‘Changing Your World on Sustainability, Environment and Safety’ was the topic for the Sustainability Panel at this year’s Agsafe conference.
Delegates heard from a range of industry voices on the subject, including Dr Jonathan Holloway, Syngenta – AgVet Chemicals and the Environment, Ben Andrews, Pact Group – Circular Economy, Reuse vs Recycling, Keith James, MJ Legal – Rural Population, and Mandy Gerhardy, sustainability specialist speaking on Corporate Sustainability and Quality Assurance.
Key issues to emerge from the discussion were:
- challenge for “demand creation” – recycling needs to have an ultimate destination
- agchem products – both international and national regulatory hurdles are now higher than ever before, and the innovative products in the marketplace are superior and more fit for purpose
- changes in community expectations around ‘what is sustainability?’ and the use of ‘climate change’ in the language the ag industry uses
- labor workforce – structural challenges in rural and regional Australia. Skilled migrants are already in Australia, many on temporary or student visas – presenting untapped opportunities.
Following the panel session, author and STEM educator James Kennedy provided some light science related relief with his highly entertaining and educational presentation; ‘Fighting Chemophobia, How we became afraid of chemicals and what to do about it’.
Mr Kennedy said chemophobia is an irrational fear of compounds perceived as ‘synthetic’, and the damage it can cause. The phenomenon has been ascribed both to a concern over the potential adverse effects of synthetic chemicals, and to an irrational fear of these substances because of misconceptions about their potential for harm.
He explored chemophobia’s evolutionary roots, the factors keeping it alive today and how to fight chemophobia successfully. He said humans have evolved to fear chemicals, and we need to re-balance the trust in science.
Futurist Gihan Perera followed with his presentation, ‘Fit for the Future’. Discussing topics such as digital disruption, the hybrid workplace, climate change, the rapid growth of AI, and other big changes affecting us all, and at all levels – individual, team, organisation, and community.
Mr Perera gave delegates a glimpse into what’s ahead – and talked about how to become ‘fit for the future’ and be successful in a fast-changing world. His energy and ability to break down these concepts and make it ‘real’ left the audience asking more questions than time would allow! His key takeaway was that Australia has an opportunity to be the ‘Switzerland’ of Asia in the future.
The final session of the day introduced the updated Agsafe Industry Standard, with Agsafe’s QA lead and facilitator Wayne Sear leading the discussion.
The Agsafe Industry Standard for the safe transport, storage and handling of AgVet chemicals was first developed upon the formation of Agsafe in 1993.
While the inaugural Agsafe Standard had a different structure and requirements to the current Standard, this document, developed 30 years ago started the evolution of the current Standard and is the basis for agchem stewardship industry wide.
