Mexican Dairy farm

I was really lucky as I had a chance oportunity to visit a Mexican Dairy. It was a small family operation. I jumped a fence and introduced myself to the fellow. Who spoke a little English and I stayed whilsst he and three others milked 36 cows in a small dairy (I'll try to upload a photo) They tiped the milk into buckets and then walked it into the the milk room and tipped it into the vat. He said next year they aimed to be able to afford to pump it to the milk room. For those of you who are not dairy farmers this is pretty tough. Its great to see the extremes of agriculture around. There is big operations with pretty impressive systems right through to basic operations. We drove for 3 hours through Mexico before flying out, which gave us a great oportunity to see a lot of the desert areas that were not irrigated. They we flew to LA. From the plane it was amazing to see the vast wind swept sand/dune/dessert areas then there would be mountain ranges and out of the desert would suddently appear green circles and quares where centre pivots and irrigation channels watered crops.  Now we are in California. Today we took some time out to look at the Yoesmite National Park.

Visist to CIMMYT

We have been to CIMMYT and learnt about the research that took place over the last 60 odd years. It was fantastic to get such an understanding. Dr Norman Borlaug is credited with saving more lives through his work than any other person. Given the advancements in technologies and the events of significance through out history  I think this accolade for an agricultural scientist truly epitomises the value of agriculture

Brazil is over and Now we are in Mexico

Brazil was hectic to say the least. We were on lots of planes and buses and saw some amazingly big concrete jungles known as cities. Sao Paulo is hugh and has a little under 22million people. Thats the same as the whole of Australia in one place. WOW. We saw an incredible array of different agricultural enterprises too.
The focus on agriculture is impressive. They seem very focused on imporving productivity and using research to take them there. They will be able to improve their productivity. There is no doubt about that. They are also focused on the environment , contrary to what I have ever heard about the Brazilans raping the amazon. This is not the case according to all we have been shown. There is such ability to grow and a real committment from government to assist. Look out Australia here comes Brazil.
The work culture among the  people is an intersting aspect, that could both assist or impeed the ability of Brazil to more fast. Its not overly backward here. People clearly want what the modern world offers. Stuff is the same price as home but wages are less. All the employers we spoke to talked of skilled labour being a challenge for their business.  Some of the scholars  are suggesting that the very laid back attitude of the Brazilians may hold them back. I'm still  thinking this one through.

Brazil

We have been in Brazil for 8 days now and have seen coffee, sugar, soy, corn, beef, ethonol, anddairy (my highlight) Brazil is rather impressive. There is no doubt potential here and it WILL play a major part in feeding the world in the next number of years. There is not alot that will hold it back. If you take into account the capacity of todays world to change Brazil will become wealthy quickly form agriculutre and infrastructue and techniques such as breeding will rabily be adopted. the cultural shift of the people to drive this rapidly might be the biiggest hurdle. there is almost a go slow attitude of the staff in places like food shops etc. But I dont see this really holding back the ability of Brazil. 
Brazil itself reminds me of Australia in many ways and Thiland in others.

The title is What is the value of agriculture?? But what do I think about this now

Well our contempery scholars conference is over and we are off to Brazil. All the Brits canadians and French and Dutch have gone and the Aussies are now boarding the plane to Brazil. We have learnt so much. Im clearler on lots of concepts that have been confusing for me like subsidies and free trade and how it all works and why there is so much controversy on the subject but I'm more confused that clear. Its buzzar. So I beleive I know a lot more but its shown me how much more I need to understand.
I have been exposed to the hard nosed ecconomic stategies and arguments and then challenged by the social element of feeding the 9 billion by 2050. Then there is the environmental demand that needs to be accomadated. Ihave so many thoughts that at this point look something like a spagetti bowl of my thoughts.
So what is the value of Agriculture. Well with what has been going on in Japan whist we have been hear in NZ its probably a good time to reflect on the improtance of the fundamental needs of human beings and the social responsibility to feed them. Agriculutre may not at this point command a price that allows profitability to be garanteed but its so bloodly improtant to gow food right acrros the world.

Learning form other around the world

Two days are done and its be learning learning learning.  Learning from the other scholars that we have been networking with at morning tea, lunch and dinner . We have had presentations from amazing presenters from all over the world. Brazil, China and New Zealand of course. Each presenter really challenged and stretched our minds. I felt the overarching message was around free trade being important to improve productivity and assist with the challenge of feeding the world. What I leant  was that in New Zealand when the government embraced the free trade philosophy they also liberalized many other aspects of their own regulations that established an environment  that meant farming could really prosper. Tonight we heard from the Agriculture minister who clearly understands agriculture and wants to see agriculture grow. It appears this nation really wants to see agriculture as part of their  future.  He also claimed that there would not be one New Zealand farmer who would want to back to the days before.   In summary New Zealand have embraced free trade. They have done this by putting a supportive environment around agriculture to encourage and assist  with input costs through reduced taxes and liberalizing labour as two examples that provide this  and they have worked towards making sure their farmers are working collectively to capture the profits. Fonterra  being an example of this.

Networking and meeting all the international scholars

Well its  goodbye to Australia and off of the journey to explore the world of agriculture. We are so far away from the rest of the world its easy to stay focused on your own back yard. I find the challenge when we are so far away is to remember we need to find a place in the global economy. Agriculture is well placed to be a trump card in the future. Can we recognized and optimize this without losing the balance. Neither in favour of greed or selfishness of which neither is sustainable???? That’s the question.

Flying out of Sydney presented some thoughts of sadness at really leaving the family and the easy communications and regular contact I’ve had since leaving home a week ago but not having left Australia. I was fortunate to have a window seat and captured the beauty of Sydney harbor and  the bridge and the yachts. Then high about the clouds into “vanilla fairy floss” land.  I have never  flown into Wellington. Its beautiful gliding into the airport between the rocky outcrops of grey stone that greet you as you  descend into the  bay and land on a tarmac on the edge of the coastline.

Without a moment to spare we were whisked into the reception area of the motel we were booked into and thrust among a crowd of Irish (4) English(19) Dutch (2) Canadians ( not sure have met only one so far)French(1)  New Zealanders(2= One we are continuing on from here with)

I have networked with many so;  farm pig farmers , dairy farmers, arable farmers and a agricultural  lawyer and trade negotiator so far.

Then off to dinner on the waterfront  of Wellington amongst an atmosphere created by a music festival going on around us.

The discussions are amazing. The topics people are exploring seem to be very concerned with the longevity of the industry and future viability. It’s evident the investment of the Nuffield forefathers recognized the value of widening the horizons of agriculturalists by travel is an investment into the future.

Getting "cultured" before we leave

The above photos show us as a groups at the national museum at the art gallery and the War memorial. We attended the ANU and attended a lecture by the European Union representative Dr Tassos Haniotos from Greece on the Common Agriculture policy reform. The evening saw us dining in the nations Parliament as a guest of Parliamentarian  Bruce Scott a Nuffield scholar himself who was speaker of the house today.

ABARE conference +Productivity increases are necessary to stay ahead of the game

Hi all today I spent the day at the conference again and the strong message was ,that we need to increase productivity to stay in front and research will be necessary to achieve this.. Interestingly this got me thinking about the comments that were being made a lot, over the last few days about the price of food going up. I keep wondering how farmers will position themselves to capture some of the profit from this. I asked this question of a panel of farmers and they answered,  by owning brands,  and value adding. The wheat farmers wondered how he was going to value add to his wheat crop. I wonder the same. How can all dairy farmers value add.? Ownership up the supply chain! that is owning brands and being able to value add to base commodities like milk.
I also heard from some amazing farmers who are responsible land managers, making scientifically based decisions  who are innovating and producing food and fibre that significantly contributes to the nations wealth. I reckon the very concerned community out there would be impressed to see the calibre of farmers that the education programs farmers and governments alike have been investing in for some time has produced. Its a strong culture of responsible,educated land managers we have created  Time to let people know this!!!!