A new Farmers Mutual, which is being co-designed with farmers, through a co-design course, aims to ensure that farmers get a fair deal for their land stewardship. The Farmers Mutual has just announced their pilot program and launched their new brand.
Ethical Fields is currently working with farmers to co-design a Protected Habitat Farmers Mutual with the aim to give farmers better access and higher returns on the environmental market.
“Farmers are set to be major suppliers of Environmental Goods and Services using mechanisms such as the carbon credit and biodiversity credit markets. As these markets grow in volume, scope, and scale, it is important that farmers get fair access.
The third and Final Co-design Course supported by Co-operative Farming concluded on May 21st. At this course, the group co-designed a scaling strategy and launched the brand: Regen Farmers Mutual.
Ethical Fields have been working with Bellinger Landcare Group, Landcare NSW, Soil CRC and the NAB Foundation on a pilot transaction aimed at Carbon, Revegetation and Flood Mitigation/Prevention involving Dorrigo and Bellingen farmers. There are other pilots that are less well developed coming online soon too. These include the Bellinger pilot and another in NSW, two in Victoria, three in QLD and one in South Australia.
The Regen Farmers Mutual has launched a new website and is actively seeking catalytic funding for the concept to go to actual businesses. Their goal is to be launch-ready by late September or early October.
A Steering Group of about 20 farmers has been formed and will meet fortnightly. This Group will be a proxy for the Board and Members Council, which can only form once the Mutual is launched.
If farmers are interested in joining this steering group they should contact andrew@regenfarmersmutual.com and if organisations would like to keep abreast of what is happening during startup or provide inputs they should join the Reference Group (for non-farmer types like academics, ecologists, govt etc). To join the Reference Group these organisations should contact rohan@ethicalfields.com
Read more about the Farmers Mutual.