Custodians Beyond Commodities: And the Courage to Imagine More

A room full of farmers, food system and other folk. Elders through to young voices. Wadandi Boodja underfoot. A simple, radical idea on the table: put life at the centre of every act and decision, and watch how agriculture transforms from a driver of degradation into a catalyst for healing land, health, and community. That’s the energy we carry back to Margaret River as we share a short presentation I gave to introduce the Regenerative Agriculture conference in Margaret River WA, back in September 2023. 

A little dig into the archives this week revealed some hidden gems from that event. I had put out a couple of episodes at the time, featuring all-star panels that were charged with debriefing on each of the two days of that conference. But equally, I’d stored away these other smaller gems, and having come to mind again at the Regenerative Food Systems conference in Perth last year, it still feels like they’re worth dusting off. 

So let’s head back to Margs, and start at the start - at once an introduction to a conference and, framed by an old favourite film, an appraisal of what I’d been seeing inspire people like nothing else.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 6 September 2023.

Title image by Daniela Tommasi.

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Music:

Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Transcript

Welcoming The Room And Why It Matters

AJ 0:00

Who's game to say if they're over 60 years of age in this audience? Yeah, loud and proud, that's the way. We'll call you our esteemed elders. Who's between 40 and 60, say? Probably the lion's share, I'd say, like me. We'll call ourselves the uh the grunt, the engine room, shall we? The 20 to 40 years of age. Fair whack too. Brilliant. Archetypal warrior spirits, perhaps. Under 20? Terrific. Got a couple of representations. In many ways, this is for you, I reckon. If not for those who are under 10. Who'd be under 10? Oh, there we go. It's a stitch up, that's my young boy, anyway. G'day, AJ here for The RegenNarration. Today, a brief presentation I gave to introduce the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River WA back in September 2023. Yeah, a little dig into the archives this week revealed some hidden gems from that event. I had put out a couple of episodes at the time featuring all-star panels that were charged with debriefing on each of the two days of that conference. But equally, I'd stored away these other smaller gems, and having come to mind again at the Regenerative Food Systems Conference in Perth last year, it still feels like they're worth dusting off. So let's head back to Margs and start at the start. At once an intro to a conference, and with reference to an old favourite film, an appraisal of what I'd been seeing inspire people like nothing else. Right now, I'd like to ground ourselves by acknowledging Wadundi Bibbilman country and culture here, with amazingly some of the oldest evidence of human occupation in Australia nearby at about 50,000 years. I feel like we need to take a moment to truly contemplate that. Legacy of this country's first regenerative custodians, food producers, and storytellers. Alright, welcome to you all to the Margaret River Heart. Nala Bardip Mia, our story house. And how appropriate that we should be in such a place for this, given that we're essentially recreating our collective story together, stewarding the possibilities of regen ag to next levels. As the blurb has it, here at this world-class conference we'll be engaging in the most promising ways to regenerate soils, rehydrate landscapes, restore biodiversity and draw down carbon. And help build resilience, empowerment, and prosperity on farms and ultimately living communities everywhere. It is great to see so many of you here from around Western Australia, certainly, although clearly the bottom half. Note that we've just actually been in the Kimberley, we've come from the Kimberley to here. So aside from freezing our butts off, we can tell you that there are many amazing things happening up there and through the Pilbara. Amazing things and also great need. Welcome, also, of course, to the rest of you from other parts of the country. It's great to have you here. To bring this together in Margs is really quite something well done to all involved. It's certainly great for me to be back in my home state, having travelled the country for the last five years with the podcast, but also hosting events like this. And Margaret River happens to be where my wife and I were married ten years ago. There she is over there. That's Olivia. So it's pretty special to us personally, all around as well. The broader backstory of how I came to be with you is that I've been in international and community development for decades, applying a systems thinking and holistic thinking lens. So you can imagine when Charlie Massey's book came out, there was a marriage made in heaven. I found my way into Ag and then we went around the country and started to meet people like you, essentially city dwellers, wanted to get to know our country properly and through this lens, people who are regenerating it. What we found bears repeating. We learned about what Charles has called the two-way solution. You take away the fact that global food production is currently the single largest driver of environmental degradation and planetary boundary transgressions, and you build up the fact that agriculture is, or at least can be, the greatest force of convergence in human and planetary health. And key to that, convergence between what we've called region ag over a few decades now and what we might call traditional ag over obviously millennia in this country. This is especially so when you consider that more than half of the landmass on this continent is in agriculture. And so much of the country is under native title. A bit more of it just this week as it happens in South Australia. The largest native title estate in the country, I believe, is in Western Australia, and the largest settlement here in the Southwest. So anyway, after going around Australia those five years ago, we returned to Perth in 2019, and a bloke called Justin Wolfgang, co-founder of Regen WA, one of the crews responsible for bringing us together here, reached out to see if I'd host its first major conference at Perth Stadium. Who was at that conference? Almost to the day four years ago. Maybe a third of us, maybe a third. That's good continuity but good expansion. Where's the Regen WA team? Are they in the room? A few are. There's a few more out there, no doubt. Is Keith Pekin in the room? Co-founder and current CEO. Well, as for many of you, learning this stuff set in tow a new life path for me and my family. We've continued on since getting around Australia with the podcast, my wife's health services too, and hosting events like this, as I said. It's our great privilege, frankly, to be involved in this with you. And the fact that we're all here today stems back to that 2019 Regen WA conference, where afterwards a bloke called Saul Cresswell got in touch from the Shire here because he wanted to talk about hosting the next Region Ag Conference in WA, in the regions here in Margues. We all know what happened in the world next, but Saul held the flame. A steering group was gathered, and thanks to them, here we are. It was actually interesting speaking to Saul before this conference about that COVID delay, if you will. He had a feeling that for all the work to be done, Covid exposed a naked emperor in many ways. Not an individual as such, but the systems and stories, or the cultures even, we'd largely taken as given. That actually made me think of the film The Truman Show, made by legendary Aussie Peter Weir. I wonder, did anyone never see that? It goes back 25 years, hands up on it. I really want to, I really want to, hey, look at that. It probably speaks to the older half of the audience, maybe. 25th anniversary, I just checked back in myself. For those who don't know, it's the story of a bloke whose entire life was set up as a reality TV show. Now, spoiler alert, he starts to cotton on to this later in life. At the end, he sets sail to free himself from that world he was expected to act out in for the benefit of others. And while he's out on apparently open ocean, he bumps up against what appeared to be sky, but was actually film set. He felt around for the door in the sky and stepped through to wherever it was he felt to be. Without being exactly sure where that was, by the way. I agree with Saul that many more people are wondering more and more about these systems and cultures we've been brought up in. Change at those levels does remain challenging. There's the devil you know and other constraints we'll likely talk about. But there's nonetheless an increasing sense of possibility. And the greatest possibilities I've seen turn up again and again, where, as Paul Hawkins says, life is put at the centre of every act and decision. That's his simple definition of regeneration and what this conference is all about. For as we emerge from a context of otherwise troublesome trajectories, Australia's farming sector often finds itself in self-defence mode in response. From live export bans to rising input costs, commodity pricing, to greenhouse gas emissions in a more volatile climate, to soil degradation and biodiversity loss, to Aboriginal heritage matters, etc. And really, the rest of society isn't too different in other contexts we all share. Whether it be so-called lifestyle diseases, worsening chronic illness, mental health, cost of living, other increasingly painful symptoms of degeneration, like the acute edges of biblical scale floods and fires and escalating food and water insecurity. In my intro four years ago in Perth, I said something like it's no longer exaggerating to say a civilization is on the line. If anything, it feels truer now. The big ship may not appear to be shifting course much yet, but a growing number of sailors on deck are. All us little Trumans are finding doorways through that illusory sky. Nothing, in my experience, is exciting people more than regen ag than what you do or are aspiring to do. And that's me included. So here we are, with this enormous opportunity and need to connect and a voice to restore. Wow. Is this acclimatization in in action? It's been 35 degrees where we are. Anyway, here we are, with this great opportunity to get insight into ways we can farm and steward that get on the front foot to shore up agriculture's social license and your particular efforts and enterprises to have a positive impact on country, the people who live in it, including the people who have lived in it for millennia. You are the people of the land. We all are, of course. But you've not forgotten or you've remembered, and you're our direct way back. Farmers, custodians, original custodians. Custodians beyond commodities. We've all got so much common ground here, and so much aspiration we share for life to regenerate. You could just about all be up here on stage. Some of you will be. The rest will speak with each other. Where is where most of the action happens anyway, where the trust is built? We hope this curated mix up here feeds that as we look to open eyes, warm hearts, and honed tools in this very special convergence. Let's see what new story we can weave through it all. Our own story. Where, like so many regenerative stories I've seen, in the end, things have often ended up beyond what could have been planned, or even, like Truman and his false sky, beyond what could even have been imagined. That was yours truly, introducing the Margaret River Regenerative Agriculture Conference in September of 2023. With thanks to you, generous supporting listeners as always, including new paid subscriber this week, the brilliant Cindy Eiritz. Thanks so much, Cindy. If you too value what you hear, please consider supporting in any way you can to help keep the show in the flow. There's a discount to the upcoming Grounded Festival available right now for subscribers too. I'll look forward to seeing you there. The music you're hearing is Regeneration by Amelia Barden. My name's Anthony James. Thanks for listening.