There’s nothing quite like a celebrity to raise awareness of a good cause, and the topic of regenerative farming is certainly benefiting from Rachel Ward’s new documentary film, Rachel’s Farm – a very personal account of the former actress-turned-director’s farming journey in the beautiful Nambucca Valley. (If you don’t remember Thorn Birds, you might recall she is married to Aussie icon Bryan Brown).
With the help of her neighbour and farm manager Mick, Rachel embarks on an experiment to change the way they manage their land, addressing the damage caused by years of conventional farming methods and changing the land back into a living ecosystem which combats climate change rather than contributes to it.
Now, I’m a big fan of Charles Massey, and learned a great deal from reading Call of the Reed Warbler – his revolutionary book about regenerative farming, and I’ve been telling everyone I know to read it for yonks (there’s a loan copy at the Locavore Store if you’re interested). But to be fair, it’s a big read, and much of the detail is only interesting to farmers. The beauty of this film is its digestibility for everyone – and the clear explanation of how cattle can help heal the land rather than contribute to climate change is one I am truly grateful for.
As cattle farmers we sometimes bear the brunt of blame for carbon emissions – and each of our children have, at some point in time, come home from school (usually about year 5) angrily armed with the newly discovered knowledge that our primary source of income is causing environmental damage, and that the methane emissions from our cows are the irrefutable cause of climate change.
What Rachel discovered is something the primary school syllabus unfortunately does not yet cover, and that is the potential of regenerative farming to sequester carbon back into our soils, and even more surprisingly to the former vegetarian, that cattle can be a very effective tool for doing this. Describing them as giant moving composters, Rachel’s collaborator Mick Green explains how we need animals to ecologically improve our pastures, by grazing, stomping and fertilizing – reversing the carbon loss caused by years of burning, spraying, over-tilling and overgrazing.
Rachel’s Farm is beautifully filmed and well-narrated by a humble and open-minded Rachel, whose quest to secure a better future for her grandchildren, and do ‘her bit’ to respond to the frightening prospect of global warming, land degradation and increased bushfires is both relatable and inspiring, and the odd appearance of the handsome Bryan Brown is an extra bonus.
The film is being screened at various special venues in Perth, but I watched it on Prime. Its also available on Vimeo, Google Play, Apple TV and more. For more resources about regenerative farming start with: The Regenerators, RegenWA and Soils for Life.
