Farmers take centre stage at global climate talks

It's a dynamic atmosphere, full of onstage discussions and behind-the-scenes horse trading, backed by loads of colour and action on the periphery.

Among the 100,000 attendees: Buntine farmer Stuart McAlpine, a long-time regenerative agriculture farmer and advocate, who is firmly placing himself on the international stage to help build momentum for a farming transformation in this country.

Mr McAlpine was a 'landscape leader' at the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP28 - and one in a select group of Australians to attend the prestigious blue zone.

He returned from the week-long trip with a clear message for his farming colleagues plus an appeal to Australia's political and business leaders to more urgently and actively step up to the international global negotiating table, where for the first time farming system transformation is high on the agenda.

"It was an amazing experience... and underlined for me the importance of Australian farmer representation in discussions that may have outcomes that could impact how we farm and what markets we can access,'' Mr McAlpine told Ripe.

"There is a lot of depth in what was happening, with food only just included in the COP conversation.

"Because agriculture was a major part of COP28, they wanted to get people there who were representative of farmers at a grassroots level."

Mr McAlpine was part of a frontline community leaders' delegation at COP28, and his trip was supported by the international Meridian Institute, with sponsorship from the Robertson Foundation.

As well as networking and advocating for Australian farmers, he was keen to promote the good things happening in WA farming and look for new approaches he could share back home.

"I've been wanting to have a greater role globally, for two reasons,' Mr McAlpine said.

"I think we are doing some pretty good stuff here, but I also wanted to find out what was happening in other countries and other landscapes.

"And I discovered that we are not being represented on the global stage, where all these discussions are happening about changing and transforming agriculture.

"We are missing out on a lot of opportunities to get support, but also a lot of opportunities to tell the world about some of the good stuff that we are doing here, because we do farm in some pretty tough conditions."

Significantly during Mr McAlpines' panel session, a call to action to transform international agriculture and food systems, to safeguard people, nature and the climate, was also released.

It was signed by a broad global coalition of more than 200 farmers, communities, cities, business leaders and philanthropic organisations and called for time-bound, aligned, global targets for change to be set, at the latest, by COP29 in Azerbaijan on November 11-24 this year.

The targets needed to have agreed, achievable pathways to transition the food systems and drive action and accountability for the government, business and finance sectors, the alliance said.

Mr McAlpine understands well that achieving big changes in farming practices, research priorities and agriculture policy will be a challenge - and even just the idea of it can frighten people.

But he is optimistic and sees huge benefits for WA farmers from a global push to transform agriculture to help address climate and other challenges and safeguard the world's food supply.

As a farmer of 5000 hectares at Buntine and current RegenWA chairman, with experience with The Liebe Group, Regional Repopulation in Dalwallinu and the Common Land Foundation, and as a supplier and past non-executive director to Wide Open Agriculture and Dirty Clean Food, Mr McAlpine is already a long way into his regen ag journey.

This meant he could offer the COP28 panel discussion a grassroots farmer's perspective on climatic and environmental changes affecting his property and share his thoughts on what policy reform and financial incentives Australia's governments could implement to support farmers to transform.

By way of personal example, he shared some worrying weather and yield data from his farm, modelled by specialist Richard Riddle, which compared his past five years to its previous 100 years.

Mr McAlpine estimated he may have lost 32 per cent of his potential annual yield due to climate change-induced changes in temperature and rainfall, based on his property's 100-year average yield of 3.25 tonnes per hectare.

The analysis showed his yearly rainfall had reduced by a moderate 11-13 millimetres on average over the century, but "it was a little bit frightening'' to discover his growing season rainfall had dropped by a "massive" 40mm.

"If you use the CSIRO formula of 12.5 kilograms of grain per millimetre of rainfall, that equates to half a tonne of grain,'' Mr McAlpine said.

The data also showed an increase of about 0.6 degrees Celsius in his onfarm maximum average temperature over the 100 years but the maximum temperature increased in the growing season by more than 1 degree.

The average minimum temperature increased by 1 degree over the years.

"When you run those extra 2 degrees of heat units every day during the growing season, that equates to 40mm of evaporation and transpiration loss - on top of the 40mm lost due to less rainfall - which is another half a tonne of potential grain yield,'' Mr McAlpine said.

"You have potentially lost 1t/ha - or about 32pc - of yield potential based on that formula."

Mr McAlpine said of the two weather-related factors, he sees the temperature changes as the most significant issue for WA broadacre farmers.

"We are now seeing high temperature spikes in August, which is like having a frost, it affects particularly canola and lupins from about 28 degrees, but also wheat at greater than 30-degree temperatures during flowering'' he said.

"You could still be having a good rainfall year, but potentially get hit by these heat spikes."

Mr McAlpine said he had not experienced a summer "as hot as this, so early, for so long and that has been so consistent".

"Normally it is the other way around - the cool spells we were having are now hot spells, it's almost flipped on its head," he said.

It's a big concern - not just for individual farmers but also for the longevity of the industry in Australia, as this environment will act as a big disincentive to existing farmers to stay in the game, and discourage young farmers from entering the industry at a time when they are desperately needed.

"Last year, I had my worst year ever and in 2022 I had my best year - it's not all going to be bad, but we are going to see extremes,'' Mr McAlpine said.

"When you couple that with the cost of production that has gone up so much in the past few years, we are asking existing farmers to take that risk and reward and trying to encourage young people into farming.

"But is that fair?"

Taking the next step and widening the lens from a local to a worldwide perspective, Mr McAlpine pointed to the growing pressure on farmers and farming practices at a global level - born from climate necessity, but also changing political will and the influence of activist agendas.

Mr McAlpine said one of the biggest takeaways for him from COP28, on November 30 to December 13 last year, was the recognition that food production had a global, unaccounted cost of $10-$15 trillion a year through biodiversity loss, damage to the ecosystem and soil, food chain costs, food waste, methane production and its carbon footprint.

The UN said food systems accounted for 70pc of freshwater use globally, 80pc of biodiversity loss and the degradation of 40pc of usable land.

Some 30pc of greenhouse gases come from food systems - but optimistically "there was probably at least 30pc opportunity there to address

that as well'', Mr McAlpine said.

He said major catastrophic weather events would be inevitable - either due to flood, temperature extremes or drought - and would lead to sudden food shortages.

"We talk about an energy crisis, but the greatest energy we need on earth is food,'' he said.

"We need to recognise this and a lot of the language at COP was around that."

To start addressing all of this, and as part of the ongoing global climate change conversation, momentum is building to transform farming towards more holistic, regenerative and organic agricultural practices - a discussion that was very much on the agenda at COP28.

That's good news, as moving to a widescale use of these farming practices could improve soil health and then crop and livestock health.

That would, in turn, protect farm viability, safeguard the farming and food-growing sectors and help maintain and restore biodiversity - with the ultimate endgame to ensure enough biodiversity for human survival.

"The moment you start diminishing the biodiversity on earth, you are left with less and less survivors," Mr McAlpine said.

Governments internationally are already starting on the transformation pathway - driven by economics, activists, politics and climate change - and are starting to legislate reforms to farming practices.

All the big agriculture-related companies, such as Syngenta and Bayer, were also onboard and supporting regenerative agriculture programs.

It presents a double-edged sword, as while many of these changes and opportunities will be progressive, others may not be realistic options for all farmers.

Mr McAlpine said he had three big concerns.

New regulations could limit Australian farmers' access and right to use appropriate and locally relevant chemicals or practices, and they could restrict their access to international export markets as new rules were enforced.

As well, Australian agriculture is potentially missing out on the significant international funding already available to support transformation, because our political and business leaders were too slow to step up to the international bargaining plate.

"If we are not part of the discussions, we might have to deal with rules and regulations which are not fit for purpose,'' Mr McAlpine said.

"Market restrictions due to legislation that is implemented at a global or regional level globally will impact our ability to export our produce into other markets."

He said at COP28, for example, Germany's Claudia Mller Parliamentary State Secretary for Food and Agriculture Minister outlined her government's aim that 30pc of the country's cultivated agricultural land production be organic by 2030.

"This disturbed me, as they were describing a practice - but what part of organic do they want or what are the outcomes they want?'' Mr McAlpine said.

"There are parts of organic that are great to aspire to, but there are plenty of places in the world where they have tried that and failed as criteria means you're all in and there is up to a three-year qualification period.

''Sometimes organic practice can see excessive tillage which can result in wind and water erosion.

"Perhaps they could have targeted a 30pc reduction in tillage, pesticide and artificial fertiliser use and allowed all farmers to achieve these targets without necessarily becoming organic.

"We must make it easier for people to change.

"Farmers don't enjoy using pesticides.

"We all need to work together collectively to achieve these targets and not create divisions among farmers."

Just this month in WA, the CBH Group wrote to growers warning that the organisation responsible for the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) program had refused to change its requirements to limit aerial spraying of pesticides near waterways - which do not align with WA-applicable Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority standards.

And at COP28, the Australian Government endorsed the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, signed by more than 130 world leaders, committing to integrating food into their climate plans by 2025.

Wearing his RegenWA chairman's hat, Mr McAlpine said he would be seeking a meeting with WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis soon to further the conversation and share his observations of the COP28 trip.

"There are huge opportunities, potentially we can attract some of that huge pot of funding money into Australia, as well as make sure we are part of the discussions around design and that they are farmer-centric," he said.

Mr McAlpine said part of the problem was the disassociation between politicians and policy makers and what is happening on farms.

''That could improve if our decision makers got out to rural areas more frequently to visit farmers and see what was happening on their land,'' he said.

He hoped that by experiencing not only the problems, but seeing some of the innovation that was happening on farms, governments would support better-targeted research and development into understanding how more natural-based agricultural inputs and systems could be utilised to help restore and buffer natural cycles of soil function and, in turn, plant and animal health.

"We should encourage innovation by allowing people and custodians of the land to use whatever technology they can to achieve the outcomes that we want as a society,'' he said.

"I think that's important.

"And I think we are going to need some assistance to get farmers through some of the tough challenges that they're going to have from climate."