Rachel Ward, Brian Wehlburg, Em Yeo and Cameron Laurie discuss Rachels new documentary Rachel's Farm
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 and to the Tari Film Society for putting this on.
00:02 This is amazing.
00:04 This is what a host screening can do,
00:05 which is, 'cause obviously we're not running
00:08 in the cinemas at the moment,
00:10 but this is our second opportunity, really,
00:14 to get people into the cinemas,
00:15 which is to host a screening.
00:19 So I'm really thrilled to see it's working so well,
00:22 and that there is obviously an incredible amount of interest.
00:27 And it's been a frustrating experience with the film,
00:30 because basically what we had to suck up
00:35 was what was called a limited release,
00:37 which basically means that it's really only shown
00:40 in the mornings, and you know,
00:42 nine o'clock in the morning or at lunchtime.
00:45 And it made it very difficult, really,
00:47 to sort of, to really get people into the cinemas.
00:50 And they always need word of mouth.
00:52 And anyone who sees the film feels,
00:55 gets something a lot out of it, I feel.
00:57 And there's enormous potential for word of mouth.
01:00 But it was obviously limited.
01:01 We were up against Barbie and Oppenheimer,
01:03 and we went out very quickly.
01:06 But we are coming onto Stan after Christmas,
01:09 and we're at Qantas and Emirates and those.
01:13 So I think that anybody who wants to see this film
01:16 will actually get to see it.
01:17 But obviously there is a keen interest,
01:20 and I'm fascinated to know why you came,
01:24 why you're interested.
01:26 Because we need to get our finger on that pulse,
01:28 don't we, Brian?
01:29 We need to, you know, we need to know
01:32 how to grow this interest.
01:35 We need to know, we need to talk about
01:38 what food we eat, where we're getting it from,
01:40 and to really change that paradigm
01:42 of just understanding what you're putting in your mouth.
01:46 Because I didn't know three years ago.
01:49 And really, when I first met Brian,
01:52 I was right at the beginning of my journey,
01:53 and I had really no idea,
01:56 really, the limitation of what I was eating
02:02 and what I could eat.
02:03 And then when I discovered this,
02:05 I was just very inspired to pass the message on,
02:10 this is why I made the film,
02:11 to pass the message on to everyone else,
02:13 who I felt was pretty much like me,
02:15 ignorant of really what they were eating.
02:18 I'm sure many of you aren't, but I certainly was.
02:21 And it's been a real revolution for me
02:25 just to be eating right.
02:26 And we have to demand better food.
02:31 Because if we don't demand the better food,
02:33 the retailers are not going to supply it,
02:36 and the farmers are not going to change the way they farm.
02:39 - I struggle with the regenerative word,
02:42 you know, as an adjective, it describes something.
02:45 And I think as Rachel's portrayed it, it's a journey.
02:49 And so I always try and push people,
02:51 say, let's talk about regenerating,
02:54 because I believe there are going to be new ideas,
02:57 some ancient, that are going to be brought back
02:59 into our knowledge, and some new ideas,
03:01 some new technologies that are going to evolve
03:03 over the next sort of five, 10, 15, 20 years.
03:07 You know, we can hardly dream about today.
03:09 But yeah, it's an activity, it's a moving.
03:13 So I like to talk about regenerating agriculture,
03:16 and then people say, well, what's that?
03:17 Well, it's regenerating the environment.
03:20 And you know, we have a desperate need for that to happen.
03:23 When you hear people talking about, you know,
03:25 for every kg of food we produce,
03:27 we're exporting, you know, seven to nine kgs of topsoil.
03:30 We have to turn this boat around, we have to.
03:35 And we're not talking about little adjustments,
03:36 we're talking about basically a revolution.
03:39 And as we know, revolutions start with individuals
03:42 like yourselves, making those good decisions
03:46 for yourself and your family.
03:48 If you dare watch the news at night, you know.
03:50 (laughs)
03:51 There's not much hope out there,
03:52 but in this space right now, there is tremendous hope.
03:55 And we see the growing of it, whether it's farmers markets,
03:59 you know, I do a fair bit of traveling around the base,
04:01 and then farmers markets popping up everywhere.
04:03 They're not convenient, you know, it rains on the day,
04:06 or, excuse me, they run out of sausages
04:08 when you arrive at the desk.
04:10 But it's, there's great hope there, which is fantastic.
04:14 Got involved in what the Landcare was probably
04:17 our first, one of our first steps.
04:19 But I also was Googling around because I wanted to,
04:22 you know, realizing we were moving to the coast,
04:25 it's a different demographic, we were going to bring sheep,
04:28 how can we do things better?
04:30 And I found Mindstone Permaculture up at Stroud.
04:33 Connecting with Landcare, connecting with
04:37 the permaculture community, and then connecting
04:40 with Brian and the holistic community.
04:43 And then we found Young Farmers Connect,
04:45 and you just start, as you put it out in the world,
04:48 it starts attracting to you.
04:49 So we became part of the Great Lakes Food Trial,
04:52 which is sponsored by local land services,
04:55 and also part of Landcare.
04:58 And we started the Holding Field Days,
05:00 we're doing pasture trials, like it just evolved.
05:02 And, you know, big passionate people,
05:06 when you put that out there, it comes back to you.
05:08 So, you are so classical of so many people in this,
05:13 in this space.
05:13 (audience applauding)
05:15 And one of the things that I've absolutely loved
05:17 is just meeting my tribe.
05:20 I suddenly went, this is a tribe I didn't know I had,
05:24 I was in the film industry, and it's a tribe,
05:26 the film industry tribe is very competitive,
05:29 very, there's very little money to go around,
05:32 so people jump for what they got,
05:33 everybody's looking over their shoulder.
05:35 And this tribe was very different.
05:38 It was just, everybody was like you are,
05:42 just so yes, can do, let's, I mean,
05:45 I have to find out about this trail we've got going on.
05:48 And people like Brian, who is just unbelievable energy.
05:53 I mean, you are just, there has to be seven, eight of you.
05:57 I don't believe there's only one of you.
06:00 Everywhere, all over the place,
06:01 and he's impacted so many people in this space.
06:04 And Wilmot, you know, just the team that comes together,
06:08 and all those people that share, really,
06:11 I mean, we all know we've got an issue with the environment,
06:14 but when you meet these people,
06:15 they're actually people who have gone,
06:17 there is a really good way to change a lot of stuff around.
06:22 And it comes from, you know, farming,
06:25 and choosing the way you eat, it's two things.
06:28 It's not only what you eat, how much better that is for you,
06:31 but it's also about the influence
06:33 that you have on the land.
06:35 So you are speaking, really, with two,
06:37 with two values, with two passions, really,
06:41 once you get into this space.
06:43 And you meet some really fabulous people,
06:47 as I'm sure those of you who go to markets will know.
06:50 You know, the people in the markets are,
06:52 I mean, for a start, the people at the markets
06:55 can call their own price, which most farmers can't.
06:59 We're one of the only people that cannot name our price.
07:02 We just have to accept what we're given.
07:05 And in the markets, those people are there,
07:07 why they're so important to support,
07:09 is that they actually are setting their own price,
07:12 and they're actually able to make a living,
07:14 which most of us out there are not able to do,
07:17 because we are so much at the mercy
07:21 of these horrendous markets, which fly up and down.
07:25 - Is a need for farming to become,
07:28 for farmers to be passionate, for one.
07:30 So that passion implies love.
07:33 You have to have passion to love something.
07:36 So to produce good food, you have to love what you're doing.
07:41 And good food is the primary health giver
07:43 for everybody on the planet.
07:46 So I'm pretty passionate that farming
07:50 become an aspirational thing for our kids, too.
07:54 So in terms of resilience, you're talking about, Brian,
07:57 that we need resilience on the farm.
08:00 We also need resilience through time.
08:04 For farming to continue to feed us, as we need to be fed,
08:09 we need to actually create it as something
08:11 that our kids wanna do.
08:13 - But you are your nature.
08:16 40 years ago, we said our gut, nothing lived in our stomachs
08:20 because it was too acid.
08:21 Today, we understand without all those microbes
08:24 in your stomach, you would die.
08:26 We are totally connected to our environment.
08:28 So again, if you dare watch the news tonight,
08:31 have a look at those countries
08:32 that have been literally killing each other
08:34 for hundreds of years.
08:36 Look behind the people being in tune.
08:39 When a country destroys its environment,
08:41 we kill each other.
08:42 That's what we do as humans.
08:44 And so it's really important
08:46 that we turn this biodiversity loss around.
08:49 If we want to have good, healthy lives
08:52 where we're not out there grubbing 24 hours a day
08:54 for something to eat.
08:56 - I think what's so great for me
08:59 is that I now have an education.
09:02 Hugely because I was actually doing it,
09:05 but certainly a lot of credit to Brian as well.
09:08 And we're still both learning every day.
09:11 I mean, we had a really bad year last year.
09:14 We had a terrible influx of ticks
09:19 and it really affected the cattle--
09:23 - Conception rate.
09:24 - Conception rate.
09:25 It really affected the conception rate.
09:27 So we went right down this year
09:29 and then we've got these very low markets.
09:32 So we've both been looking at each other
09:35 and going, "Well, what did we do wrong?
09:37 "Where did we go wrong?
09:38 "How can we turn this around?"
09:40 And Nick, to his credit,
09:44 it takes a lot of responsibility for that
09:46 as he's making a lot of the choices.
09:48 And when you start out in this thing,
09:50 God, there's a lot of mistakes you can make.
09:52 And it's very regional.
09:53 So even though I did my course with Brian
09:56 in the sort of the region,
09:58 it wasn't necessarily specific to my region.
10:02 And as you were saying about the film,
10:05 it's so specific to your region, how you farm
10:09 and how you adapt the certain teachings to fit your farm.
10:13 And that just does take a number of years
10:15 to get your head around to get it right.
10:18 Because there is really no,
10:20 there's no prescription, is there?
10:23 I mean, you have to adjust for your specific place.
10:27 I mean, my farm, which is on one side of the road,
10:30 is completely different to my farm,
10:32 which is on the other side of the road.
10:34 And I'm having to make management decisions
10:36 between one and the other.
10:38 So, I mean, Brian and I, I've been in America
10:42 looking to get the film out in America and Europe.
10:45 And I've been away for about a month.
10:47 And I came back and today,
10:49 we just spent the first time together in a month.
10:51 And we were just like, "Ah!"
10:53 (audience laughing)
10:56 I mean, it's just, it's a, it never dries up, does it?
11:00 You're always got something to talk about.
11:02 You're always, I mean, do you have this with your wife?
11:04 Are you, is she plugged into it as well?
11:08 (audience laughing)
11:10 - No.
11:10 - I don't have it with Brian,
11:14 'cause he's just not interested, as you can see.
11:17 Beginning of the film, he could not dig that thing.
11:20 And now he is just, he just stands on it
11:22 and down it, in it goes.
11:23 And the soil comes up and it's dark
11:26 and it looks like chocolate.
11:27 And I just know the difference between that soil now
11:30 than it was three years ago is extraordinary.
11:34 But, you know, problems keep coming.
11:36 But that, at least, is, I know I'm on the right track there.
11:40 Yeah, and there's dung beetles out there.
11:42 And, yeah, we can see it with the bird life
11:45 and just the butterflies that are out there.
11:48 It's all, it's not just about,
11:51 the soil has an incredible cascading effect
11:53 on everything else as well.
11:55 - And there's been some wonderful work done
11:57 with the Armandale University,
11:59 looking at families putting birds together.
12:03 And all, I mean, financially, that is a winner.
12:06 Socially, fantastic.
12:07 You know, we wanna go and, you know,
12:09 process the animals, come across, do the job,
12:12 have a barbecue, drink some beer,
12:14 create those social connections.
12:16 And environmentally, a huge plus.
12:18 So, you know, I think those are the two things
12:20 we need to be looking at.
12:21 How we can help become more diverse in our production.
12:25 And there's, you know, there are easy ways
12:28 of getting into that where we don't spend a lot of money.
12:31 The logo on my folder says,
12:33 "Make your vision so powerful that your fears disappear."
12:37 Thank you.
12:39 - Thanks, Brian.
12:40 (audience applauding)
12:43 - Yeah, I mean, for me, it's just been an amazing journey.
12:46 And it certainly isn't over.
12:49 And it's sort of completely reinvigorated me,
12:52 just getting involved, learning a whole new thing,
12:55 and just sort of getting to understand the soil,
12:58 the ecology, everybody who's in that space.
13:01 It's been, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
13:06 - All right, thank you, Brian.
13:07 (audience applauding)
13:10 - Thanks.
13:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]