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10 women selected for Diversity in Ag Leadership Program
TEN outstanding women from across Australia and with diverse backgrounds and skill sets have been selected to take part in the 2019 Diversity in Agricul- ture Leadership Program.
In its second year, the Program, an initiative of the National Farm- ers’ Federation aims to fix agriculture’s ‘woman problem’ by developing and empowering aspiring female leaders to reach their potential.
NFF president Fiona Simson said, “Currently, women comprise 41 per- cent of the agricultural workforce but make up only 18 percent of man- agement roles and 2.3 per- cent of CEO positions.”
“This is out of step with other comparable indus- tries and is a statistic the NFF and our committed program partners are de- termined to rectify.
“It’s time that women are equally represented at the level where decisions are taken that shape the future of our industry and
rural and regional Aus- tralia more broadly,” Ms Simson said.
The below 10 aspiring female leaders were se- lected from more than 140 applications:
• Jacqui Cannon, Bris- bane, Queensland.
• Rachel Carson is the national sales manager for Agricultural Solutions in Melbourne, Victoria.
• Robbie Davis is the CEO of Potatoes South Australia in Narrung, South Australia.
• Allison Harker is a local government coun- cillor in Yass, NSW.
• Linda Lee is the direc- tor of Agribusiness Devel- opment for the Northern Territory Government in Berrimah, NT.
• Cathy Oates is a viti- culturist and vice presi- dent of Wines Australia in Wilyabrup, Western Australia.
• Leonie O’Driscoll is the managing director of Evofarm Pty in Marra, NSW.
• Kelly Pearce is the
director of Farmers Mu- tual Limited in Yealer- ing, WA.
• Natalie Sommerville is the manager of her farming business Wind- jara Ag in Spalding, SA.
• Alison Southwell is a course director for agri- culture courses at CSU in Mangoplah, NSW.
Each participant will undertake an almost five-month mentoring program with mentors who are already accom- plished leaders.
To begin their leader- ship journey, the group came together at a two- day intensive retreat in Canberra over May 30-31.
The women will gradu- ate as part of the NFF’s 40th anniversary cele- brations during October andgoontobeapartof the growing Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program alumni.
Ms Simson said the highly successful inau- gural Diversity in Agri- culture Leadership Pro- gram was the basis for
this year’s opportunity. “Feedback from our 2018 cohort was the op- portunity was transfor- mational and life-chang- ing and since graduation our 2018 aspiring leaders have gone on to continue to realise their leadership
goals,” she said.
Ms Simson said the im-
portance of the program was demonstrated by the level of support from Australia’s leading farm representative and agri- business organisations.
“We are delighted and proud to this year have doubled the number of partners supporting the program, and important- ly, who have commit- ted to make meaningful change towards gender diversity within their or- ganisations,” she said.
The 2019 Diversity in Agricultural Leadership Program Partners are: the National Farmers’ Federation, AgForce, Australian Agricultural Company, AgriFutures, Australian Community
Media, Bayer, BASF, Coles, Consolidated Pas- toral Company, Elders, Grains Research and Development Corpora- tion, National Broadband Network, NSW Farm- ers, Landmark, Nufarm, Prime Super, Rabobank, Rimfire Resources, Rural Bank, Ruralco, Syngenta, WFI and Win Australia.
“These organisations have stepped up and signed up to support our mission to even the ledger when it comes to female representation in agricul- ture,” Ms Simson said.
“They are doing far more than talking about advancing women in our sector, they are leading by example and they should be recognised for that.”
The NFF has identified increasing the represen- tation of women as key to achieving agriculture’s goal to be a $100 bil- lion industry by 2030 and has set a target to double, by 2030, the number of women in agricultural management roles.
US farm aid should not benefit foreign companies
NINE Democratic sena- tors urged the Trump administration to ensure an aid package meant to compensate US farmers for losses stemming from the US-China trade war does not end up in the hands of foreign compa- nies.
In a letter addressed to US Agriculture Sec- retary Sonny Perdue, the senators said a commod- ity purchasing program that was part of a $12 billion aid package last year included contracts with Smithfield Foods, a subsidiary of China’s WH Group, and JBS USA, owned by Brazil’s JBS SA.
The US Department of Agriculture announced a new $16 billion farm aid package recently, includ- ing $1.4 billion in food purchases.
The letter, signed by 2020 presidential hope- fuls Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand, under- scores the political sen- sitivity of US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, a top buyer of US agricultural products like soybeans and pork.
The USDA terminated a $240,000 purchase contract with Smithfield Foods at the company’s request last year after the agreement was criticised as subsidising a competi- tor.
The senators said, how- ever, the government had awarded to JBS USA nearly $62.5 million in contracts to buy pork products.
“The department award- ed numerous contracts to JBS and has not estab- lished sufficient proce- dures to ensure taxpayer- funded trade assistance for American farmers is not ultimately benefitting foreign companies,” the letter said.
The senators said “sub- sidising our competitors through trade assistance” was “unacceptable”.
Perdue said payments to JBS were not a concern in a recent interview and that only US-produced agri- cultural products would be purchased.
“These are legal compa- nies operating in the US,” Perdue said in a statement provided by USDA.
JBS SA has bounced back from corruption scandals in Brazil in- volving its former chair- man and chief executive, who admitted to bribing scores of Brazilian poli- ticians.
The company saw its first-quarter profit soar 116 percent from a year earlier.
JBS USA said in a state- ment it was a US-based company that employs more than 63,000 US workers.
US farmers are the true beneficiaries of the pro- gram, the company said.
“Our sole intent for par- ticipating was to support US producer prices and help our American pro- ducer partners,” JBS USA said.
“It was not a bailout.”
Originally published at uk.reuters.com
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National Poultry Newspaper, June 2019 – Page 11