Leave Some Nature for the Future by Amber O'Neill

Leave some Nature for the Future

Sustainable Farming Makes Sense

• Sustainability is deliberately working towards a more desirable quality of life, whilst remaining mindful of those in the future.

• It is using resources today with an eye on making sure there will still be resources for others to use tomorrow.

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Hi,I’m Amber.

I attend Cranebrook High School.

I am currently studying Agriculture.

Hi,I’m Dolce and today we are going to take you down the

road to sustainability.

One of the most important topics I have studied in agriculture is sustainability.

• Why so important you ask?

Sustainability requires serious thinking about food production and how to enhance and

influence sustainable development in third world countries.

When our farming lands become degraded, soil is no longer able to support the production of food

and fibre.

Air and water may become polluted, which in turn can disrupt the Earth’s natural ecology and may

endanger our plant and animal species.

Even if the world can support the extra billions of people soon to come, without a focus on sustainability, the majority will be living subsistence lives.

Sustainable agriculture is the farming practices

or systems which ensure the economy and the

community are protected, whilst

maintaining resources and ecosystems.

Sustainability involves the integrated systems of plant and animal production that, over the long-term, will:

• Satisfy the human demand of food and fibre.

• Protect and improve the natural resource base.

• Make the most efficient use of non-renewable and on-farm resources.

• Sustain the economics of farm operations.

• Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as whole,

• Consider the needs of the environment, society and economy.

Is the wise use of our

land, water and energy

And for you this

means........

Affordable and

nutritious

Food and Fibre for Everyone

Cranebrook High School Agriculture was lucky enough to have a lot of fun when we studied sustainability as part of the Archibull Prize.

The Archibull Prize is a competition set for school students. They are provided with two life size, fibreglass bulls, which they then paint,

create a mosaic, build from, or decorate to send out a message about a particular topic to the viewer.

Cranebrook chose the topic “farm management and sustainability.”

• The Archibull Prize is a six month program.

• To ensure big ideas flow our teachers encouraged us to investigate and design.

• Our team came up with the idea to incorporate our bulls into our “District Exhibit” display at Penrith Show.

• We took this opportunity to practice on our bulls.

The topic for our Penrith Show display was “Farm Gate to Plate”.

For the display we dressed the steers up to look like a couple at a cafe.

One wore a beautiful pink skirt, with frills and bow on her head.

The other wore black suit pants, glasses

and bow tie.

The school also created a huge chicken burger and milkshake which the bulls ate and slurped.

On the left side of the bulls was a dairy farm, where cows were being milked.

The dairy farm showed the process of milking and steps in which milk went through to become a milkshake for our bulls.

Don't know about you cutey by I think we look AMAZING!!

The proud Cranebrook

team

Using the Archibulls for our Penrith Show display was a

great experience and allowed us to experiment and practice with the bulls for the Archibull

competition. Watching the positive public reaction to our display at the

show made us realise that the community is interested in the

art work we create.We recognised the Archibull Prize is a great opportunity for us to showcase our school, our

students and our agriculture department.

Once we had finished at the Penrith Show

we started designing and sketching our

bulls.

We collected images of what we hoped to achieve

and put together a portfolio on our

Archibulls.

Love it or you will turn around one day and its gone

The theme for the Archibull Prize was Love it or Lose It.So we decided our bulls would show contrasting stories about the future of

agriculture in our area So we called Bull 1 “Sustaina-Bull” and Bull 2 “Undesira-Bull”.

The two bulls allow the viewer to see the planet how it was “meant to be” and the planet that we have “forced it to be” by only thinking about today and not planning

for the future Meant to be: healthy and sustainable environment.

Force to be: unhealthy and unsustainable environment.

Sustaina-Bull will show a healthy and

profitable sustainable environment which produces nutritious and affordable food

and fibre. This is a place where both humans and nature live

harmoniously together.

Undesira-Bull will show a degraded and arid

landscape where food security is threatened and the future looks bleak for the planet.

Studying sustainable farming provided us with vital information about the impacts of poor farming practices on the environment and those which are required to ensure our agricultural lands are sustainable for future generations. Understanding these issues and practices allowed us to work together to design and create our Archibulls.

Erosion Compaction Water quality Land clearing Pest infestations Weeds, pollution Urban sprawl Green manuring

Wildlife corridors Wind breaks Wind farms Landfill Damming Biodiversity Ecosystems. Stubble Retention

We studied so many things:

• In order to communicate our messages to the community we studied both sustainable and unstainable farming practices.

• So firstly lets talk about sustainable practices.

The use of sustainable practices will maintain and enhance the world how it is meant to be.

A world where the human race and the world of nature live together in peace, harmony and tranquillity.

Sustaina-Bull shows best farming practice methods like carbon smart farming.

• Carbon smart farmers manage their land to grow healthy soil first and last

• The starting point is making sure your soil is always covered with pasture.

• Plants are the key to removing excess carbon dioxide from the air, therefore the more ground cover there is, the more carbon will be stored in the soil( bare earth gives its carbon up to the atmosphere.)

• Good pasture cover means nutrients don’t wash into waterways , so they are healthy for livestock and the broader community.

• Added benefits of soil that is high in carbon is it:– Stores and holds more water.

– Is more fertile.

– Has better soil structure and less soil erosion.

– Has more wildlife and more native vegetation –because the food chain starts in the soil.

The following slides show some examples of Carbon farming and sustainable practices.

Green manuring is the method of incorporating green leafy matter directly into the soil to:

• Increase soil fertility and improve soil structure. • Add organic matter to soil and improve soil aeration.• Increase nutrient levels. • Control pest and disease.• Restrict weeds.• Encourage native and other wanted species.• Increase natural soil biodiversity and biological activity.

Is the successive cultivation of different crops in a specified order on the same fields, in contrast to a

one-crop system.

It is usually a planned pattern or sequence used to break the weed,

pest and disease cycles and to improve the soil fertility and organic

matter.

Wildlife corridors allow wildlife to move between inhabited areas. By planting local species of flora and

connecting shelterbelt corridors you can provide animals with food, shelter and water and protection

from predators.

• Wind Farms use renewable energy to generate electricity.

• They usually consist of a group of wind turbines that spin to produce power.

• This process uses natural wind and produces no air pollutants. Even though bird mortality has increased the negative effects on the environment are very minor and are much more sustainable than coal burning.

• When we were learning about wind farms, we found that livestock was not disturbed by wind turbines and will happily graze in close vicinity.

Biodiversity• Biodiversity is the variation

of life within a region. • The biological diversity

among animals, plants and other species is under threat from land clearing, global warming, and the spread of invasive species.

If you wish to help support biodiversity visit:

Helping Citizen Science Grow in Australia

Hey Amber Thanks for creating a

bright future for me.

Undesira-Bull shows a world where pollution and degradation are adversely impacting on

the environment.

• Landfills• Damming• Poor pest

management• Urban sprawl• Land clearing• Salinity• Water pollution• Compaction• Erosion• Weeds

Burning coal to generate electricity causes severe environmental

problems.Coal is full of hazardous substances

that, when burned, contaminate the air, the land and water. Other sources of electricity

generation, including water, wind, and solar do not have as much

impact on the environment.

Land clearing is the procedure where all vegetation is removed usually to create space for housing, paddocks for crops or

factories.

Land clearing reduces the production of food, fibres and other products.

Erosion, sedimentation, destruction of vegetation, salinity and loss of habitat can all be a result of land clearing.

Landfill is a human process that effects the sustainability of large environments. The build up of waste effects the soil, vegetation,

habitats, waterways, ecosystems and micro-organisms.

Pests such as birds, rats, flies, rabbits and dogs are attracted to landfill areas.

A sustainable environment is one which encourages recycling, reusing and reducing .

Dams provide water to urban areas and livestock but the effect on the environment can be devastating.

Dams reduce the flow of water in rivers and streams and often result in the death of many aquatic species.

Although damming is efficient and useful for the distribution of water to cities and urbanised areas, ecosystems and habitats are often ruined and the damage to

waterways can be irreversible.

Erosion is the process where the top soil is removed by water or wind.

Erosion can be accelerated by poor farming practices such as the clearing of trees and ploughing which removes the pasture cover from the soil.

Bare soil also assists fertilisers to enter waterways in high rainfall events. This can impact on the ecosystems, creating blue green algae and reducing

oxygen available to aquatic life.

Australia is one of the world’s most urbanized countries. More than

four-fifths of the people live in cities and towns. About 70 per cent of all Australians live in cities of more than 100,000 people.

Only about 15 per cent of Australia’s people live in rural areas.

As Australia’s population continues to grow there will be more and more competition for land for housing rather than growing food.

Our prime agriculture land along our eastern seaboard is being filled with houses, factories, roads and shops.

Urban sprawl is a major concern to agricultural sustainability and food security.

Feral species have an immense impact on the environment.

They destroy the farmland and reduce the production of agricultural products.

Feral species include: rabbits, rats, mice, pigs, cats, horses, dogs and toads.

Sustainable land practices are those that promote biodiversity and provide water, food and shelter and protection for native flora and fauna.

Soil compaction is the process where the weight of heavy machinery, constant movement of large animals or compressing of the soil, forces out the air and water within the soil.

The removal of air and water minimises the growth of plants as there is a restricted amount of nutrients, air and water for survival.

Practices that minimise soil compaction include:

• Reducing the number of tillage operations

• Avoiding traffic and tillage when the soil is moist or wet.

• Reducing the compacted area by confining as many tillage and traffic operations to the same wheel tracks i.e. ‘controlled traffic’ farming or ‘tramline farming’.

• Cell grazing and rotating livestock.

The Archibull Prize theme has been an amazing journey on

sustainability for Cranebrook High.

Over one hundred pairs of hands have helped create the

incredible bulls, lots of big ideas were

floated and tonnes of effort has been

put in.

We learnt all the little things each person does towards a sustainable environment is part of a much bigger picture that includes maintaining biodiversity, development of renewable resources, preserving ecosystems and working together with nature to protect it.

Our needs have traditionally come from nature and we still rely on nature to support us;

• fish from the sea, rivers and lakes

• meat and milk, hides and wool from pasture land

• cereals and fibres like cotton from cropland

• timber from forests

• energy from oil and gas.

We need productive land and water to supply these resources.

Sustainable agriculture will ensure that those in the future will benefit from our environmental commitment

today. I hope this presentation will motivate and encourage other students to study agriculture, so that we can all

work together to build our skills and knowledge to create a better future.

A number of images and text used in this presentation were obtained from Landlearn NSW and the web

And help us create a

better future.

Margaret Meade said “Never doubt that a

small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the

only thing that ever has.”

Lets prove she was right.

GOLD SILVERPLATINUM

BRONZE

WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE SPONSORS OF THE

2010 CREAM OF THE CROP COMPETITION