Ten walkers have laced their boots and set off on a week-long trek down Tasmania’s East Coast, all in aid of supporting Australian farmers.
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Walking through Tasmania’s stunning countryside, tasting farm fresh produce and hearing the stories of Tasmania’s farmers, the trekkers are also in for a treat.
The Trek for Aussie Farmers campaign is an initiative of landcare, to help support and develop sustainable farming practices.
Farmer Charlie Arnott will be hosting the trek, which began in Launceston on Saturday and will finish in Port Arthur on March 3.
“Every day we either visit a farm or a significant area and meet the farmers, get to sample their beautiful produce and each day we trek somewhere between six and 10 kilometres, which incorporates some farming landscape but also the beautiful Tasmanian landscape,” Mr Arnott said.
“It’s combining the environment but also the food and also as important the stories that the farmers have were there to educate ourselves and raise our own awareness of those particular farms and Tasmanian agriculture generally.”
The trek is hoped to operate as both an awareness-raiser and a fundraiser.
“It’s sort of a two pronged campaign; the trekkers as individuals are raising money which then goes to Landcare Australia and is then made available to farmers who have sustainable farming practices or projects,” Mr Arnott said.
“Then the other half is the awareness raising … we’re raising our own awareness by being on the trek but also raising awareness of others about where their food is from, paddock to plate and reconnecting with their food and their famers.”
Mr Arnott would like to see people be more curious about the food they are eating, and in this way influence and support more sustainable farmers and farming practices.
...what I encourage people to do is ask more questions about where their food is from, who produced it, how it was produced.
- Charlie Arnott
“Outside of this particular campaign what I encourage people to do is ask more questions about where their food is from, who produced it, how it was produced,” he said.
“I’d encourage them to be more curious about what they're putting in their mouths and their bodies and their families bodies.
“I think that knowledge is power and the more knowledge that people have, individuals have, and the more they understand about their food the more they can have a direct input into the production of that food.”
Farmers, who are already at the behest of the weather, are facing new challenges with a changing climate driving floods, droughts and fires.
Mr Arnott believes sustainable farming offers farmers a positive future.
“So many things in our businesses we are not in control of, we are in control of how we adapt to those changes and our responses to that,” Mr Arnott said.
“A move towards sustainable farming practices not just produces amazing, healthy, clean food, it also moves farmers towards a more sustainable and resilient environment or business.”
Tasmania was the obvious choice to host the trek supporting sustainable farming Mr Arnott said.
“We’ve pictured Tasmania as the preferred place to do [the trek] because it has such a wonderful history of good sustainable food production and just the unique pristine environment down there produces wonderful food,” he said.
Mr Arnott is also excited to be part of an initiative that advantages farmers adopting new approaches to farming.
“It is great that the ones who are doing sustainable farming and environmentally and ethically producing food are rewarded in some way for their efforts,” he said.
As the leader of the trek, Mr Arnott brings his own experience and knowledge as a biodynamic farmer to contribute to the experience.
“I call myself a feeder and I call my customers eaters and that’s the simplest way to put it, my job, my responsibility as a farmer is now to procure food to feed people, whereas when I was convention farming I was just producing a commodity,” Mr Arnott said.
“I went from producing a commodity to sell into the market place to go knows who to the responsibility of growing food to feed people; that was a big change in my own philosophy and attitude toward life and my career and my business.”
It is hoped the Trek for Aussie Farmers will raise $30,000 and each trekker is tasked with raising $1000 or more. To donate to the campaign to support sustainable farmers go to https://tasmaniantrekchallenge.raisely.com/.