Day 1 – Thursday 30 September
9 – 10.30 am Regenerative agriculture
Welcome to Conference – President SPA, Jenny Goldie
Welcome to the Academy’s Shine Dome – Anna-Maria Arabia
Welcome to country – Shane Mortimer
Official Opening – John Hewson
Keynote – Dr Charles Massy author: Call of the Reed Warbler
10.30 Morning tea
11am – 12.30 pm Australia’s soil, water and vegetation as key strategic assets
Admiral Chris Barrie, ANU and former head of Australian Defence Forces
Penny Wensley AC, National Soils Advocate
Walter Jehne, Regenerate Earth/Healthy Soils Australia – Whither Australia’s Agriculture 2030?
12.30 – 1.30 pm Lunch
1.30 – 3 pm Farming today
Dr Patrice Newell author: Who’s minding the farm? –
Matthew Evans author: On eating meat
Gabrielle Chan, author Why You Should Give a F**k About Farming
3 pm Afternoon tea
3.30 – 5 pm
Enabling meaningful change
Em Prof Stuart Hill – Ecological and Psycho-social Foundations for Agricultural Sustainability
Restoring the soil
John Feehan – Improving soil with dung beetles
Dr Wolfram Buss – The role of biochar
The Conference dinner will be held at QT Hotel, Canberra at 6pm for 7pm.
DAY 2 – Friday 1 October
9 – 10.40 am Dealing with climate change
Prof Mark Howden
Ian Dunlop, member Club of Rome
Prof Justin Borevitz – Precision Landscape Regeneration
Dr Adam Carroll
10.40 Morning tea
11.10 am – 12.40 pm Encroachment on agricultural land by mining and urbanisation
Dr Gavin Mudd – The essentials of mining and sustainability
Sally Hunter and Nicola Chirlian, Lock the Gate – What life is like when mining comes to your district
Guy Webb, SoilCQuest – Restoring the Soil
12.40 – 1.30 pm Lunch
1.30 – 3 pm Transforming global food systems
Tony Hill, Land to Market Australia – Buy into a Healthier Australia
Honorary Professor Robyn Alders AO – Food system transformation: valuing food so that it won’t cost the earth
Julian Cribb, author Food or War – The Age of Renewable Food
3 pm Afternoon tea
3.30 pm – 5 pm Can we feed all the people and not destroy the Earth?
Dr Nicole Chalmer – Ecoagriculture: a cultural paradigm for enduring resilience and sustainability
Prof Will Steffen – Planetary boundaries
Dr Jane O’Sullivan – The critical role of population size and growth
Concluding remarks Prof Ian Lowe