YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED

YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED

At The 4th Annual Carbon Farming Conference
Dubbo NSW, 27-28 October 2010

CONGRATULATIONS!

With your support
we won the promise of
Soil Carbon Credits,
Methane Carbon Credits, and
Nitrous Oxide Carbon Credits

The Federal Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative promises to fast track preparations to trade on international markets. Good News, but we need to keep up the pressure.

Register today for the Carbon Farming Conference & Expo to show your support and enjoy the only gathering dedicated to reconstructing the health of soils, farm landscapes and rural communities by safe, ethical trading in soil carbon and other on-farm emissions reductions.

REGISTER ONLINE AT WWW.CARBONFARMINGCONFERENCE.COM.AU
OR CALL 02 6374 0329

CONFERENCE PROGRAM DAY 1

GOOD NEWS FOR FARMERS

The Carbon Farming Initiative will reward farmers with several possible new revenue streams: reforestation, reducing emissions from livestock, fertiliser use, and deforestation, as well as soil carbon and biochar.

9.00am – Welcome to Country. Welcome to City – Mayor Allan Smith

9.10am - The Government’s New Carbon Farming Initiative –When do we start? – Maya Stuart-Fox, Director, Emerging Policy , Land Division of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency

9.40am – Six Configured Units Ready To Roll – Methodologies for Farm Carbon Trading Units - Ken Bellamy, Prime Carbon has invested heavily in building Kyoto-aligned trading protocols

10.10am – Making It Happen - Landcare’s Role In The Carbon Farming Initiative – Brett de Hayr, National Landcare Facilitator explains how Landcare will help farmers learn about the Carbon Farming Initiative

10.40am – Panel Discussion – Q&A on the Governments Carbon Farming Initiative, Methodologies, Time frames.

11.00am - Morning Tea

MEASUREMENT: SOIL CARBON FAST-TRACKED

The Government promised that it would ‘fast track’ research to overcome the barriers to trading soil carbon when it announced the latest $46.5m for Carbon Farming. What strides has Science made in 12 months.?

11.30am - How Will The Soil Carbon Research Program Assist Trading? - Dr Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land & Water reports on the progress on the program we helped fund (by lobbying) to the tune of $20m.

12.00pm - Must We Wait for Science? - Professor Annette Cowie, National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research explores an interim proposal and explains an opportunity to be part of the next round of soil carbon research.

12.30pm - A Single Soil Carbon Score For A Property? - Professor Alex McBratney, University of Sydney – The Race is on to find the cost effective, reliable measurement method.

1.00pm – Soil Scientists Super Summit - Andrea Koch, United States Study Centre is organising a meeting of eminent scientists to discuss soil carbon

1.10pm – Lunch

CARBON COCKIES LEAD THE WAY

Farmers have led innovation in land management. These innovations are judged by the criterion “It works for me” and are spread by observation across the boundary fence.

2.00pm – From the Amazon’s Terra Preta to Australian Soils - Biochar’s Future Options - Patrice Newell, Farmer, Activist, Author, reports on her visit to the birthplace of biochar.

2.20pm – Carbon Cockies drive innovation - Simon Proust (MC) presents Carbon Catchment Highlights: Central West and Northern Rivers - A Carbon Cockie One Year On: Matt Barton - - Farmer Teaching Farmer: Little River LandCare

3.20pm Afternoon Tea

KEEPING THE MONEY IN THE REGIONS

Regional-based businesses will be able to buy offsets from local farmers. Farmers, in turn, may be able to purchase soil amendments from regional-based businesses, such as composts, inoculants, stimulants, chars and coal-based soil carbon promoters.

3.50pm – A Regional Trading Model – Helping Big Emitters Spread The Wealth In Rural Communities – Louisa Kiely, Orana Regional Development Committee

4.10pm – Carbon Footprints Could Lead to Local Win-Win - Robert Bower, TwinN Mabiotec explains how soil carbon missed an opportunity to supply offsets to his company when it decided to go carbon neutral.

4.40pm - Markets Could Look Like This: Market-Based Instrument Pilot – Dr Jason Crean, NSW DI&I reports on the project simulating a trading environment for farmers.


5.00pm WINE AND CHEESE TASTING IN THE MAIN HALL



7.00pm Conference Awards Dinner

Networking Dinner

MC: Michael Kiely On Climate Change:

“Fear Makes Me Say Funny Things”

2010 Carbon Cocky Awards

Climate Change Songwriting & Poetry Competition

Can you write a song or bush ballad about Climate Change? Bring it along.


CONFERENCE PROGRAM DAY 2

While Food Security is focussed on growing enough food to feed the world, Food Integrity describes the nutrient density of the food. Healthy soil is the beginning of the virtuous circle – soil, food, people.

HEALTHY SOILS, HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHY PEOPLE

9.00am - Health Starts In The Soil - Dr Carole Hungerford, Farmer/ Medical Practitioner/Author explains how many modern ailments can be explained by the decline in soil health and its impact on nutrition.

9.30am - “Miracle Cure Led Me To Soil Health” - Rhonda Daly, YLAD Living Soils explains how a health issue taught her the power of soil to deliver wellbeing.

9.50am - Beyond Organic: Certified Soil Rich Foods - Ian Golding, Beyond Organics has developed a method for measuring the nutrient value of soils and the food grown in them.

10.20am – Introducing Healthy Soils Australia - Tom Nicholas, Chairman explains

10.30am Morning Tea

SOIL HEALTH + OFFSETS

Low hanging fruit among offsets for farmers is the avoided or reduced emissions from fertiliser. When it is applied, an amount of the Nitrogen in conventional fertilizer oxidizes and escapes as Nitrous Oxide. It has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 300 times that of CO2. This is good news for farmers changing their fertilizer practices. For every tonne of N2O avoided, you multiply the price of carbon (CO2-e) by the GWP (300).

11.00am - Low Cost/No Odour On Farm Composting - Gerry Gillespie, NSW DECCW Compost can create odor and take a great deal of turning to reach its point of peak effectiveness. But a new on-farm system eliminates both problems. Spray inoculant over the compost and it turns itself,

11.20am – Compost’s Promise of Soil Carbon - Darren Fahey, Waste Management Association of Australia.

11.40pm Coal Ash As Fertiliser - Dr Jane Aitken, Conneq Infrastructure Services - Coal or fly ash is available in vast quantities because power stations have mountains of by-product after coal is burned, most of which is buried in landfill. Scientists are testing different combinations to make controlled release fertiliser.



12.50pm – Cheap char? Chailings – Processed Coal Tailings - Adele Calandra GSSEnvironmental. Chailings is charcoal made from coal mine tailings. Farmers have proved for themselves that production can be boosted by the application of raw coal dust. Chailings are processed for greater effectiveness.

1.10pm Lunch

2.00pm - INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER: Make Your Own Fertiliser As You Till - Gary Lewis, BioAgtive Canada Exhaust fume burial is a novel approach to disposing of emissions by processing them into a fertiliser and wrapping them around the seed.

2.20pm - Australia’s Own Exhaust Burial Technology - Daniel Linkleter, Riverina farmer

2.40pm – INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER: Trigger Technologies: Affordable Broadacre Biology - Jim Watson, Best Environmental Technology, Canada reports that soil biology stimulants or ‘triggers’ work by ‘waking up’ native microbes rather than by delivering the microbes to the soil. This means the stimulant can be delivered in a spray pass with herbicides.

ENERGY FARMING OPTIONS

To be a Carbon Farmer is to manage Carbon Cycles – in soils, in vegetation, in animals and in biomass, wind and energy.

3.00pm - Growing Fuel Crops - John Larkin, Demand Farming explains how growing energy crops can fit into a farmer’s business.

3.20pm – Afternoon Tea

3.50pm – On-Farm Solar Opportunities: Risks and Returns – Dr Iain McGregor, Solar Choice reveals the opportunities for generating additional revenue while generating energy.

4.10pm – Water Dynamics: Reading The Landscape – Paul Newell, Landsmanship, introduces a revolutionary approach to farm planning.

4.30pm – Carbon Farming Australia: The Industry Association – Michael Kiely



CARBON FARMERS ASSOCIATION

For 5 years the Carbon Coalition has campaigned for the rights of farmers to grow and trade soil carbon safely and ethically. In that time Government has shifted its position away from a very negative, damaging attitude – farmers were to pay for all animal and fertiliser-based emissions with no access to soil carbon credits – to a very positive outcome where soil carbon offsets are government and opposition policy and reductions in methane and nitrogen emissions are to be rewarded rather than enforced. We are close to success but many obstacles remain in the way and need a dedicated voice keeping Government honest in delivering the promise. The Carbon Coalition has been entirely funded by the Convenors and a small group of benfactors. The time has come for it to become a registered association. The Carbon Farmers’ Association offers the following benefits for members: 1. Advocacy for members’ access to carbon markets through a range of offsets, including soil carbon, methane, nitrogen emissions and others. 2. Advice on contracts, risks and likely returns. 3. Education and training to maximise the business opportunities and assist in risk management in trading. 4. An On-line Library offering access to deep resources of information on carbon farming. 5. Regular newsletter – The Carbon Farmer – to Conferences alert members to opportunities. 6. Discounts on and seminars. 7. Discounts on Books and magazines. 8. Ethical trading services – Soil Carbon Baselining, Aggregation, Sub-Aggregation of Small Holdings and Brokerage, with fees invested in Assocation services, and retiring credits on first transaction to avoid exploitative on-selling. 9. Networking with like-minded people in a community of common purpose. 10. If scientists like Tim Flannery, the Wentworth Group, Professor Rattan Lal and even the CSIRO’s Michael Battaglia are to be believed, sequestration in soil and vegetation on a grand scale is essential to avoiding the worst effects of Global Warming as we transition to new energy sources for baseload supply. If this is so, farmers have more leverage in this commodity market than any other and can be price-makers rather than price takers, their usual role. And your membership fee could be the best investment you could make in a future that does not look like a scene from Mad Max.

The Carbon Farmers’ Association will be launched formally at the Carbon Farming Conference. To register interest or for more information please call

02 6374 0329. Or 0417 280 540.
Email Louisa@carboncoalition.com.au