1. Report and photo's (below)

2. Revised Tour Booklet (right)

3. Media Articles/ Radio Interviews (scroll down)

 

The BFSSCT was held on 11th and 12th May, visiting 8 properties within central South Australia and South West Victoria.

The tour highlighted the potential contribution of agriculture, using biological farming systems (BFS), to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide into soil organic carbon (SOC), providing the option to offset Australia’s emissions over the next 40 years.
Estimates are that a 1% increase in soil carbon in just 10% of Australia’s farmland could remove 10 years’ worth of Australia’s carbon emissions while a 4% increase in soil carbon could remove 40 years’ worth.
In addition, increasing soil carbon levels has economic benefits - the potential to increase productivity, improve drought and salinity resistance, and to reduce the need for costly inputs (chemical fertilisers, insecticides/ pesticides and animal drenches, et al – which will yield healthier food and fibre). 
Currently there are over 300,000 hectares in Australia using BFS, indicating the additional benefits to agricultural production over and above building SOC and CO₂ sequestration.
These benefits reduce the cost of the carbon offsets, thus providing Australia with a low cost, environmentally beneficial pathway to a low carbon economy – a ‘Carbon Bridge’.

BFSSC Tour Details
Australia’s former Governor General, Major General Michael Jeffery acted as patron to the tour, based on his personal interest in highlighting the imperative to remediate Australia’s agricultural landscape.
Over sixty persons including scientists from University of Adelaide, DPI; leaders of carbon farming organizations; as well as investors and business leaders from companies such as Woodside Energy Ltd, The Griffin Group and Australian Agricultural Company (Australia’s largest agricultural landholder) took part in the tour.
Eight properties using BFS were visited over 2 days throughout central South Australia and South West Victoria, covering various agricultural industries: broad acre continuous cropping, pasture, dairy, raised bed cropping and viticulture.
The tour was hosted by Ignite Energy Resources Director, Dr John White, and LawrieCo founder and Managing Director, Adrian Lawrie.