Humans of Agriculture

I’m really excited to bring my next guest to you, he’s someone who I was really keen to pick his brain. Troy Setter is a well-renowned industry leader, his involvement and passion for the beef industry dates back to his childhood and the cattle showring. When it comes to what it takes to be a CEO, I reckon Troy started that journey way back in his early days.  Troy was fortunate to pick up a cadet...

We are in Brisbane on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people. We took the chance to sit down with Gary Leeson. Gary is the Innovation and Business Development Manager for Organic Crop Protectants. A company that he joined in 1993 and for 25 years build to be a leader in the organic farm inputs space before selling to Yates Australia. Gary grew up around agriculture and has been involved in fa...

Mary O'Brien is passionate about Men's Mental Health. Her simple analogies resonate so clearly with blokes and women right across rural and regional Australia, helping them to understand the challenges around Mental Health and letting them know that there is help out there. We were in town for the Riverine Plains Innovation Expo and off the back of her session, we thought we'd grab Mary O'Brien fr...

This week, I thought I would take the chance to sit with someone who has been on the list on my whiteboard nearly since Day 1. Angeline Achariya is a remarkable woman, over the past 20 years she has had a variety of roles in global food innovation, she’s an expert in turning ideas into products and being able to commercialise them.  When I met Angeline back in 2019, she was leading the Monash Food...

Claire Mahoney is the CEO and Founder of The Bravery. Claire was part of the consumer and insights panel at the Australian Organic conference. During her talk she mentioned some research which her company had commissioned firstly looking at what issues are aussies most passionate about and how to best wield the power for change. This led onto their second piece of work ‘who do you believe’ The wor...

Andrew Henderson is the Independent Chair of the Safemeat Advisory Group, we sat down with Hendo to get the 101 on Foot & mouth Disease to understand a bit more about what it is, how it's transferred and what work is happening in the background to prepare and combat it coming to Australia. What is Foot and Mouth Disease? How is it spread? Why is it a significant threat to Aus livestock sector?...

G’day and welcome to a special deep dive episode of the Humans of Agriculture podcast. In these deep dive episodes we’ll be looking to find out more about specific businesses, topics and industries.  We’re heading to the Australian Organic conference on the 21st and 22nd of July up in Brisbane, so ahead of the conference we wanted to sit down and have a chat with Ryan Reynolds from the Organic Mil...

Michael Patching is an Australian Veterinarian based in Singapore. With a Masters in Animal Welfare Ethics & Law from Edinburgh University Patcho is driven by making change and having impact. Within animal welfare, he wants to see some basic, yet difficult changes occur and he see's this as an obligation.  Patcho grew up in the suburbs of Perth and from a young age knew that he wanted to be a...

You may have heard of Ned Hannigan, if not, he’s a professional rugby player. His rugby career has taken him around the world, so far he’s played more than 50 games for the Waratahs, 25 games for the Wallabies, the highest honour & spent a bit of time playing in Japan as well. But Ned’s a bloke from the bush, home is at Pasadena, the family property not too far from Coonamble in NSW.  In this...

After losing her first child in her early twenties, Olympia packed up her life and headed to the northern territory. As she says she was running away from her issues. She found herself as the only female working in an export yard and as only Olympia can do quickly became part of the crew, and may have surprised them. She headed for the USA, as an avid horse lover she became a horse trainer in Step...

Julia was an architect, her passion had led her to working on international projects that were creating spaces that could inspire people and make the world a better place through design. She began to obsess over the materials they were using to build these projects. She couldn't bring herself past the amount of petroleum-based plastic wrap that was being used, even on low-carbon embodied projects....

For the past 30 or so years Prue Bondfield & husband David have forged an incredible partnership and it has seen them take their business Palgrove, from strength to strength. Uncovering new opportunities and blazing the trail to show what is possible with a vision, dedication and surrounding yourself with the right people.  Having just recently completed the final stages of their succession pl...

Our next guest is just an incredible person, she’s a self confessed coffee snob, adventure racing, dog loving, mother of two and someone I feel really lucky to have sat down with on Gunditjmara country in western Victoria not too far from the turf that she grew up on. Anna Speer has built her reputation as a business leader at the forefront of industry innovation and evolution; her ability to lead...

Annabelle Hickson hails from just down the road from where our host, Oli Le Lievre grew up. Annabelle landed her dream job straight out of uni working for the Australian newspaper, her work fascinated her and she certainly landed on her feet. That was until she met 'the farmer'. The story took a turn and Annabelle found herself in Moree, with a lot of journalism skills but with an inability to get...

Welcome back to the Humans of Agriculture podcast hosted by Oli Le Lievre. This week we sit down with James Knight, a farmer located at The Sisters down in South West Victoria. - James shares his story from City boy who fell in love with agriculture (and subsequently a country girl!) - James' story takes twist and turns through university, finding his feet, returning back to his wife's family prop...

Welcome back to another week of the Humans of Agriculture podcast. This week, Oli Le Lievre sits down with David Kininmonth the manager at Mount Hesse a 8,000 acre Sheep operation in Winchelsea in South West Victoria. One of the coolest parts of this chat is, Dave was actually one of the very first people to give Oli a go in farming and over nearly (crazy to think) the past 20 years, Dave has been...

Annabelle Cleeland has built her career around rural journalism. Growing up in Kew just on the outskirts of Melbourne's CBD Annabelle proudly told her dad at the age of 14 that she was going to be a farmer... Although the dream of farming was put on the backburner for a few years while she built her career, the love of agriculture and sharing stories of the people involved in the industry was alwa...

When you think of Humans of Agriculture you probably don’t think of a TV Producer, Director, or Cameraman but our next guest is just exactly that. Tommy Lawrence has worked on some of the most iconic TV shows Australia has ever had from X-Factor to Bondi Rescue, but it was his love for Rural Australia and life in the top end that has seen him bring the stories of people from across Northern Austra...

The Mort's family history in Australian agriculture goes back to the early days of Thomas Mort, Thomas was a pioneer and led some of the first exports of Beef from Australia. Today Charlie Mort is the founder and Executive Chairman of mort & Co, one of Australia's largest private beef businesses. Starting his career in the Stock and Station agency game, Charlie moved across Queensland for role...

This week on the Humans of Agriculture podcast we’re heading back to share the story of an extraordinary family and Antola shirt ambassador. Tiff Sayers is an incredibly strong woman, I walked away from this chat just in awe of her resilience and optimism. In this episode Tiff shares her journey and the story of her daughter Ava. In March of 2021, Ava was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma only...

Dione Howard wears many hats: a National Rural Ambassador, Vet and Young Farming Champion. In high school she knew she wanted to be a doctor of sorts, the decision was whether she wanted to be a doctor of people or animals.  It came down to she was a whole lot more comfortable dealing with animal blood than that of humans. She walked out of university and began her work near Hay in south-western N...

Welcome back to another episode of the Humans of Agriculture podcast, hosted by Oli Le Lievre. This week we sit down with Stephen O'Brien the CEO of Mort & Co. Stephen's a fourth generation flour miller and baker, his early career was with Defiance milling in Toowoomba. Stephen knows the value in teamwork, as one of 9 children it was instilled in him at a pretty early age and followed him onto...

G'day and Welcome back!  We're straight back into it after a few days on the Darling Downs in Southern Queensland, and we can't wait to share what we were up to with you soon! While we were up there we sat down with a few different people from Mort & Co, and the first one we're excited to share our podcast with is Lily Bingham. Lily is the Feed Commodity Officer and as she says, without knowin...

Welcome back to the Humans of Agriculture podcast, I'm your host Oli Le Lievre. Mike Lee came onto the stage at EvokeAg 2020 and I think he captured the minds, eyes, and ears of everyone in the auditorium. Mike’s job, is as a futurist, he works with some of the largest organisations globally to help them see what our food system may look like in the next 5-25 years. Today, Mike and I chat a little...

G’day and Welcome to the Humans of Agriculture podcast. I’m your host Oli Le lievre and it’s a pleasure to bring another incredible story to you. Our next guest is the 2022 Australian Zanda McDonald Award winner, Charlie Perry grew up on his family's property 'Trent Bridge', however made the decision after school to pursue a corporate role working as a Management consultant for Ernst & Young....