Speakers

Feeding human health on a warming planet.

Across the world, experts are trying to identify the best diet to feed a growing population and a warming planet. Unfortunately, livestock is being unfairly vilified as unhealthy, unsustainable, and unnecessary. But is this anti-meat narrative evidence-based?

Diana makes the case that animal-sourced foods are critical for human health and that well-managed grazing animals can improve ecosystem function. As the plant-based push only becomes more intense, Diana’s grounded, logical, science-based message that meat must have a place at the table is a refreshing view on this polarizing topic.

​Biography

Diana Rodgers, RD, is a “real food” nutritionist and sustainability advocate near Boston, Massachusetts. She runs a clinical nutrition practice, hosts the Sustainable Dish Podcast, and has served as an advisory board of numerous nutrition and agriculture organizations including Whole30, Animal Welfare Approved and Savory Institute.

She speaks internationally about the intersection of optimal human nutrition, regenerative agriculture, and food justice. More recently, her work has focused on shifting the anti-meat narrative.

Diana is co-author of, Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat and the director, producer of the companion film, Sacred Cow. Her new initiative, the Global Food Justice Alliance, advocates for the inclusion of animal-sourced foods in dietary policies for a more nutritious, sustainable and equitable worldwide food system. She can be found at sustainabledish.com and globalfoodjustice.org. She is Executive Director of the Global Food Justice Alliance, a dietitian, author, and filmmaker.

System convergence – Regenerating our food systems – a global perspective on natural prosperity and frugal abundance

Jaqueline will look at how we can regenerate our food systems by implementing the principles of Natural Prosperity and frugal abundance with local food production. This approach, already followed by many indigenous peoples as well as rural communities in medium and low income countries, has the potential to radically reshape supply chains across the world. Using global examples she will explore how placing nature’s value at the centre of production creates greater equality as well as resilience in the face of climate change.

Biography

Jacqueline McGlade is Chief Scientific Officer of Downforce Technologies and Professor at Strathmore University, Kenya, and the Institute for Global Prosperity and Engineering at University College London, UK.  She has extensive experience of implementing cutting edge science and innovation within different sectors and regulatory settings; in particular the development of robust data analytics to address net zero emissions and nature-based solutions for tackling climate change and improving food and nutrition.

Previous posts include Chief Scientist and Statistician of the UN Environment Programme, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, Director UK National Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences, Director Theoretical Ecology, German national research centre, and Professor in Biological Sciences, Warwick, Mathematics and Earth Sciences University College London.

Jacquie has held a number of key advisory roles and elected roles including the EU Expert Group on International Food Systems Science. She has published more than 200 research publications on ecosystem dynamics, sustainable development, environmental monitoring and informatics, early warning systems and citizen science, and applications for web intelligence and decision-making under high uncertainty.

She has produced award winning films Planet RE:Think and advised on documentary series The Blue Revolution (PBS, ABC) Our Great National Parks (Netflix), radio series Learning from Nature (BBC) and a wide range of public lectures including TEDx talk on Building Resilience to Climate Change , The Life Scientific and public lectures online.

The impact of agriculture on human health – the linkages, implications, insights and opportunities.

We now stand at the tipping point of life on earth. The biologic markers for planetary vitality, including quality measures in water, soil, air, biodiversity of flora and fauna, and ultimately human health are all demonstrating extreme biologic dysfunction and collapse. In just a few brief decades, we have witnessed the collapse of planetary ecosystems that have evolved over 4 billion years to support the extreme beauty that we can still glimpse amidst the scars of our consumptive and destructive behaviours. The sea turtles, dolphins, rays, and the ancient wisdom of the whales still surface in their glory to exhibit the raw beauty that is made possible for the dynamic genomic fabric of the nature of the universe.

In the coming decades we will march into our well-deserved extinction, dragging with us millions of other species into the energetic reservoir within the ethers of space… or we will change everything.

If we want to stay, then we must become the change that has to happen in the world.

Biography

Regarded as one the most compelling minds on earth, the engaging and dynamic Dr Zach Bush is among the very few medical professionals to fully understand the linkages between soil, human and planetary health.

Breakthrough science delivered by Dr. Bush and his colleagues has provided mind-blowing insights into the role big farming, big pharma and Western medicine has played in the decline of human health and the rise in modern disease epidemics.

As a co-founder of ‘Farmer’s Footprint’, a not-for-profit organisation supporting farmers to rebuild soil and preserve food independence, Dr Bush works tirelessly to promote farmers regenerating their landscapes to produce healthy, nutrient-dense food for a healthy planet.

Regenerating long co-evolved agricultural, human, animal and planetary systems towards health

Farmers, at different scales, manage long co-evolved land – and water-scapes, where soil-biology and other biodiversity, plus geophysical properties, grazing animals and humans interact – but for better or worse. Regenerative agriculture enables a positive convergence that triggers self-organisation towards startling human, animal and planetary health.

Biography

Charles Massy gained a BSc (Zoology, Human Ecology) at ANU (1976), before going farming and developing a prominent Merino sheep stud business. His concern about land degradation and humanity’s sustainability challenge led to him completing a PhD in Human Ecology (ANU) in 2012.

A widely published author, Massy has written five books, including ‘Breaking the Sheep’s back’ (2011) and recently a children’s book on the critically endangered Monaro Earless Dragon, ‘The Last Dragon’ (2021).

In his work titled ‘Call of the Reed Warbler – A New Agriculture, A New Earth’ (2017), which is widely regarded as pivotal in the emergence of a regenerative agriculture, Massy paints pictures of farmers and practitioners who are adapting to a new era, changing practices with positive implications for both addressing humanity’s emerging Anthropocene crisis and also for human and physical health.

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The New Economics – ideas for a grown up economy.

Katherine will explore one of the biggest questions of the 21^st century: does “development” have a destination? Do societies need to reset their satnav once they have arrived at a place where there’s enough to go around, and focus instead on goals more aligned with what people and the planet truly need? What are the risks if this shift isn’t made? And what would making this shift mean in practice and where are some of the proof-points that show how it can be done?

Biography

Katherine is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance – a collaboration working towards a wellbeing economy, delivering human and ecological wellbeing. She instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo), which is founded on the recognition that ‘development’ in the 21st century entails delivering human and ecological wellbeing.

Katherine sits on a range of boards and advisory groups including The Democracy Collaborative, a non-profit, American think tank and research centre. She’s also involved in the C40 Centre for Urban Climate Policy and Economy, and developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index.

Katherine’s most recent book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown Up Economy (co-authored with Jeremy Williams) brings a refreshingly different perspective, and explores the possibility of ‘Arrival’, urging us to move from enlarging the economy to improving it, with the interests of bringing benefits for all. Following the book Katherine released a major report in 2021, Being Bold: Budgeting for Children’s Wellbeing. 

Katherine has Bachelor Degrees in Economics and in Politics, and a PhD in Political Science.  

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Natural intelligence farming – a producer story.

A personal story of change, challenge and unfolding deep appreciation for natural processes and awareness of our place as humans. How following the wisdom of animals could transform a landscape and agricultural business and the people involved.

Biography

Di Haggerty farms with her husband Ian and eldest son James, over 24,000 ha in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia. Produce from the farm includes wheat, barley, oats, triticale, wool, grass fed sheep meat and breeding ewes/rams.

Ian and Di have a life mission to help facilitate positive global change by rebuilding soils in semi-arid regions, producing and marketing premium food, fibre and beverage which supports the nutritional and microbiological needs of humanity and planetary health.

Di, Ian and James have developed a farming practice that relies on NATURAL INTELLIGENCE for plant and animal production, and landscape restoration.

Hear from Di about how they use natural fertility processes such as earthworm digestion, compost and co-evolved ruminant interaction to build a healthy, resilient agricultural community, resulting in lowered or negated need for pesticides, fungicides and livestock parasiticides, decreased fossil fuel use and no use of synthetic fertilizers.

We are the Earth and the Earth is us – how palates link foodscapes, landscapes, heartscapes and thoughtscapes.

We can mitigate our impacts in the Anthropocene through diet to improve human and environmental health, but that will require profound changes. We will have to learn we are members of nature’s communities. What we do to them, we do to ourselves. Only by nurturing them can we nurture ourselves.

Biography

Fred Provenza is professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. At Utah State Provenza directed an award-winning research group that pioneered an understanding of how learning influences foraging behavior and how behavior links soils and plants with herbivores and humans.

Provenza is one of the founders of BEHAVE, an international network of scientists and land managers committed to integrating behavioral principles with local knowledge to enhance environmental, economic, and cultural values of rural and urban communities. He is also the author of Nourishment; and  Foraging Behavior; and the co-author of The Art & Science of Shepherding. He has published over 300 research papers.

Convergence in regenerative education

The importance of a continuous learning journey for Regenerative Farmers. How does seeking out transformative experiences and adopting continuous learning opportunities expand our capacity to deal with complex challenges as they arise? How does being ecologically literate provide us with the capacity to co-evolve and become one with our landscapes.

Biography

Lorraine is the founder of the National Regenerative Agriculture Alliance based out of Southern Cross University. As Director of Strategic Projects at Southern Cross University and Associate Director of the University’s Centre for Organic Research, Lorraine acts as a conduit between industry and research, delivering sustainable and regenerative agriculture solutions nationally. 

She has assisted over 28,500 farmers, fishers and foresters around the country to progress collaborative projects and establish Cooperatives which will benefit their various industries as Director of the Commonwealth Government’s Farming Together Program.

Lorraine is a carbon farmer and holistic beef cattle trader at Ebor in NSW. Previous positions have included CEO of Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast, and Director of the Graduate Network of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. A previous NSW ABC Rural Woman of the Year Lorraine is currently completing her PhD in Ecological Economics through UNE, looking at a triple bottom line comparisons between regenerative and conventional grazing systems, with a focus on mitigating the effects of climate change. She was the instigator and co-designer of the Bachelor of Science in Regenerative Agriculture – the only degree of its kind in the world and now the largest agricultural degree in the country.

First Nations wisdom in practice at the Food Connect Shed.

Rob and Gaala, in a yarning style conversation with Anthony James, will unpack introducing First Nations terms of reference and the transformative effect that is having on the vision of the business.

They will explore the appropriate use of First Nations Wisdom and knowledge, how to acknowledge the violence that agriculture has played and finally how the early tensions in the relationship were overcome and what subtle changes became profound influences in the culture of the business.  

Gaala Watson biography

Gaala Watson is the Director of the Food Connect Foundation

Gaala is a Kungalu and Birri-Gubba Woman born and raised in Brisbane. Currently in the early stages of her PhD Gaala has an MBA from Griffith Business School, and runs her own arts business, Bimbi Love. She is currently a steering member for the Social Enterprise World Forum in Brisbane later in 2022. Gaala is an alumni of the Yunus Centre for Social Business at Griffith University.

Gaala is very passionate about increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation and opportunity within the fair food movement and more broadly across the social enterprise sector in Queensland.

Robert Perkin biography

Robert Pekin is the CEO/ Co-Founder of Food Connect Shed

Robert is a former organic dairy farmer and market gardener and for the last 20 odd years has been innovating solutions for the regional food economy in Australia.

In 2004, he founded Food Connect, a dynamic multi-farmer food distribution enterprise with an innovative community-based distribution system.

In 2018 along with his partner Emma-Kate they raised more than $2 million in equity from 530 of their customers and supporters to purchase and retrofit an industrial property in inner Brisbane into Australia’s first multi-function Food Hub which now boasts over 30 enterprises.

Recently he’s joined the Advisory Board of the Sustainable Table Fund, a catalytic investment vehicle for food system change.

Robert co-founded the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, and was a founding director of the international software organisation the Open Food Network. He’s a contributing author to Fair Food, published by University of Queensland Press.

He loves his blended family of four children, and his favourite foods are beer, butter and good bread.

How large and small hydrology impacts global cycles and connects to agricultural futures.

As dangerous hydrological climate extremes intensify globally, the viability of farming systems depends on their capacity to avoid, buffer and survive these extremes.

Our regeneration of the Earth’s soil carbon sponge is critical. We need to restore small and large water cycles, safe natural cooling and the resilience and viability of farming. We can and must do this practically, at scale and in time.

Biography

Walter Jehne is an internationally recognised soil microbiologist innovation strategist and a founding Director of Regenerate Earth. His experience spans; soils, mycology, food and water security and hydrological climate cooling. Walter excels at influencing global leaders, linking locally tailored ecological scientific concepts into global strategies and back to regional tactics, effectively shifting paradigms. 

Walter has an exceptional capacity to devise solutions and link them to local leaders on the ground – turning challenges into solutions – he has a remarkable talent for charting complex science and economic paths forward in accessible ways.

Through decades of professional experience, Walter has become an expert in ecology, mycorrhizal fungi, glomalin, and soil carbon management. He also has deep knowledge of biology’s critical influence on hydrological cycles, weather patterns, regional and global cooling, cloud formation and complex precipitation.

Anthony is a fifth generation Australian living on ancient lands among the oldest continuous cultures on earth. He is creator and host of The RegenNarration podcast, an award-winning facilitator and educator, widely published writer, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, and Warm Data Lab Host Certified by the International Bateson Institute.

Anthony features in a range of media nationally and internationally, is a regular speaker, and hosts conversations on regenerating the systems and stories humanity lives by, at both live events and on The RegenNarration podcast. 

His writing has appeared in publications locally and overseas, including The Conversation, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today, ABC Online, World Economic Forum, Eco-Business, EconoTimes, Business Standard, Resilience, The Epoch Times, Energy Post, and The Footy Almanac.

Visit the RegenNarration website here.

What agriculture requires for a ‘social licence to operate’

Agriculture’s social licence to farm is coming under threat. We have seen live export bans, raids on dairies, poultry facilities, meatworks while also witnessing the rise of fake meat, fake milk and fake food of all kinds, gearing the opinions of minority groups who are opposed to natural processes. This presentation will address the paradigm shifts required in agriculture and discuss the positive shifts occurring at the edge with regen ag. It will also highlight the two big drivers which will rapidly change attitudes within agriculture.

Biography

As a nationally renowned innovator, speaker and educator in regenerative agriculture, Terry McCosker needs little introduction. He has had an inordinate impact on agricultural practices both in Australia and around the world over many years.

Terry co-founded RCS over 30 years ago, setting the benchmark for capacity building in rural and regional Australia. His pioneering approach continues to create a more profitable future for food and fibre producers across the country.

The Consciousness of Money: Moving Between 3D and 5D to Influence the Material World

Exploring money as a dynamic form of energy that interacts with human consciousness. How can we create a regenerative relationship with money, using subtle sources of information to inform our 3D reality, make wiser decisions, expand human consciousness and shape a world that works for 100% of humanity?

Biography

Sarah believes in a society that is fundamentally based in love, generosity and a deep understanding of the essence of being human. Her purpose is to contribute to creating a world that works for 100% of humanity.

She is an author, educator and business innovator. She is the Founder of Liberate Humanity, which is a place for learning and sharing the skills for liberation of the human spirit.

Sarah has spent more than 20 years teaching and coaching business owners and their families. She’s the creator of the innovative program, Thank You Money, based on the principles of her book, Love Money, Money Loves You. Over 10,000 people have completed courses with Sarah, building a relationship with money that’s founded in love, abundance, generosity and nature.

She’s also co-Originator of LOVE TO, a group of mutual companies that have created new financial products, backed by the regeneration and protection of nature and human quality of life. LOVE TO has been built from the ground up on the principles of Sarah’s book and work. It’s an example of what’s possible when we build businesses based in the spirit of generosity.

Life empowered by nature – a producer story.

Mt Pleasant is a 13,000ha grazing operation running Nguni cattle in the North Queensland Dry Tropics. Garlone will speak about how a deeper immersion in the complex and often beautiful relationships found in nature are made possible, once more, with the application of RCS management principles on many farms.   She will explore how these relationships affect the human head, heart and soul, and what this could mean for the evolution of our culture and society.

Biography

Garlone Moulin is part of the Mt Pleasant Grazing team which owns and nurtures Mt Pleasant Station near Bowen, Queensland.

Garlone developed a passion for ecology after seeing the gradual return of plant and animal diversity to the landscape, along with profitability, after the implementation of the RCS principles in the early 2000’s.

She believes that farmers on family farms are the key to unlocking the unrealised economic, environmental and social potential locked in the soil. There can be no better stewards than the farmers who have an emotional connection with the land, once they have the ecological literacy to do so.

Time spent in nature observing patterns shapes how Garlone approaches human relationships. In nature, the more diverse the plant and animal community, the more it is able to withstand climatic challenges; so, with people, she believes bringing together diverse stakeholders to focus on what they have in common rather than promoting polarised “tribes” is an important step towards healing not only our landscapes but our communities as well.

Roots for Resilience – a practical insight into building soil health, biodiversity and carbon.

The soil health renaissance has inspired farmers and researchers alike to explore and untangle the complex, below ground interactions of the soil environment. It is plant roots that play the central role in improving soil health as well as building soil carbon – both of which – underpin a resilient farming system. This presentation will explore the importance of root traits and plant species interactions in supporting soil processes, agricultural production and wider landscape function.

Biography

Joel Williams is an independent plant and soil health consultant, a healthy-soils advocate and educator on soil biology, plant nutrition and agroecological farming systems. With a keen interest in managing plant diversity, soil microbial ecology and plant and soil nutrition (to optimise soil function, crop immunity and soil carbon sequestration).

Joel shares his scientific knowledge and practical know-how on growing practices relevant to everyone from the largest broadscale producer to the backyard veggie gardener.

Joel has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and an MSc in Food Policy. He has lectured to farming audiences internationally and works extensively throughout Australia, Europe and Canada, where he is currently based.

Celebrating over 30 years in regenerative agriculture

Being at the forefront of regenerative agriculture for over thirty years we have seen some enormous changes to celebrate.  David will look at the key changes and trends RCS has seen in the past and the focus areas for RCS in the next 30 years.

Biography

David is Chief of Delivery at RCS.  He joined the RCS team in 2007 with a very strong background of achievement. He is a member of a grazing family from western Queensland and completed his Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons 1) at UQ Gatton.

He has high level hands-on experience in practical application of RCS principles via starting as a RCS client on a north Queensland cell grazing and breeder operation. David’s high level analytical skills and broad skill set put him at ease everywhere from the board room to the paddock.

David became General Manager in 2012 and Chairman in 2018. He continues his role as a sought-after educator, consultant, facilitator and public speaker across Australia. David is also responsible for the management of ProfitProbe™, the RCS benchmarking and business analysis program.

The rise of the conscious consumer.

How Regenerative Beef has the power to fulfil a growing demand, reward regenerative producers and rewrite the future of beef.

• Consumer demand goes beyond carbon neutrality and ultimately consumers want to “feel good” about their purchasing decision
• Demand is stemming from both the consumer and the conscious corporates
• This is the opportunity for Regenerative Beef – a bespoke brand & program that has the potential to create connections with consumers and unlock value for producers.

Biography

Born and bred on his family’s property in country NSW, Nick fostered a passion for agriculture at a young age. Throughout his career, Nick has worked within the food industry, with particular experience in developing branded meat programs across the Middle East, USA, Asia and China. Now living in Brisbane, Nick leads Paradigm Foods as General Manager and is focused on creating a portfolio of meat brands that tell stories and connect producers with consumers across the globe.

Future framing of livestock production.

The way the world views livestock production is changing, and perceptions will shift in 3 key phases:

• The transition to planned grazing creating more profitable and resilient businesses.
• Livestock a key part of the solution for climate change and nutrition etc.
• Shift to natural capital being the primary output – producers building and growing long term assets using livestock.

Biography

Peter is CEO of MaiaGrazing, a company providing planned grazing and decision support tools for graziers.  Peter was a cofounder of Natural Carbon, a carbon project developer generating credits for landowners focussed on grazing and grassland management.

Previously he founded InfoMedix, a company providing electronic medical record software. Peter has consulted widely as an IT architect, designing systems in areas as diverse as agriculture, wholesale banking, telecommunications, hospitals, online games and children’s education.

Banking perspectives on ESG in farming

What are Banks seeing?

• The ESG megatrend; evolution in the discussion about climate, natural capital and eco markets; and new strategies and adoption.

What are Banks doing?

• Considering risks; and developing new solutions and approaches.

Perspectives for the coming years

• Planning; telling your story/measurement and data; and opportunities and resilience.

Biography

Carmel Onions is the General Manager Agribusiness at the Commonwealth Bank, and her team supports the business with new and strategic initiatives, such as the CBA Agri Green Loan currently in pilot. 

She is an advocate for the intersection of natural capital enhancements and on-farm productivity outcomes and building resilience into farming systems.

Carmel has been with CBA for 20 years and holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from the University of Sydney.

How Carbon Link can give you more profit and better understanding of your land use practices

• Carbon Link – what we measure, and how we find the ‘sweet spot’ for obtaining the most ACCUs.
• How we ensure improved understanding of land use & highest return on your soil carbon project.
• Innovative technologies used: Remotely sensed data, geospatial techniques and machine learning.

Biography

Dr Melanie Zeppel was awarded 2022 Women in AI: Agribusiness, for carbon modelling, as well as 2019 Scopus Researcher of the year, in sustainability, for her research in climate change. She has been awarded over $1.9 million in grants, with over 60 peer-reviewed publications.
Her multi-disciplinary research includes impacts of climate change, including drought, temperature and CO2 on vegetation, soil, carbon and water relations. She has also worked on modelling health costs of climate change on human health, particularly on vulnerable populations. She has experience in Machine Learning, predictive modelling, and enjoys presenting complex results, in simple language to stakeholders.

*Preliminary program subject to change.