now HERE. This episode was recorded on Gadigal Country and Ngarriindjeri Country and we pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

G'day and Welcome back to the Humans of Agriculture podcastYou're in for a treat this week, Oli is sitting down with the World's Okayest Pilot & Flying Outback Vet Doctor Campbell Costello.Cozy is an absolute character, for the past 17 years he has been a practicing vet. His work has taken him across Australia and the World, these day's he services remote and rural communities and businesses mainly across Northern Australia.We chat about:The most incredible job in the worldThe Mongol Derby & seeing the world through his vet workThe stark reality of mental health and suicide in the vet professionLearning through school of the airManaging grief and loss following the passing of his fatherThe love of aviation inherited from his father and grandfatherAnd his question for a future guest: "You have the chance to speak to yourself at your high school graduation, would you tell yourself to do anything differently or would you stick to what you’ve done?" This episode was recorded on the lands of the Mithaka people in south western Queensland. The country was absolutely incredible and if you head to our social media, you can check out the incredible landscape, waterways and area that has been cared for thousands of years.

Welcome back to another episode of the Humans of Agriculture podcast. This week we're heading back a couple of weeks and bringing you to the Riverine Plains Innovation Expo on Yorta Yorta country.My Next Guest Is... Ben Barlow. Ben has always been around agriculture, his earliest memories come from being around agriculture and he remembers fondly the importance of hard work from his early years. Upon finishing his university degree, Ben was encouraged to get away from the farm and so he pursued an opportunity to become a bank teller in Mildura, an area that he would go to excel at and have various executive roles both in Australia and in the United States. There was never any doubt that Ben would stay involved in agriculture, he says "It doesn't leave you". His interests have seen him take a small holding of just a couple of thousand acres up to tens of thousands of acres across Western NSW. Ben mentions several mainstream global issues such as carbon, soil fertility, lack of water, lack of arable land and a growing world population as key areas where agriculture intersects with them and can be a solution. On a trip to Israel several years ago, while looking at water technology, Ben came across biologicals and he decided to extend his trip to learn a little more.After arriving back in Australia, he found three companies in the space. Fast forward to today and he has the majority interest and is the Managing Director of New Edge Microbials. So if you want to know more, check out the full episode and if you'd prefer to watch this episode then head to our YouTube Channel.

G'day and welcome back to the Humans of Agriculture podcast. This week, I'm on Yuggerra and Turrbal country and I'd like to pay my respects to their elders past, present and future generations. To paint the picture of where we are, we're up at the Ekka in Brisbane, after a couple of years away from the main ring, it is all back and happening! We're standing at the back of the grandstand overlooking the cattle ring. My next guest is Tim McKinnon, Tim is a Senior Director with LAWD and is a leader valuer for Australian rural properties. Like many of our guests, Tim's involvement in agriculture started at a young age on his family's dairy farm in SW Vic. Tim and I chat about his early career aspirations - the dream to become a stock and station agent, heading to the big city lights of Melbourne to study a property course and how that opportunity opened the door for him.As one of the founders of LAWD, we chat about the priorities of the business in the early days and how they began to build their team and culture, the importance of backing yourself, the learnings from a new board and setting the standards for what the business could be, not what it was. I enjoyed chatting about the Australian Rural Leadership program with Tim and how this has helped shape his perspectives, a bigger question around belonging and working in agriculture from a capital city and finally his advice to year 10 students. Tim McKinnon started life on a dairy farm in South Western Victoria. Like many farm kids, Tim lived for the time on the farm whether that was before or after school or during school holidays. Today, Tim is a Senior Director with LAWD. In this chat, while we're standing overlooking the cattle ring, Tim and I chat about that journey from farm kid, the role of mentors, what his experience was like with the Australian Rural Leadership Program, and the opportunity to be in the early stages of creating a business alongside some of the leaders in the agriculture industry. If this is your first time listening to our podcast, we're on a mission to find out more about our food system from the people involved with it and each week we sit down with people from all walks of life and chat about their life and their journey.

I’m really excited to bring my next guest to you, he’s someone who I was really keen to pick his brain. Troy Setter is a well-renowned industry leader, his involvement and passion for the beef industry dates back to his childhood and the cattle showring. When it comes to what it takes to be a CEO, I reckon Troy started that journey way back in his early days. Troy was fortunate to pick up a cadetship with the Twynam Group, which meant he worked alongside studying at the University of New England. From these early years it was evident that he was someone with a lot of grit and determination and would make sure he was having a bit of fun while balancing what was important to him. I’ve chatted with guests before who have talked about momentum and how once you create momentum opportunities seem to come up. Troy is definitely one of those people, he says yes to opportunities and a quote I read the morning of our interview from Waverley Stanley seemed to ring pretty true. ‘If I want to do something, I’ll find a way, if I don’t want to do it, I’ll find an excuse”Troy talked about the difference between who his customer is and who his consumer is. This philosophy is something I’ve reflected on quite a bit and it’s a ·        We talk about the difference between customers and consumers·        About having difficult conversations about what goes on in the industry,·        Of lessons in leadership and setting the boundaries for team cohesion and success. I hope you enjoy this chat with an industry leader as we get a bit of an insight into Troy Setter and his journey to being CEO of Consolidated Pastoral Company.

We are in Brisbane on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people. We took the chance to sit down with Gary Leeson. Gary is the Innovation and Business Development Manager for Organic Crop Protectants. A company that he joined in 1993 and for 25 years build to be a leader in the organic farm inputs space before selling to Yates Australia.Gary grew up around agriculture and has been involved in farming his whole life, he's passionate about getting the right tools in the hands of customers to help them profitably convert their farming operations to certified organic production while ensuring we meet the challenges we face on a global scale. Now I'll be honest, some of the more technical aspects I had to really concentrate on and it was only after listening back that I started to wrap my head around it. Gary helps us understand some of the fundamentals of organic farming, some of the challenges as well as how his business has looked globally to find the best research and development to help them progress.In this episode we talk about: biological crop inputsregenerative agriculturethe drivers and desire to leave the planet better for the next generationVarious roles and finding his feet in the organic spaceLeveraging global science to support their business

Mary O'Brien is passionate about Men's Mental Health. Her simple analogies resonate so clearly with blokes and women right across rural and regional Australia, helping them to understand the challenges around Mental Health and letting them know that there is help out there.We were in town for the Riverine Plains Innovation Expo and off the back of her session, we thought we'd grab Mary O'Brien from Are You Bogged Mate to have a bit of a yarn about what her work is.Mary travels the country running workshops, her approach is simple - start the conversation and use references that people can relate to. When it comes to suicide the stats are quite alarming. 76% of suicides are men. Of all deaths of people aged 20-24, 40% are from suicide.For every 1 death, there are 30 suicide attempts. So why are people getting bogged, what are the simple steps for people to look after themselves and also those around us?If this conversation does prompt any concerns for you or someone you know there is help out there. Our friends over at the TIACS helpline are available on 0488 846 988. or you can reach lifeline on 13 11 14.

This week, I thought I would take the chance to sit with someone who has been on the list on my whiteboard nearly since Day 1. Angeline Achariya is a remarkable woman, over the past 20 years she has had a variety of roles in global food innovation, she’s an expert in turning ideas into products and being able to commercialise them. When I met Angeline back in 2019, she was leading the Monash Food Innovation Centre, it was incredible. I was shown how they come up with new concepts from the intricacies of a new chocolate bar to 3D printed food, to how and where to stock products on supermarket shelves within the 'virtual supermarket'. Today I’m keen to find out more about her story, how did she end up in the food innovation space, what’s making her passionate about doing food better, what’s it like to launch more than 1,000 products into the market, and the importance of connecting agriculture and food, how does she balance her values alongside needing to meet business objectives and what are some of the emerging trends and surprises throughout her career.This episode is part of our collaboration with EvokeAg, We are really excited about the evokeAG. 2023 event that will be held on 21-22 February 2023 in Adelaide, South Australia. If you're interested in attending the two-day, full-scale, global event or partnering, visit evokeAG.com for more details.