#068 Natural Intelligence Farming

The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, food & communities, with Dianne & Ian Haggerty

Dianne and Ian Haggerty form a highly respected, pioneering regenerative farming duo. I’ve come to visit them in the central wheat belt of Western Australia, to learn more about what Charles Massy has called their ‘world breakthrough’ operation. They call it ‘natural intelligence’ farming. Guided by the microbiome, and a whole host of other living systems, the Haggerty’s are regenerating degraded drylands grappling with salinity, chemical residues, climate and other compounding issues, and turning it into thriving cropland, even with as little as 100ml of annual rain.

“That’s exactly what we try and take away, that human control over these natural systems. Realistically, we know very very little about how natural systems truly function. We don’t really need to know it all. All we’ve got to do is try and do our best to enable that, and just be part of that. And with a lot of respect.”

— Dianne Haggerty

They’re finding it resulting in an extraordinary array of benefits, including clean quality produce, significant carbon drawdown, and a much less stressful way of life. And it doesn’t stop there. From detoxifying even the notorious herbicide glyphosate, to returning fresh water to salt-ridden lakes, they are constantly surprised by what nature is turning up. And they achieve all this while successfully producing for both local and global markets, and backing in the next generation of regenerative farmers.

Ian and Di currently run around 65,000 acres of farmland, each on the regenerative path with staggering speed and success. And that’s recasting all sorts of possibilities – for human health and prosperity, animal welfare, regional communities, and a regenerative economy and culture more broadly. With the UN forecasting we have less than 60 harvests left in our degrading soils, this has global relevance.

Join me as we look around a couple of the farms with Di and Ian – in some brilliant rare rain – for this conversation.

Recorded on 17 and 18 July 2020.

L-R below: Ian & Di Haggerty (pic: Anthony James); a panorama of the lake with the emerging fresh water lens we talked about in the podcast (pic: Justin Wolfgang); the farm (pic: Justin Wolfgang); a couple more farm shots, including the healthy sheep talked about in the podcast, grazing under the rainbow (pics: Anthony James); chatting at the homestead & out in the field (pics: Olivia Cheng). Click on the photos for full view.