Compulsory Blog Post 4

Compulsory Blog Post 4:

What Does It Take To Sustainably Feed And Clothe My Community For A Day?

Approximately 4,391,674 people live in Sydney alone! Shockingly, just in Sydney over 303, 726 kilos of pork is consumed every single day. In order to produce so much pork, over 10, 847 pigs are required every day to fulfil Sydney’s food consumption rate.  For more statistics please see below:

            






 

*This information was supplied to us by Art4Agriculture as apart of the Archibull Prize Program 2012. For more information please see: http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/

 According to the Australian Census in 2011, the Hills District had approximately 169,872 permanent residents and of this 169,872, there were around 83,986 males and 85,886 females. While researching this topic we were required to calculate how much produce/animals the Hills District consumes on a daily basis. According to the above information for the Hills District alone we consume approximately 22, 200 kilos of meat and livestock in one day. Of this 22, 200 kilos we require 347 beasts to fulfil our food consumption.  Please see below for more information on the different commodity groups.

Commodity Group	Kilograms consumed each day in Hills District	Produce/animals required
Pork	11,845 kgs	423 pigs
Horticulture	81,541 kgs	311,905 fruit & vegetables
Poultry	50,526 kgs	55,529 hens
Meat & Livestock	22,510 kgs	351 beasts
Dairy	70,875 kgs	15,215 dairy cows
Grains	27,032 kgs	1,230 loaves of bread
Bees	491 kgs honey	34,405,479 bees
Rice	6389 kgs	319,479,452 grains of rice
Cotton	72 bales = 16,413 kgs	1170 hectares of land
Aquaculture	0.66 kgs per person / per year

So… What Does Wool Have To Do With You?

Wool is such a diverse and amazing product. It has so many uses and is sustainable (which means it’s good for the planet) and is ethically produced (the animal is in no way harmed when sheared). It has a great ability to absorb moisture and is resistant to soiling. Wool is comfortable in a wide range of weather; cool in summer and warm in winter. Wool is soft, durable and safe, and is used for many different products besides clothing. This includes blankets, horse rugs, saddle cloths, carpeting, felt, wool insulation and upholstery, wool felt covers, piano hammers, and is also used to absorb odours and noise in heavy machinery and stereo speakers.

Without the wool industry, we wouldn’t have many important items, including beanies, socks, scarves, school jumpers (just imagine how cold it would be at school!), blankets, fire-fighter uniforms, carpet, lanolin and many other products which we generally take for granted!

The Wool Industry truly is the future of our world!

Before the Archibull Prize was launched at our small school, most of our students have never even heard of the Agriculture industry. Most of our students had NO idea how the Agriculture industry (and our Aussie Farmers) contribute so much to our quality of life today. To try and get the message out we tried a number of different methods. This included: weekly announcements at assembly about why wool (and other agriculture industries) are so important, one –on-one conversations with our younger students (particularly years 5-6) on what Agriculture is, where cotton comes from (a lot of our students had no idea that cotton comes from plants!) and why our Aussie Farmers are so important. We also put up posters around the school about the importance of the Wool industry in NSW. But even then, a lot of our students still weren’t convinced. So we decided to try another method.. class discussions. In both year 8 and year 10 geography classes we argued, reasoned, debated and discussed ALL of the reasons why Farmers are so important. And then, finally after many heated arguments, we had convinced the majority of our student body that farmers are important! From our class discussions, many more students became interested in participating in our Archibull group at school. We are also pleased to announce that many of our school’s families have begun using services such as Aussie Farmers Direct (or even our local farmers) to purchase lots of their produce and meat.

One of our younger students, Dominic recently told me that his perspective on Australian Agriculture has dramatically changed since becoming involved in the Archibull project.

“When Sammi came to our school, she taught us a lot about the different types of wool and how they coloured the wool. Sammi also taught us about what products can be made with wool such as headbands, booties, slippers, etc.  I love the Archibull program and I always look forward till the next Archibull meeting. I have learnt so much about Australian Agriculture. ”

We hope that after reading through our blog and experiencing everything that we have gone through to produce this amazing entry, that you to will be inspired to make a difference and support our Aussie Farmers! 

Australian Designers- Leading the Fashion Industry

Recently, many Australian designers have begun campaigns to help raise the profile of the Wool Industry in Australia. Miranda Kerr, who is one of the world’s most famous Australian supermodels, was recently spotted modelling wool! If there is more public awareness about the importance of wool and how many different ways it is used, many more people will begin to appreciate and value our Aussie Wool Farmers more. Lots of Australian designers recognise this and have begun using wool in lots of their designs. To see our interview with Mel B, a European designer who supports the Wool Industry in Australia, plese see "Compulsory Blog Post 4- Interview with a Designer".

We love our Aussie Farmers!