NFDS 2018: Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities

I have been farming and investigating organic farming principals for 30 years on our Boronia Farm at Donnybrook in Western Australia.

I’m also Chairman of Donnybrook Balingup Community Radio Inc and own Western Tourist Radio (WTR). WTR operates Radio WA 87.6 FM in East Perth and in the South West coastal tourism towns, “telling the stories of people and places in Western Australia”.

In March 2018 I attended an event titled Healthy Soils, Health Communities, where I met Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler, a new agriculture, a new Earth.

IMAGE: Author and farmer Charles Massy interviewed by Barry at the studios of Monaro FM.

Charles explains how industrial agriculture came about, and tells the stories of many innovators who are showing how, by working with nature, farmers can produce healthier food with less expensive and often toxic inputs, resulting in improved farm profits which helps to rebuild rural communities as well as storing carbon in the soil and reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Most agricultural research has been done by companies selling products to farmers, resulting in declining net farm income since the second world, as illustrated by the Canadian graph below.

^{IMAGE: Canadian Farm Income graph (source)}

Food has been treated as just another commodity, to be produced at the lowest possible price. But it's much more than a commodity - it is the foundation of our civilisation and our individual health and wellbeing.

I am delighted to have this opportunity explore the connection between the health of our soils, our communities and ourselves.

IMAGE: Barry Green (right) interviews farmer Ron Watkins.

All farmers involved in regenerative agriculture are innovators. Ron Watkins talked about the journey of the innovator which I think is well worth listening to.

With the increasing concentration of city centric media companies, I think that Community Radio and Tourist Radio provide a vital voice for community and small businesses.

- Barry Green

Thanks

• I love radio as a communication tool, and while I have been making programs for our tourist radio service, it was great to have Ian Hill as a mentor. Thanks Ian.
• Thanks also to Phil Daley from 2MNO Monaro FM for recording Charlie’s end of our phone interview.

This piece was made for the CBAA's National Features & Documentary Series 2018, a showcase of work by new and emerging Australian community radio producers, with training and mentoring provided by the Community and Media Training Organisation. The opinions expressed in National Features & Documentary Series content are those of the individual producers or their interviewees, and not necessarily shared by the CBAA or CMTO.

Produced with the assistance of the Department of Communications and the Arts via the Community Broadcasting Foundation.