When Lachlan Hughes never made it from his farm one day, his dream didn't die with him.
The young husband, son, and father was passionate about regenerative agriculture and giving as much back to the land as he received.
A foundation in his name has just brought on a new batch of scholars to learn lifechanging skills for the future of farming.
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Anna and Lachlan Hughes met at university.(Supplied: Lachlan Hughes Foundation)
Sabra Lane: Now to a story of hope, sparked from a pretty heart-wrenching family tragedy.
Philip Hughes: When we lost Lach and we were going through a horrendous period, a friend of mine said, well why don't you instead of having flowers at the funeral, why don't you start a foundation?
Sabra Lane: The Hughes family in Queensland set up a foundation to honour young farmer Lachlan Hughes. The 36-year-old was happily married. His wife Anna was pregnant with baby number three when he headed out to work on his property one spring morning, but didn't make it home. The Hughes Foundation is Lachlan's living legacy. It's changing lives as well as healing the environment and bringing sustainability from the paddock to your plate. With me is Jennifer Nichols, an ABC reporter who's come to know the Hughes family very well. Jennifer, thanks for coming on the Bright Side.
Jennifer Nichols: That's my absolute pleasure, Sabra.
Sabra Lane: Do you want to start by telling me a bit more about the Hughes family?
Jennifer Nichols: Yes, I had the privilege of meeting the Hughes family at Agvention, which is an annual regenerative agriculture meeting where people come from all over Australia to discuss what they're doing in that sphere. And as Adele, his mother, said, that is the legacy that his family has created.
Adele Hughes: What we're doing is taking life on, forward, from a rotten, diabolical situation, because we need to ourselves. And it keeps my sanity doing that.
Jennifer Nichols: What they do is help give people who want to become regenerative farmers a real great grounding in a whole heap of different things that will help them on their way, whether it's how to access funding, social media, how to manage water in their landscape, vegetation, just a whole heap of things like capability building, business management. And I got to speak to some of the recipients as well, and they were just talking about how much of an impact it had made on their lives and the fact that they wish that they'd got into regenerative agriculture much earlier.
Sabra Lane: I think the original idea was to support one person a year, but it's become much more than that, hasn't it?
Jennifer Nichols: Yes. So they had 13 applicants so far that they've helped through the system. This is a totally donation run foundation. So they pay their own way to go to the property where Anna still lives and works with her father-in-law, Philip, to run the whole beef property. And it's a showcase of what can be done in terms of working with the environment. And that's something that Philip spoke very strongly on real key principles of regenerative agriculture.
Philip Hughes: So we've worked hard at it. And the only person that can change is to change yourself. You can't expect anyone to change in that environment. And that's the critical point with people that live on the land. I mean, you have to change yourself if you want someone else to change.
Sabra Lane: Okay. Jennifer, economically, does sustainable farming stack up?
Jennifer Nichols: Well, it does if you talk to the people that I've spoken to because they say that their cattle are healthier. So for example, if you've got cattle walking into a dam and drinking muddy water, that's not going to be as good for their health as if you fence off that dam, protect the banks of the dam and pump the water up to a trough somewhere else. Well, they're going to be drinking healthier water, plus not having erosion, which is a major issue. You know, gullies that are deep enough to hide cars and cows and being able to stop that. So you're maintaining the productivity of your land that way too.
Sabra Lane: For the City Slickers listening and who are not close to farming or agriculture, what are the broader lessons of sustainable agriculture?
Jennifer Nichols: Well, I think it's about the connection to the planet and really being very conscious about where your food comes from. Another group of people that I've been doing stories with, it's called CSA and it's community supported agriculture. And so there are farms across Australia, small farms, but you sign up a subscription to that farm and you commit to either six months or 12 months to buying their meat or produce, whatever it may be. And you also take on the risk of what that farmer's doing. So if it's a really bad season, you might get a small T-bone or less veggies. And if it's a really good season, you get more in your box. But then they get newsletters from these farmers to keep them up to date with what's going on on the farm and just being more cognisant of what actually goes into making the food that we're lucky enough to be able to access in Australia.
Sabra Lane: Let's just get back to the Hughes Foundation itself. Anna Hughes, has she told you what Lachlan would think if he was around today about the success of the foundation?
Jennifer Nichols: Well, that was something that I did put to her.
Anna Hughes: I think he would be cross to be missing out, but he'd also be chuffed to see that we've built something that's really growing, that's really community based, and that we hope is really inspiring for young people to get them involved in the industry and thinking outside the square.
Jennifer Nichols: Meeting the Hughes, I mean, I ended up in tears after the interview, I have to admit, because their grief is still so raw. I mean, it's only 2018 when Lachlan died. But here they are creating this beautiful thing to help other people and inspire other people. And I just thought it was so courageous of them, you know, not to let themselves dwell in, understandably, what is just so completely traumatic and devastating, but to make something so positive out of a really bad situation. Yeah, they're really inspiring. And I did a lot of to and fro and I fussed a lot over this story before I put it out because I really wanted to do justice to that family and really reflect the difference that they're making. Yeah, they're just lovely people.
Sabra Lane: It's a powerful message, a powerful legacy, changing lives, improving the environment through sustainable farming and making money.
Jennifer Nichols: Yes, well, nothing happens unless you can actually stay in business and support yourself and your family. So yeah, I just think it's really positive. And for me, journalism is all about the people.
Sabra Lane: Jennifer, thanks for talking to The Bright Side.
Jennifer Nichols: Thank you so much. Big fan of yours.
Sabra Lane: That's Jennifer Nichols. She's a rural reporter at ABC's Sunshine Coast. Jennifer interviewed the Hughes family recently about the foundation set up in Lachlan's honour. So often when we hear about a young life being cut short, we get the big headline, the horrid details. We know the tragedy of it all and what went wrong. And often that's it. We don't hear any more. But what really struck me about Anna, Phillip and Adele is how they've rallied together to honour Lachlan's memory and help change other people's lives. They're bringing a bit of hope to the world.
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