Growing up on the Eyre Peninsula's pristine waters ignited a young woman's drive to help find solutions to the challenges faced by the agriculture sector.
This year's SA Young Australian of the Year, Tiahni Adamson, was recognised for her unwavering focus on protecting her beloved coastline.
It has launched her into a career to help produce products to dramatically reduce methane emissions through feed supplements.
The Torres Strait Islander woman, descended from the Kaurareg Nations of Thursday Island, spent her young life at Coffin Bay and fell in love with farming as a teenager while as a student at Cummins Area School.
"I fell in love with farming at high school. It is an aquaculture-based community, so it really shaped who I am and what I wanted to do with my future," Tiahni said.
"The coastline on the EP is so untouched, so I always wanted to work out better ways to work within agriculture to preserve it."
Tiahni's mum was a paramedic and it meant she also experienced living at Port Augusta and Palm Island, Qld, before she landed at Coffin Bay.
All places played a big part in her path to becoming at the forefront of environmental solutions projects.
"My first job was as a farmhand and I worked as an alpaca shearer for a few years but I got tired of being spat on by alpacas," Tiahni said.
So, she swapped the shearing shed for university and pursued her love for farming, science and the environment.
"I started in veterinary science but I changed into wildlife conservation biology because I wanted to work with environmental solutions," Tiahni said.
As CH4 Global's lead community engagement officer, Tiahni soon sunk her teeth into an asparagopsis project, which has a five-year goal to feed 1.5-billion cattle with methane-reducing seaweed supplements.
"The fusion of my passion for agriculture and aquaculture, environmental sciences and bettering animal health, led me to realising we need drastic changes to make the environment better," she said.
Tiahni said feeding 10 per cent of the global cattle herd with asparagopsis had the same climate impact of removing 50-million combustion cars off the road.
"It has massive potential. Farmers have a really amazing and difficult job, they are trying to feed the world but they are also the ones which are hit with biggest changes," she said.
"We need to make these technologies and find viable solutions for farmers so they are actually able to take these solutions on."
Tiahni hoped her award win would shine a light on understanding the importance of looking after country and help equip farmers with the best solutions to create better futures for everyone.
"I'm really honoured to have been named SA Young Australian of the Year and I hope I will be able to take this amazing opportunity to amplify my work with First Nations communities and conservation biology and, take many steps forward with CH4 Global," she said.
"I'm so excited for the year ahead and the goal is to remained focus on upscaling this work to achieve our goals. I hope it also gives a voice to First Nations communities, which are working on healing country, and provide a seat at the table for these communities on these issues."
As a state-based finalist, Tiahni is in the running to be named the Young Australian of the Year for 2024, which will be announced on January 25, in Canberra.
Vanessa Binks
I am the Markets Editor and journalist at the Stock Journal. I am based at Nuriootpa in SA's lower north.
I am the Markets Editor and journalist at the Stock Journal. I am based at Nuriootpa in SA's lower north.
