Media release 16 June 2021
Registrations open for landmark conference on sustainable agriculture
The organisers of this year’s Fenner Conference on Environment have announced that registrations are now open. The conference with the theme ‘Making Australian agriculture sustainable’ will be held on 17-18 March at the Academy of Science’s Shine Dome in Canberra.
The conference will be both in-person and live-streamed.
Conference co-organiser and national president of Sustainable Population Australia, Ms Jenny Goldie,says the conference features a remarkable line-up of speakers from both farms and academia, not least keynote speaker Dr Charles Massy, author of ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’. Prof John Hewson will open the conference.
“Australian agriculture today is largely unsustainable,” says Ms Goldie. “Soils are degrading and are in need of regeneration. Broad acre farming is delivering food in quantity but not always in quality. Rainfall and run-off are declining in the southern half of the continent because of climate change, which makes farming more difficult.
“Our speakers will address various means by which soils can be restored and help mitigate climate change by drawing down carbon. Better soils retain water that can ameliorate the effects of a dryer climate.”
A number of speakers at the conference have recently published, or will by the time of the conference, books including Matthew Evans, Patrice Newell, Gabrielle Chan, Nicole Chalmer and Julian Cribb.
Climate change will be a strong feature of the conference with speakers Profs Will Steffen, Mark Howden and Justin Borewitz as well as Dr Adam Carroll and former coal and oil executive, Ian Dunlop.
Registrations are now open on the conference website www.sustainableag.org.au
Further information: Jenny Goldie 0401 921 453 president@population.org.au