Presenters

Graeme Anderson - Senior Climate Specialist,

Department of Primary Industries, Farm Service Victoria

Graeme leads DPI’s climate extension program, and can offer some practical insights into the carbon and emissions story for our farms, as well as the types of areas where farmers are taking action to the benefit of their business.

He has a 23 year extension background in science and policy communication, farm planning, catchment management, forestry and agriculture industry development and land use change. He has previously managed a plantation carbon sink pilot program which brokered carbon agreements with Victorian farmers – learning much in the process which he is keen to share. He is passionate about supporting our agriculture leaders and rural communities to be better able to make sense of climate and carbon issues so we can make well informed decisions in the decade ahead.

graeme.anderson@dpi.vic.gov.au

Mick Keogh - Executive Director, Australian Farm Institute 

Mick Keogh grew up on a farm in southern New South Wales where he managed a beef cattle research station and worked as an agribusiness consultant. During this time Mick participated in a wide range of industry and government funded consultancy projects.

In 1992 Mick joined the New South Wales Farmers’ Association and was appointed General Manager of Policy. Currently Mick Keogh is the Executive Director of the Australian Farm Institute. The Institute is an independent organisation which was established to conduct research into public policy issues impacting on the Australian farm sector. It promotes ‘policy solutions that maximise the economic and social wellbeing of farmers’. Mick Keogh will talk about the practicalities and issues of carbon trading.

www.farminstitute.org.au

Corey Watts - Regional Projects Manager, The Climate Institute

Corey Watts is from southwest Western Australia and presently resides in Melbourne.  He is a past member of the Australian Landcare Council and worked eight years with the Australian Conservation Foundation. In this role he was involved with farmers and the food sector on issues such as farmland stewardship, bioenergy, national natural resource management policy and sustainable food futures.

Currently Corey is employed by The Climate Institute, which is a non-partisan, independent research organisation whose vision is ‘for a resilient Australia prospering in a low carbon global economy’. Corey Watts will speak on the policy behind Carbon Farming.

www.theclimateinstitute.com.au

Jon Graftdyk - Dept of Primary Industries, Innovation in Agriculture

Dr Jon Graftdyk has a PhD in Landscape Restoration Ecology and a long career of working within the field of Natural Resource Management. He has worked for Landcare, Reef Rescue in Queensland and currently works for the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria.

Jon is the team leader for the Drylands Project in the Port Phillip Westernport region, and delivers the Grassy Box Woodlands project and Soil Health projects in the North East. He is also part of the Innovation in Agriculture Team who developed the Making cent$ of carbon and emissions on-farm unit and the presentation for FarmPlan21.

jon.graftdyk@dpi.vic.gov.au