Bigger than the internet?

Extracted from the Farm Tender weekly Newsletter - Sign up and get the email every Wednesday morning before 6 am. www.farmtender.com.au

By Dwain Duxson

This climate/energy/carbon trend has been getting a lot more air time lately. My favourite daily reading sites/blogs are full of this stuff.

So much so that somebody wrote that climate change mitigation and all that goes with it will be a bigger industry than the internet...

And because there is so much centred around the soil, trees, grass, crops, energy etc, does it put Ag right at the pivot point of the solution.

Also, green energy could be a regionally focused thing, so will it help up resurrect rural Australia?

I also read this quote the other day, "fixing the planet is just good business. Shame and guilt won't get us there."

Now whether or not you think the planet needs "fixing", is an opinion everyone has and that opinion differs.

But one thing is for sure, the younger generation shows all the tendencies that they think the place needs fixing and they will be the people in the positions of power in the not too distant future.

We are already seeing a swath of businesses get on board, with many focusing their business investment around some sort of a net-zero strategy. McDonalds, one of the largest food retailers on the planet, recently signed up to be carbon neutral by 2050. So it's going to change our food industry which has an effect on us in Agriculture. Banks are now looking at "green only" loans.

Investment funds are also being set up to focus on this solely, and many individual investors are looking at "green" only investment strategies.

The upside is that the opportunities will be plentiful. On the downside, traditional industries as we know them today will be under threat, and some will disappear in time.

I read a lot of Ag-focused stuff out of the US, and "carbon" is the biggest buzzword over there by a country mile. Many Ag companies are angling their focus on the carbon market and pitting Farmers (as well as themselves) as the beneficiaries.

I like the sound of Farmers and Landholders being the linchpin in one of the facets of all this. I also like the fact that the new energy infrastructure looks like being regionally based, and that will hopefully reinvent Rural Australia.

Whether Farmers make any extra income from it is yet to be seen.

Yes, the internet changed (and is still changing) the world, and I think in some way, shape or form, the striving for net-zero emissions by 2050 could be something just as significant.

Get ready.

End of message.