"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," says western Victoria grazier and chairman of The Climate Institute, Mark Wootton.
Concern that agriculture is failing to be a constructive player at the emissions trading table has prompted The Climate Institute to develop a discussion paper on how the farm sector might engage with the CPRS, in the hope that it will jolt a useful discussion.
Mr Wootton acknowledges that some of the paper's suggestions will be confronting, but said when viewed long-term, "carbon sense is good sense".
Agriculture needs to put itself into a creative mindset to address the challenges ahead, he believes.
He confesses to disappointment that national politics and some farm lobby organisations have dragged farmers into a negative outlook that has delivered nothing constructive.
Mr Wootton is focused on emissions trading because he believes his grazing operation depends upon a good outcome for agriculture.
His property, 4850 hectare Jigsaw Farms near Hamilton, carries 60-70,000 DSE in the form of about 1350 cows, 9500 Merino ewes and 7000 crossbred ewes, plus 400 ha of cropping.
About 23 per cent of the property is planted to agroforestry, a carbon-sequestering resource that he says on current accounting now gives him an 8000 tonne per year carbon surplus in his emissions profile.
Email a friend