2. It takes 90 000 cows to produce 1.3 million litres
of milk that Sydney consumes every day.
390 146 cows= 1817315 kg of dairy.
Urbanisation and population growth
are two main concerns challenging
If all countries consumed the resources ecological sustainability.
that Australian do, it would take three
earths to support their lifestyle.
3. Sustainability is the ability to maintain a certain status or process in
existing systems. Sustainability is important because all the choices and
actions that we make today will affect everything in the future. We need to
make wise decisions in order to avoid restraining the choices of
generations to come in the future years.
4. We as Australians need to manage our
resources carefully.
We tend to think that there will be a continuous
supply, but reality is there isn’t and we are not
to take
them for granted.
We need to be able to sustain our
resources
so we can encourage manufacturing
businesses and agriculture for the
future.
5. How much land and sea we need to do all meet our basic
human needs is our ecological footprint. The planets bio
capacity is how much suitable productive land and sea there
is available. Our ability to live sustainably (without the
resource base collapsing catastrophically depends on the
balance between the two.)
Australians are passionate about their
food but are not so keen on the
amount of food that we throw out. In
fact research has found that
Australians waste an estimated 3
million tonnes of food every year.
6. Australia currently relies on non-renewable energy for 95% of its energy needs, yet Australia has
up to 25% of the worlds solar power expertise.
Each year Australia burdens the atmosphere with as much carbon dioxide and other green house
gases as the average American due to our high standard of living.
7. Since methane can be used as
fuel, there are several possibilities
for recycling the gas and using it
as energy. Even though this might
produce some carbon dioxide, the
overall contribution to climate
change would be less then if the
methane wasn’t used.
If the average Australian cut
their emissions by 10% it would
save 55 million tonnes a year.
8. Australian farmers feed and cloth
60 million people, if they were doctors or
nurses or fireman there would be a moment
in most peoples lives when they would be
reminded just how important those
professions are. Farmers are less than 1% of
the Australian population and are almost
invisible. With food in abundance in this
country, there is little opportunity to remind
Australians just how important our farmers
are.
9. Approximately 80% of Australia’s
land area is managed by farmers, indigenous communities and other private land managers. Of this
approximately 60% of Australia’s land mass is used for grazing and cropping.
Our social, economic and
environmental
wellbeing depends on the sustainable
management and gradual
improvement
of natural resources.
10. In dairy farming, the biggest
environmental challenges are
managing soil health and nutrient
balances, this means minimising the
escape of nutrients into major
waterways, protecting on farm water
ways and remaining bushland, and
avoiding excessive on farm water
use. Dairy farmers are constantly
finding, more efficient and
environmentally friendly ways to
manage there land, there animals,
and there business.
11. Many people are unaware of the “paddock to plate” environmental
impact of food. There seems to be a real disconnect between the food
we buy and the impact that it has on the environment when we throw
it away. People no longer understand that when you throw out food, your
also throwing out all of the resources, fuel and energy that was used to
get that food to your plate. This lack of knowledge about the wider
impact of food is one of the reason why we waste so much of it.
12. Educating and improving the bond
between farmers and our society, will
help improve our knowledge about the
“paddock to plate” concept and make
people more aware of their wastage.
Events such as the Royal Easter Show,
help bring farmers and the rural side to
the city, where city people can enjoy
and learn about their lifestyle and how
hard they work for our wellbeing.
13. Every single day, Sydney goes through enormous quantities of goods produced by Australian farmers and here are
just some of the goods that Sydney consumes on a daily basis.
Product Groups Kilograms consumed each Commodities used to
day in Sydney supply Sydney
Pork 303 726 kg 10 847 Pigs
Bees (Honey) 12 603 kg 82 191 781 Bees
Meat and Livestock 577 205 kg 9014 Beasts
Poultry 1295 562 kg 1423 832 Hens
Dairy 1817 315 kg 390 146 Dairy Cows
Grain 693 151 kg 31 543 Loaves of Bread
Horticulture 2090 795 kg 8 664 032 Fruit and Vegetables
Rice 163 836 kg 8 191 780 822 Grains of Rice
Cotton 1854 bails= 420 858 kg 30 Hectares of land
14. The health and sustainability of our water ecosystems are critical to
our continent (money and jobs) environment, (land, air and living things)
and society (people and communities). Agriculture accounts for around
65% of Australia’s agriculture use and nearly all of Sydney’s water is
supplied from storages on the Hawkesbury-Nepean and Woronora rivers.
Approximately one third of people said water supply and conservation
and management was the most important issue for the government in
protecting the environment.
15. Water is abundant but rare at the same time. Only 3% of all
water on earth is only freshwater and only a tiny percentage
of this is available for human use. Australia is the driest
inhabited continent, yet we are one of the world’s largest
consumers of water. A sustainable water supply needs a long
term balance between the supply of water and the demand of
uses. In Sydney, fluctuations in supply caused by rainfall
variations and the potential for large increases in demand
from the rapid growth in population are effecting this balance.
16. Water Plan 21. Sydney water is the
supplier of water services for Sydney
and the Blue mountains and Illawarra
regions. In 2002, Sydney water
released water plan 21 a review for
sustainable water services. The goals
were to have clean safe drinking
water, sustainable water supplies,
clean beaches, ocean rivers and
harbours, wise resource use and smart
growth.
17. Model Farms is a part of the Every Drop
Counts program which offers support to
identify ways of reducing water
consumption and costs. The program is very
sensitive and can display water
consumption in blocks as short as 15
minutes, meaning that the graphs show
sudden peaks at intervals during the school
day.
18. Model Farms daily consumption of water for the week
Monday 24th October to Monday 31st October
2011. The Maximum consumption of water for
the week reached16 350 Litres while our minimum consumption was 2370 Litres.
19. Sometimes we ask ourselves, what can we do? An answer to this
could be think globally, act locally. Some problems need global
agreement and action but each of us can also make a difference to
ecological sustainability by cooperating with each other and by
considering changes in our own lifestyles.
20. As a small community, our school, Model Farms, observe and monitor our
school’s resources, waste and physical surroundings and take on activities
to protect and improve our school and local environment.
At Model Farms, we participate in the (water plan) and take action
by having water tanks set up around the school. This allows us to
collect rainwater and recycle it for toilets and the agriculture plot.
21. At the Agriculture plot, we
learn how to grow fruit
and vegetables and how to
sustain our gardens. Our
chickens produce eggs,
which we then sell to our
teachers at the school. We
also recycle food scraps
from the cooking rooms in Our school also
home economic and use has many solar
them as a fertilizer for our panels on top of
soil. the library that
convert solar
energy into
electrical energy
for use at our
school, which
reduces the
amount of energy
consumption and
our reliance of
fossil fuels.
22.
23. A very special thank you to:
Mrs Munroe
Ashleigh Lane
Steph Murphy
Maddison Kerney
And many Thanks to:
Vienna Rose- Simiana
Amy Thayre
Emma Orchard
Brooke Ryanshaw
Mary Daroy
Erica Zhang
Sashini Hewagama
Caitlin Manson
Mitchell Harold
Isaac Rossi
Chris Reji
Jiacheng Gu
Matthew Brokenbrough
