THE Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) is pleased to announce a stimulating speaker and alumni member will deliver the next talk in its ‘Lunchtime Leadership Series’ on Thursday, March 10, 2016.
Author and educator Margaret Bridgeford (Australian Rural Leadership Program, Course 5) has re-emerged on to the agricultural stage with a direct challenge to modern farming and its role in our society — that “Modern farming no longer serves our society; today, it serves itself”.
TO view a PDF of the ARLF press release on Margaret Bridgeford’s address, please click here.
In her recent book, Eat … Think … Heal, Margaret challenges the prevailing use of chemicals and fertilisers as a pathway to ‘feed the world’. Instead, she contends that their very use could be slowly killing us.
“Not only are we sick, but our soils are sick too,” Margaret said. “Now we are paying the price with reduced vitamins and minerals in our food and mounting evidence of chemical residues building up in our bodies.”
Chronic decline of human health
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Margaret’s family were crop farmers as well as being pioneers in the cattle feedlot industry on the Darling Downs for more than 50 years. In her book, Margaret traces the beginning of the chronic decline of human health in Western societies to the 1950s and outlines her own family’s personal experience.
Margaret suggests that ‘Big Ag’ has lost its way. It has become a self-serving industry that can no longer ask for the support of the hearts and minds of the broader community.
But — Margaret argues — a return to nature is possible.
“There are alternatives. Consumer ‘choice’ is the most powerful tool to changing current practice.”
Margaret’s book has been heralded as a work of value by Joel Salatin, the highly publicised US farmer who features in a new documentary, Polyfaces. She has also received the support of Dr Christine Jones, a controversial Australian soil ecologist.
Margaret Bridgeford will be the next guest speaker to spark debate and discussion in the ARLF Lunchtime Leadership Series. All are welcome: Thursday, March 10 at noon.
For further information:
Margaret Bridgeford
Ph: 0408-795-456
E: margaret@margaretbridgeford.com.au
Jennifer Andrew, ARLF
Ph: (02) 6281-0680
E: jennifera@rural-leaders.com.au
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