Tuesday, November 25, 2008

WHO is Carbon Farmers of Australia (CFA)?


Carbon Farmers of Australia (CFA) is the commercial arm of the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming (the Carbon Coalition) , a farmers' lobby that promotes increasing soil carbon levels as a solution to declining soil health and farm profits, and the effects of Climate Change. Active members include farmers, agronomists, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and extension officers. The Coalition has conducted an awareness-raising campaign in the media and members have addressed more than 200 gatherings in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The Coalition’s members have appeared before and made submissions to many government enquiries and lobbied individual politicians. When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced an enquiry into soil carbon in early 2008, The Land newspaper declared that the Coalition had “single-handedly barnstormed the issue onto the national agenda.” A Coalition delegation visited the USA in 2006 and consulted with leaders of the 3 Presidential partnerships of States addressing terrestrial carbon sequestration. It also secured the first order for Australian agricultural soil carbon from the Chicago Climate Exchange. To encourage more collaboration between scientists and farmers in research projects, the Coalition, in collaboration with Catchment Management Authorities, has staged a series of 4 “Soil Science Summits” to promote knowledge exchange between farmers and graziers and leading soil scientists. The CFA has now staged 2 annual Carbon Farming Conferences. Most recently they represented Australia at the United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organisation’s “Conservation Farming Carbon Offset Consultation” in Indiana in October, 2008. Co-Convenors of the Coalition, Michael and Louisa Kiely, are woolgrowers from the Central West of NSW in Australia.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
CALL (612) 6374 0329, michael@carboncoalition.com.au

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