By JOLENE OGLE
IT’S not everyday someone hopes for redundancy, but for RegenAg’s Kym Kruse, redundancy is a sign of success as the family organisation tries to regenerate the local farming industry.
Founded in 2010 by four farming families, including Kym and his wife Georgina, RegenAg aims to regenerate Australia’s farms, soils, communities and farm livelihoods through courses, workshops and networking nights.
In conjuction with Noosa Council, RegenAg presented a film and networking night at The J on 2 July, an event that saw producers and consumers come together.
Councillor Sandy Bolton, who is helping lead the way for the council’s Rural Futures Strategy review, was on hand at the film and networking night, which she said was a great chance for consumers and producers to come together.
According to Kym, networking nights are essential for local farming communities to grow, share knowledge and create a social network.
“I think networking is probably the one thing that we try to help facilitate as best we can,” Mr Kruse said.
“We see RegenAg being successful if we can become redundant as soon as possible, as a sign of our success. Meaning that, if you provide farmers with the knowledge they require, then you can step back and the farmers themselves, who are very innovative in their own right, will network share, bulk purchase things, collaborate and share that information as they move forward.”
According to Kym, the current system is doing little to encourage social networking and collaborative farming.
“There is a bit of mistrust and farmers are often competing against each other to get their produce to market, with the “big two” putting pressure on them,” he said.
“RegenAg is the antithesis of that. It is really about farmer-to-farmer networks and sharing that knowledge and information and that builds a community of trust and co-operation. That is what we would like to see happening in our rural communities.”
But Kym said it’s not all about large-scale farming, small family farms and community gardens are the “life-blood” of communities.
“Small family farms are as important as urban agriculture, as well as permaculture and community gardens,” he said.
“They are great for raising awareness about food and where it comes from and the implications of those three choices that we make every day (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I think that small family farms have and will continue to be the backbone, the important element of our communities.”
Kym also called for agricultural policy to help support Australian farmers.
“Voters need to support agricultural policies that support our landholders, who don’t just produce food but perform many other benefits through the eco-system services they provide – bio-diversity, clean water and the like,” he said.
“We need the majority of the population supporting the very people who take care of the vast majority of our land. Big changes need to happen and a two-way conversation needs to happen. Hopefully nights like this well help kick-start that conversation.”
