Anika Molesworth - Our Sunburnt Country

Anika Molesworth fell in love with her familys farm, a sheep station near Broken Hill, at an early age. She formed a bond with the land as though it were a member of her family. When the Millennium Drought hit, though, bringing with it heatwaves and duststorms, the future shed always imagined for herself began to seem impossible.

As she learned more about the causes of and the solutions to the extreme weather that was killing her land and her livelihood, Anika became fired up and determined to speak out. Talking to farmers and food producers all around the world, she soon realised that there was a way forward that could be both practical and sustainable if only we can build up the courage to take it.

Beautifully written and full of hope, Our Sunburnt Country shows that there is a way to protect our land, our food and our future, and it is within our grasp.

I acknowledge the Aboriginal People of the place I call home and recognise their continuing connection to land, water, animals, plants and culture. I pay my respect to the Wilyakali people and Elders past, present and emerging. I also extend that respect to all First Peoples in Australia and around the world, and celebrate their enduring relationships to their homes and honour the value of their knowledge and stories that help us create a brighter future together.

To my family,
who are my home.

FOR ME, FOOD is about family. Its the delicious, steaming meals that bring us around the table together and connect me to my home not only because home is where I cook and share stories around the kitchen table, but because my home also produces food.

My familys farm is located in one of the most beautiful and fragile places of Australia, in far western New South Wales. Its a landscape of endless sapphire-blue sky, ancient trees twisted by the years and unique beady-eyed creatures that live among them. Red sand horizons stretch out forever and set the stage for the most spectacular sunrises, swirling all the colours of an artists palette. Here we raise sheep on rugged ranges and over flat grass country. The animals graze in a quiet broken only occasionally by the swoosh of a passing flock of ruby-flecked parrots. My home fills me with awe and wonder every day, and is a place to which I feel a great sense of belonging and a responsibility to look after.

Although everyone has some interest in the weather if it is rainy or warm and sunny outdoors for farmers nothing is more important to their way of life. Temperature and rainfall guide decisions such as when to sow and harvest crops, and how much water is available to grow grain and for livestock to drink. Our way of life is embedded deeply in our environment. So it is understandable that there is a growing concern now that things are changing.

Natural rhythms and seasonal cycles are no longer acting as they once did. Nature is breaking down around us. These observations are backed up by science. The evidence is clear. As a global society, we have emitted dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping heat and increasing global temperatures. In so doing, we have thrown the climate system into chaos and the food system into harms way.

As farmers live and work so closely with the natural world, we are some of the first to feel the true impacts of climate change. Hotter temperatures are directly associated with heatwaves and bushfires, while greater evaporation dries out soils and causes heart-wrenching droughts. More moisture in the atmosphere increases rain and flooding intensity by fuelling the rage of storms and cyclones. Crop and livestock diseases are spreading, worsening animal welfare and foods nutritional value. These disruptions have impacted what type of food farmers can produce and where. Around the globe, mounting food and livelihood insecurities are now driving mass rural-to-urban migration, exacerbating poverty and inequalities in the most vulnerable and important communities that of our food producers.

And, at the end of the day, the impacts of climate change on the farming community affect all of us, as we all eat food.

Climate change threatens every meal on every plate.

Over the past few decades, the world has changed immensely as a burgeoning global population has asked more and more of our common home. We have razed forests to make our coffee; mined precious minerals for the latest gadgets; snuffed out birdsong and humming insects for highways and honking; and have polluted our land, water and skies as though consequences do not exist.

The way we are devouring the planet is unsustainable. To highlight this, we need look no further than the food system. It is broken. Agriculture and associated land use consumes 75 per cent of the water extracted from nature, occupies more than 30 per cent of land surface, is a primary driver of biodiversity loss, and generates around 30 per cent of human greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is impacting what we eat, and what we eat is impacting climate change. For those of us in developed countries, food that is neither seasonal nor local travels thousands of kilometres, and is smothered in plastic and chemicals to satisfy our insatiable appetites. Our bodies warn us to stop as medications and hospital admissions increase. But we continue to select high-sugar, high-salt, high-fat, highly processed foods that defy nutritional recommendations. These resource-consuming, carbon-intense foods cripple our health, yet we stuff them in our mouths and demand them at the cheapest price. Any excess food is scraped into the bin, trashing precious finite resources and releasing gases of rotting wasted food into our skies. And still we remain complacent, naively thinking that what were doing can continue. Because theres food in the shops today, we believe that there will be tomorrow.

But delusions of safety do not actually protect us. Reality has a way of catching up. And the food on our plates is at risk. Farm production, processing, transport, consumption and waste define the global food system. Interactions are highly complex and connected. But the system isnt working. Today, 2 billion people are overweight or obese while more than 800 million people in the world are hungry. Two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and a quarter of the worlds children under the age of five are affected by stunting because they are not eating enough or the right kind of food. Meanwhile, perversely, enough food is wasted every year to feed 3 billion people.

These statistics should make us feel unsettled in the stomach. Such troubles are hard to digest. So, the question of our age has been laid on the table before us: How do we simultaneously achieve good health for people and our planet?

The world is in a perilous state and what we have lost and destroyed over the past few decades is inexcusable. Grief and frustration infect many of us. Yet it would be more inexcusable to give up, not to save and protect what can be. There is so much beauty and mystery in our world that deserves our care and respect. Our food system is fragile, and so is all the life that depends upon it. Life that depends on us.

Acknowledging the climate crisis and the responsibility it demands of us is not done lightly. And thats where courage comes into it.

As global challenges erode the pillars of food security its availability, access, utilisation and stability we can choose to watch on as silent witnesses, or find the inner strength to change our trajectory. What we do today will determine our tomorrow. Igniting hope and mobilising people with better narratives towards an exciting vision is whats needed. Using our imaginations to redefine how our society interacts with the planet, harnessing traditional knowledge and employing innovative technologies will set us on a better path. These actions will help create a truly sustainable and climate-resilient food system that nourishes communities and regenerates landscapes. We can fill the leadership void by stepping out of our comfort zone, shifting mindsets and inspiring behaviour change. Climate courage is the mental and moral strength to express our fears, challenge the status quo, and help bring to life the vision that