Innovation Generation 2025: Youth of Australia’s agricultural sector descend on Fremantle for three day forum

Young people from around the country flocked to the three-day Innovation Generation 2025 conference in Fremantle to absorb knowledge and advice from key agricultural industry figures.

Innovation Generation kicked off on July 22 with tours to Quaker Oats, Little Creatures Brewery, InterGrain, and the CBH Metro Grain Centre.

Young people from around Australia aged 18-35 had the opportunity to gain insight around resilience and adaptability from Olympic cycling champion Anna Meares OAM, and rowing Olympian Laura Gourley who hails from a cropping farm in Narrabri, New South Wales.

Sophie Forde, 19, from Darling Downs, Queensland, said the main highlight of the conference was the farm safety talk from Stevi Howdle and Helen Fitzroy.

“I found that the farm safety talk was really, really broad and emotional,” she said.

“I was nearly crying because it was hitting really close to home that if I have kids this is definitely priority number one.”

Ms Fitzroy told the conference of the death of her husband, Steve, in an underground mining accident in Norseman, 1991, and how she coped with his sudden death through writing.

The death of her husband left Ms Fitzroy a widow with three young children, and led to her founding the Miners’ Promise in 2010 — not-for-profit organisation that provides emotional and practical support to families and members during a crisis event.

Farm safety was also sticking point for 21-year-old Ellie Cook, originally from South Australia and now working on a broad-acre crop and sheep farm in Williams.

“Everyone who spoke had their own way of captivating us,” she said.

“With farm safety, or safety in any occupation, it always sort of gets overlooked and people are just like; ‘it would never happen to me, it doesn’t matter’.

“It was a raw and confrontational sort of conversation but it was good to hear the statistics and learn about it, because it is a real thing that happens.”

A panel consisting of GrainGrowers director, Julia Hausler, Bruce Rock grower Judith Foss, Cunderdin grower Frank O’Hare, and Esperance grower Brett South, provided insights and reflections on what advice each of the panellists would give their 20-year-old selves.

Ms Foss urged listeners to stay educated and keep learning while also taking care of themselves, saying a journey in agriculture is an “ongoing learning journey”.

“It’s really important to educate yourself, surround yourself with people that you value and that you trust,” she said.

“Keep up with technology, and also really make sure that you look after yourselves physically and mentally, and have good community connections with family and friends — and it’s also really important to take breaks.”

Sophie Longmire, 25, from Esperance, took the conference as an opportunity to meet other young people in the field and absorb information from the panels and presentations.

“Listen, take people’s advice on board, which is what I think the whole day is about — just taking it all in,” she said.

“These people are professionals and they’ve got all of these nuggets of knowledge and you may as well take it all in.

“Agriculture is a tight community, and it’s so nice to be around young people in the field — everyone just knows everyone.”

Ms Forde said she found the conference and speakers highly engaging, taking as much information in as possible.

“I really liked listening to when they were talking about young farmers setting up businesses in agriculture, I thought that was really interesting,” she said.

“I was trying to take away a lot of key notes for that, so I’ve got a bit of wisdom in my pocket — my book is full.”

University of New England agriculture and business student Grace Reynolds, 22, from Dalwallinu said the conference had been a good place to meet people throughout the industry and interstate to compare seasonal and operational differences and similarities.

“Everything from the farm safety talk was really prominent for me, after working in the industry for quite a while, all the way to the real science behind it — that’s been quite interesting as well,” she said.

“It’s good to have a balance of it all and just talk to a lot of people, there’s so many connections — you have people out everywhere.

“If you don’t talk to people you get really used to just the WA landscape — talking to other people you really get to see what their problems are and the broader world of agriculture.”

Innovation Generation is Australia’s biggest grains conference for people aged 18-35, and was held in Fremantle for the first time since 2016 from July 22-24.