Talk to explore the journey from paddock to plate

KATE Sharkey from Boundary Fence Tours will be sharing a behind the scenes look at a working farm at next month’s BaccChat.

Held on Saturday 5 July at Lerderderg Library, Ms Sharkey will discuss modern sustainable agriculture and the journey from paddock to plate.

“I will give an insight into what it takes to run a commercial farm these days,” Ms Sharkey said.

“We’ve been in operation for over a century, so we have a bit of an idea how we have to keep adapting and changing.”

Ms Sharkey has worked in the agricultural sector in Australia and the United Kingdom and has managed a rural national scholarship program supporting Australian students.

She studied agribusiness at Marcus Oldham and is a co-founder of a regional food producer networking group.

Boundary Fence Tours was started by Ms Sharkey in 2018 to help urban based food educators understand sustainable food production on a practical level.

“Really my general interest is education or advocacy around the non-farmer having a better understanding of the realities of primary food production,” Ms Sharkey said.

“The industry is actually quite small so it’s really the everyday consumers who need to know and understand.

“Unfortunately, with the ever-growing gap of the city country divide it just gets greater and greater and greater.”

Ms Sharkey said it’s important for consumers to understand the high standard of food grown in Australia.

“The problem that a lot of consumers don’t understand and its not their fault… we’ve been a very very lucky country where we’ve got exceptional farmers,” she said.

“If the average consumer doesn’t appreciate and understand what it means if Australian agriculture goes into decline then a whole range of things come into play.

“The more we import food the less control we potentially have over things we can buy and eat.”

The talk will be on Saturday 5 July from 10am until 11am at Lerderderg Library.

To register, visit the Moorabool Shire Council website.