Who is behind Ferret Farm Forestry?
"I have been an environmental activist since attending the inaugural meeting of the Adelaide University chapter of The Friends of the Earth in 1972. I had been radicalised, when as an economics student at school, it occurred to me that our entire economic system was predicated on a monstrous and fallacious assumption: that it is possible to have perpetual economic growth in a finite biosphere. I also became aware of the notion of global warming. The main agenda item at that first meeting was to compile a prioritised list of issues to address. The top two items on that list were ozone depletion and carbon dioxide emissions. These problems seemed rather beyond the reach of a gaggle of hippy science students (I was the only budding lawyer) and so we contented ourselves with a campaign that contributed to the first, and as far as I know, still the only deposit and recycling system for beverage containers in Australia. My next epiphany was the realisation that although the environmental problems challenging most industrial economies concern the detritus of their industrial processes; (i.e. pollution) paradoxically, in Australia, one of the most urbanised societies in the world, the most serious environmental issues are those relating to non-urban land management. Some years later I abandoned my nascent legal career to become an experimental farmer. I and a small group of like minded people were acquired by 50ha of grazing land near Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Inspired by concepts like Permaculture and other forms of analogue forestry our purpose was to develop more sustainable land uses. Over thirty years later, my wife Christine and I are the only ones still employed in this endeavour, and we have paid a substantial price for our efforts."
Anthony Dickson,
Co-owner, CEO and labourer of Ferret Farm
Anthony Dickson,
Co-owner, CEO and labourer of Ferret Farm