Woodland Valley Farm claims second regenerative agriculture gong in Tweed Sustainability Awards
Tweed residents and businesses kicking environmental goals have been recognised at the 2023 Sustainability Awards. See the pictures.
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Residents and organisations championing sustainability in the Tweed, including an off-grid farm and an innovative distiller, have been recognised in the 2023 Sustainability Awards.
The biennial awards were held at Tweed Regional Gallery on Wednesday and nominations doubled since its inception in 2019.
Winners were acknowledged for planting thousands of trees, making inroads in marine conservation, avoiding food waste, saving native wildlife and taking part in regenerative carbon farming.
Woodland Valley Farm’s Fabian Fabbro and partner Jodie Viccars said they were “absolutely elated” to win the Regenerative Agriculture award for the second year running.
“If there’s one award that we could win and only one it would be this one,” Mr Fabbro said.
After being involved with farming for more than 25 years, Mr Fabbro said their business has become a “vertically integrated farm” that sells produce direct to the consumer.
Vertically integrated farming involves more direct involvement from owners in production and processing.
The Fernvale farm has moved to a fully off-grid set up and sells 86 per cent of eggs without any packaging, which they find works well.
“On the farm, we have chickens and ducks for pasture raised eggs, and we also have a cattle stud,” Mr Fabbro said.
“In Murwillumbah we have the Pasta Bah, which is our processing, manufacturing and retail facility.”
The couple have signed up to the federal Emissions Reduction Fund designed to sequester carbon into soil.
“We do this by multispecies rotational grazing,” Mr Fabbro said.
“So we use cattle and chickens and cover cropping in rotation through our paddocks.
‘Through that, in the last 18-24 months, we’ve sequestered more than 350 tonnes of additional carbon dioxide back into 24 acres of our property.”
Mr Fabbro said the farm’s practices lead to more nutrient rich soil and, in turn, tastier eggs and other produce.
Tweed Shire Council Mayor Chris Cherry some “truly inspiring” environmental work was underway across the Tweed.
“We thank all the winners and nominees for rolling up their sleeves and making a significant effort to enhance the Tweed’s environment and ensure their successful practices leave the smallest footprint possible,” she said.
“We want to recognise these business and environmental champions for their crucial contribution to protect and enhance our natural surroundings.”
The Tweed is recognised as the most biodiverse local government area in NSW. It’s home to hundreds of species classified as threatened, or on the brink of extinction.
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