Change Can Be Hard - But Not Impossible.

Change is scary and regenerative agriculture is a change from the industrial commodity status quo. Like it or not, fear drives many of our decisions. Fear is an emotional response to the unknown or the unfamiliar. Research has demonstrated that fear of humiliation or rejection is the greatest motivator in most of our decision making and enters our thought process before logic and reason. This is a psychological and biological fact. Farmers are human, so we too fear what others may think of us. It takes courage to move beyond the fear that dominates our decisions.

Yet change is common in agriculture. Not many farmers are farming like grandparents did: running open-station narrow front tractors with trip buckets: hand--milking into buckets: using a scythe or draft animals to power much of their farming. All segments of society are accustomed to operating within a certain set of social norms, and industrial commodity farmers are no different. We feel adherence to these norms ensures our position within that social unit and most will work to avoid “rocking the boat” for fear of becoming ostracized from their peer group.

So when you’re on the edge and under pressure now-today, and wondering how you’re going to make it through without losing the farm, confronted with rising input prices, the likes of which you’ve never seen, what the hell do you do?

Do you just carry on, be strong, maybe complain with your neighbours (they're going through it too), but without changing anything, then at least you won’t be the weird one. The one that takes risks, looks odd, tries something new, and maybe even fails. Or even succeeds, which might change who you are, altering your values, perspectives, or lifestyle. It may also distance you from past communities or ways of thinking. These are scary thoughts.

And if you’ve read this far, maybe this is the first step. Acknowledging that something has to change, and that its scary.

It's been suggested that 80% of farmers in Australia, who have transitioned to regenerative agriculture, did so because of trauma, not because they looked over the fence of a regen farm and saw that things were better there, and wanted some of that. Are you on that edge? Are you up against it?

Do you need a confidential ear, where you can talk these things through? Someone with zero vested interest in the outcome, who is not going to come up with a clever solution, but will just listen for as long as it takes for you to work out what is the right thing for you. And importantly, someone who is not afraid of feelings, when they bubble up.

This might be a way to find your next step.