Advocacy Edition: Reaching net zero in horticulture with Richard Heath

Vegalogue is a regular podcast from vegetable, potato and onion industry peak body AUSVEG, where we examine the pressing issues and latest developments in our sector.

Join us as we discuss the many diverse facets of commercial vegetable production in Australia with growers, industry figures, researchers and many more of the incredible people who make up our vital industry.
With the Australian government pushing for net zero emissions by 2050 and customers, retailers, and financial institutions increasingly wanting information on growers’ emissions, the agriculture sector is at the forefront of the climate change narrative, facing pressure to drive down its emissions.

At the same time, decarbonisation is often seen as a cost burden that creates a trade-off against economic imperatives that drive productivity, profitability, growth and asset building at a time of significant margin squeeze.

The Zero Net Emissions Agriculture Cooperative Research Centre (ZNE-Ag CRC), however, aims to coordinate opportunities to develop, derisk and scale technologies while growing profitable and sustainable farming businesses.

In this episode we speak with Richard Heath, the CEO of ZNE-Ag CRC and a Director of the Grains Research and Development Corporation, who says that horticulture makes up just over 1 percent of the total 17 percent that agriculture contributes to Australia's emissions. Much of what we do in horticulture is already well on the way to Australia’s net-zero goals, and Richard explains that the main goal is improving efficiencies and continually building best practices.

Greenhouse gas emissions calculators talked about in the episode:

• Agricultural Innovation Australian Environmental Accounting Platform
• Horticulture Greenhouse Accounting Framework (H-GAF) Calculator

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