Soil news - The soil carbon and climate policy journey in Australia and the role of different media

Abstract

'Enough soil carbon to mitigate climate change is a big ask' was a litmus piece in the October 2012 edition of Agriculture Today. The paper was the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries' flagship research, advisory and farm management vehicle, published monthly in The Land for 20 years, on the web since 2005 until December 2012. The October 2012 story dovetailed with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television Lateline reporting that the Federal Coalition's (from now on Government's) climate policy could not demonstrate that storing carbon in Australian soils would achieve the major proportion of a target to reduce Australia's greenhouse emissions by five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. It also provided background for the ABC's FactCheck verdict that voters in 2013 federal election were not hearing "the full story on climate research". The real story is how to inform urban Australia's poor understanding and lack of connection to how land managers must maintain and where possible improve soil quality for food security and food production as we adapt to climate change. And if you are in the business of information delivery or providing content, how do you choose your distribution channels to target as wide an audience as possible? One fundamental yardstick to avoid disenfranchising and discriminating against some people who want, and rely on, your information is to continually critically assess how fast high speed internet is reaching marginalised rural areas. Print is still the preferred news medium for the majority of farmers.