For the past 10 months, listeners to ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph program have been back-seat farmers, making the key decisions for Jandowae cotton-grower Stu Higgins on how he should grow the crop in one of his paddocks. Now the program will be there for the final moments of the crop’s life as it is being picked, broadcasting live from Higgins’ farm in Queensland on Wednesday, 19th March between 11am and Midday.
The project, dubbed Grow Your Own, has been accompanied by a full website http://abc.net.au/grow where listeners follow every move, view pictures of the crop as it grows, check the weather and chat with each other about the merits of the decisions they were asked to make. There have also been fiery debates, for example about whether it is right to grow cotton at all in Australia.
Voting was conducted on the website, via post, phone and fax. Thousands of votes poured in on eight separate tasks, everything from what types of seeds to plant – GM or organic – to which fertiliser to choose. Listeners chose organic seeds, and the natural option of manure won closely followed by a synthetic pellet. However, not all the decisions were ‘politically correct’. In the middle of a drought, listeners chose to use all of farmer Stu’s bore water instead of waiting for rain, a controversial decision that fired up the chat-room.
Despite all the potential pitfalls a cotton crop is finally ready. Some of the profits from sales of the crop will go to three charities: Frontier Services, the Volunteer Fire Fighters and the Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme.
As these charities have a direct interest in ensuring that the maximum yield is achieved, they have all pitched in with volunteers to pick the crop, the date set being Wednesday 19th March. Other people involved with Grow Your Own from the start will also be there – like Cox Cotton, the man who spread the manure; the mechanics who worked on the water bores; and the consultants who advised on the crop. In total Higgins estimates that over 40 people from the local community will be involved.
To follow the full story so far go to the Grow Your Own website, which has a comprehensive archive of the voting, pictures from the past ten months, the full history of the listener forums, and audio of all the program segments broadcast during Bush Telegraph since the start of Grow Your Own in June 2002.
Bush Telegraph program will be recording the whole day, broadcasting the event across Australia between 11am and Midday, as well as updating the website with pictures. Listeners who have voted on the tasks and others interested in this project can join the volunteers by calling 1800 880 244 (it’s an 8am start).
Alternatively listen to Bush Telegraph, ABC Radio National, 11am, Wednesday, 19th March