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Professor Lindsay Falvey is a prominent authority and thought leader in Australian and international agriculture. At the University of Melbourne he was the Dean of Australia’s largest agricultural faculty and he has authored book on subjects as diverse as philosopophy, international development and sustainability. Linsday is a recipient of the Centenary Medal and has received the highest honours and awards in agricultural, both in Austalia and abroad, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge.

What is your current position?

-Director of Hassad Australia, a large Qatari investor in improved Australian sheep and grain production

-International Graduate Coordinator of a new Ph.D. program based in Asia

-Honorary Past Dean and Chair of Agriculture, University of Melbourne

How would you describe the path you have taken to get you to where you are today?

Taking opportunities – LaTrobe was new in 1968 so I chose it over Melbourne; three cadet/scholarships were offered so I chose one for the Northern Territory over those near home. After five years in the NT (following Cyclone Tracy in 1974) I sought stimulating international openings and a well-paid Australian aid role in Thailand came up. After five years of intellectual and other freedoms I entered international consulting as a means of using my expertise and avoiding institutional constraints and became CEO of Coffey-MPW with staff in 60 countries and working in more than 20 myself. After 15 years I was headhunted to lead a complex merger to create the largest faculty related to agriculture and the environment in Australia and once the critical tasks were accomplished retired to engage in useful and stimulating activities around the world.

Do you have a personal philosophy that you bring to your work?

Always doing more than just the job – for example, my masters was based on my professional employment in the NT, and my Ph.D on that in Thailand, and all that time publishing papers in appropriate journals and written books – 20 books so far. Thailand offered the chance to learn a really different language. This in turn opened doors not only in environmental and agricultural fields, but also in understanding a new way of thinking and seeing a unity between Western material-based learning and unembarrassed Eastern incorporation of man’s essential spiritual nature.

You’ve written about sustainability among other things. What’s the most important change you believe is needed to safeguard our environmental future?

Two things: first acknowledge through policy changes that no human endeavour can succeed unless a nation’s citizens feel secure in terms of food and well-being, and that food policies from Western nations including free-trade in survival foods are not appropriate for food-deficit nations. Second: raise our societal scientific literacy. Without such scientific understanding or in its absence, respect for those who know more, we and other Western nations will continue self-serving argumentation that accomplishes little at home and offers nothing to emerging powers. China is now the largest investor in relevant research.

But I have also written some books on religious and spiritual themes and these in fact explain our societies focus on sustainability, but we can go into that another time.

What has been your greatest career highlight/s?

I suppose I should say being awarded the Centenary Medal of Australia for services to rural development, and being elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, but in fact over these 40 years, the best moments have been in the remotest parts of the globe among people who know more of life than we who grow up in cosetted comfort.

What has been your greatest career challenge? How did you navigate this challenge?

Merging six old tertiary colleges around the state into the two extant departments of the University of Melbourne in the face of aggressive opposition, rationalising courses and research profiles while maintaining quality was demanding, yet very successful and rewarding. Gaining participation as a first step to commitment was the key. But another way to answer your question is to state that one difficulty has always been to convince others that a ‘career’ as such doesn’t really exist in planned terms, but only as a description of interrelationships when one looks back over one’s life, and I have not accomplished that.

Do you have any sage advice for those starting out in their careers?

Take opportunities, gain a good postgraduate qualification and make your profession your vocation rather than a job.

Where to from here?

These days the Hassad Directorship, the pro bono work in Asian univerities and writing are my three occupations, and beyond that is only my general guidleline to choose wisely and engage in what is useful, stimulating and within my capabilities.

What impact did La Trobe have on your career and life?

La Trobe was a true alma mater – a nourishing mother, for it opened to me a world of learning, a love of universities and their libraries – in fact it was a lecture from LaTrobe’s charismatic Librarian-elect to my high school in 1967 that convinced me to apply to the unknown upstart university that had no buildings – and with the academic rigours of that time, this mother nursed weaknesses in my learning and taught me how to continue learning through life. I have reflected on this in a recent book about What I have Learned in 40 Years of Professional Life. Copies are available to alumni – please email lindsay.falvey@gmail.com