Good farming as surviving well in rural Australia

Abstract

<p>Agriculture policies in Australia have long encouraged productivist agriculture that aims to maximise yields through intensive production. Many have argued Australian farmers are trapped on the productivist treadmill as a result and there is evidence of an Australian farming culture where productivism is internalised as the standard of good farming. In this paper, I share the stories and experiences of commercial farmers in two regions of rural Australia who view good farming as production that moves them away from extractive productivism and towards a way of producing food that lets them and their non-human counterparts survive well.</p>