New government analysis has put evidence to the story Australian farmers have been telling for years - that they produce in a clean, green way none of their international competitors can match.
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The Australian Bureau of Agriculture Resource Economics today released an international comparisons report on agri-environmental indicators which shows Australian farmers use less fertiliser, have better nutrient balances on their land and use more sustainable cropping practices.
A massive 80 per cent of our grain production area is subject to no-till practices, compared to between 10 and 60pc in other grain-growing countries.
After adjustment to account for environmental diversity, Australia's emission intensities are below the average for cereals, cattle and specialist beef production.
And Australia's near-zero use of agricultural subsidies avoids creating market distortions that create poor environmental outcomes from agriculture.
Australian agriculture has a brilliant sustainability story to tell, and sell, as the much-touted ESG - environmental, social, governance - juggernaut gathers more and more momentum, a major farming conference in Adelaide today heard.
The Australian Farm Institute's mid-year conference honed in on ESG goals and target setting, featuring experts in the field from a wide range of sectors including finance, government, science, and of course, agriculture.
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AFI executive director Richard Heath said while there were understandably many in the farming sector nervous about the concept of ESG, it was an 'unstoppable force'.
"Regardless of the risk or the opportunities, it is happening," he said.
"ESG goals and targets are now being adopted by every major corporate entity around the world. Big food companies like Cargill and Nestle have set ambitious goals for a time that is not far away.
"Nestle wants 100 per cent of its ingredients to be produced sustainably by 2030, for example."
Against this backdrop, Australian agriculture was certainly not standing still, the conference heard.
From Dairy Australia's goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 30pc by 2030 to the National Farmers' Federation's support for an economy-wide transition to net zero by 2050, there was working happening across the board.
Meat & Livestock Australia's carbon neutral by 2030 goal, known as CN30, was "as ambitious as it gets globally for an ESG goal", Mr Heath said.
Sustainability frameworks had been set up across numerous farming sectors and were being transferred into action, the conference's keynote speaker Rosemary Deininger, deputy secretary for the Department of Agriculture, said.
"Strong sustainability credentials are becoming a premium global trading currency," she said. "And by global standards we are doing a good job."
Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt also addressed the conference, virtually, saying that increasingly consumers, financiers and international markets were looking at Australian ag's ESG performance.
"We need to respond to maintain the high reputation Australian ag has enjoyed," he said.
Alongside that, the driver for this sort of work was the ability to survive in a future dominated by climate change, he said.
"There's no doubt the ag sector is feeling the effects of climate change," Mr Watt said.
"ABARES modeling shows changes to seasonal conditions has reduced the average farm's profitability by 23pc over the past 20 years.
"We can't let that downhill trend continue."
South Gippsland dairy farmer and Nuffield Scholar Graeme Nicoll said the first step for farmers was to understand where their industry was heading in the sustainability space - what the collective goals and targets were and where it was at right now.
Westpac's agribusiness sector lead for Net Zero, Alison Osborne, said farmers should now be using a carbon calculator, putting data in and working out what their farm footprint was.
"Work out whether you have a liability before you start selling your carbon or biodiversity assets," she said.