Who Zero Waste Australia is a national NGO which is listed on the Environmental Register of the Australian Government Department of Environment, Water,

Who•Zero Waste Australia is a national NGO which is listed on the Environmental Register of the Australian Government Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

•Kim Russell, Director of Zero Waste Australia Inc Background

•Farmer, First irrigation farm to have ISO9002 Accreditation•Leader in the first on farm greenhouse Audits in Australia(1999)•Has been working in Greenhouse issues for a decade.

•Zero Waste Australia has a determined interest in the return of organic materials from the waste stream to agricultural soils.

Atmospheric CO2 and Deuterium Temperature Anomalies over the Past 420,000 Years (Vostok Ice Core Data)

150

200

250

300

350

-10 -5 0 5

Deuterium-based Temperature Anomalies, °C

Deglaciations

Glaciations

Atm

osph

eric

pC

O2

, at

m.

IGBP 2000International Geosphere Biospehere Project

400

Year 2007 385 ppm

Grandkids(X 5) up there

We are Farming Here

Grandparents Farmed in thisEnvironment

WHY?

Example of Lifecycle Analysis (LCA)– Corn Chips from Paddock to Packet Project identified

Pre-farm (5%)

On-farm and (35%)

Post-farm (60%) (To a box of 12 x 200gm packets) • Until then there was no clear understanding of which

component/s of the chain should be concentrated on to yield the greatest GHG benefit.

• 60% of post farm emissions were in the card board box that the 12 packets of chips were placed in.

Biggest opportunities.

1. Packaging-

2. Nitrogen management

3. Soil management-

4. Water use efficiency

1. composted instead of shipped OS and back.

2. Use of nutrients from waste stream

3. reduction in draw bar power requirements, improved

4. sequestration = greater efficiency

•.

What is ZWA’s role?

Develop a robust approach to track the pathway of microbial rich organic material, (MROM) from its source to its destination incorporated into or applied onto a soil on a farm. •In the nineties- “paddock to plate” QA.•We need “Plate to Paddock” with the same confidence.

Step1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Investment dollars In a balanced PortfolioA balanced spread of investment not all steps owned but linked.

Two way communication allows market awareness and customer satisfaction.

$

$

$$

$$

This fundamental linkage is critical for us if we are to achieveour On farm objectives.

InputsR&D and Education

The key to marketing is to link the six steps along chain from the farm to the global market place.

Commodity managementAchieving scale Primary ProcessingManufacture

Marketing BrandedProduct

Land&Water

En

vir

on

me

nta

l o

utc

om

es

3rd party audit

Selfassessment

2nd party audit

Formal EMS

Environmental Stewardship Perfromance Improvement ProgramPathway of Performance Improvement for Individual Irrigators

Process and Content

Increasing level of documentation

Self-determined Externally determined

Number of elements increases

Level of performance (includes measuring) increases

Regulatedcontent

Hypothesis: Does increased rigour of process & content lead to increased environmental outcomes?

Question: What is the shape of the curve for different elements (eg, water quality, biodiversity)?

Note: All trials consider the whole pathway

Increasing level of externality of audit

BMP’s

LWMP

HACCP

TOPCROP

WDD

EPA

Vendor Decs ISO

But how do we create a pathway so that, Solutions for Sustainability can be found?

MDBC Model for Environmental Stewardship.

WWD=What Dad Did

En

vir

on

me

nta

l o

utc

om

es

3rd party audit

Selfassessment

2nd party audit

Formal EMS

Environmental Stewardship Perfromance Improvement ProgramPathway of Performance Improvement for Individual Irrigators

Process and Content

Increasing level of documentation

Self-determined Externally determined

Number of elements increases

Level of performance (includes measuring) increases

Regulatedcontent

Hypothesis: Does increased rigour of process & content lead to increased environmental outcomes?

Question: What is the shape of the curve for different elements (eg, water quality, biodiversity)?

Note: All trials consider the whole pathway

Increasing level of externality of audit

How does this approach help pull these Components together ?

Topcrop-plus

ISO

EPA

Topcrop

BMP’s

WDD

HACCP

Vendor Decs

LWMP

MDBC Model for Environmental Stewardship. (1996)

Where are the farms?Where to start?

IAL•Network of 36,000Irrigation Farms. Kondinin Group•Network of 10,000Farms.

To Woodlands in NSW….

To a field where we can map soils…

EM- SoilMapping

North 1

We can map information on soil carbon levels…

and yields...

and we can compile these to clearly identify soil carbon Status measured perhaps in value of Carbon offsets and other values.

Importantly we can accumulate actionson a scale that can demonstrate

performance at all levels.

National

RegionalOr Catchment

Farm

Field

The products we are dealing with fall into three main categories

1.       Compost2.       Biologically active fluid products 3.       Char or Agrichar  These three products all have benefits in reducing

emissions (national level), reducing waste (regional level) as well as the listed agricultural benefits at the farm (local level).

The acceptance of such new approaches will be accelerated in the current situation where

• fertiliser input costs have more than doubled in the past year.

• There is an encouraging recognition of the soils place in addressing greenhouse and farm productivity issues.– Communiqué from Carbon Farmers of Australia and

beyond business as usualbeyond business as usual

the BIGBIG picturethe BIGBIG picture

the the REALLY BIGREALLY BIG picture picturethe the REALLY BIGREALLY BIG picture picture

nutrients

the current process of waste management is wasting valuable nutrientswasting valuable nutrients

• Compostable, clean organic material which contains the nutrients necessary for the production of food is currently lost to landfill

• Plants need between 60 to 90 nutrients, minerals and trace elements to be healthy

• Chemical fertiliser only contains a few of these

nutrients are the vitamins, minerals, and other substances in food that keep your body healthy and help it grow

farming is about food production

food is about nutrients

nutrientsnutrientsnutrientsnutrients

seeks the capture of all nutrients in organic waste for conversion into a range of high grade soil amendments

used a standard barcode to identify and reward the individual household for clean source

separation of waste

•       Increased yield

•       Improved crop quality

•       Reduced water use

•       Improved water efficiency

•       Improved soil structure

•       Increased microbial activity

•       Reduced nutrient leakage

•       Reduced fertilizer costs

•       Reduced erosion

•       Carbon sequestration

•       Increased land value

gives the farmer these benefits:

linking urban and rural communitieslinking urban and rural communities

the future system ofthe future system ofthe future system ofthe future system of

from the soil to the city from the

demonstrating a new economic system

for ecological business

people understand it!