For 50 years I have grown fruit at Bunbartha, north of Shepparton. A couple of years ago, though, after years of drought, and after spending the better part of my life farming, I had to bulldoze my 10,000 peach trees. As painful as that decision was for me and the family, it's not an uncommon story as global warming has hit plenty more growers like me. But because of the farm, I was on the board of SPC and a handful of others. As such, I'm all too aware of the brand damage Australia's doing to its signal "clean, green" reputation by winding back action on climate change. I'm deeply concerned about the financial impacts that's having in some of our key markets.

The thing is, the frequency and severity of the extreme weather we used to see, were nothing compared to what we've seen in the past decade or so. Everything from hot spells that the irrigation just can't handle, with huge evaporation rates, to relentless frosts and floods. We're running into more summer rains that are systematically destroying the growth and production cycle. Even aside from the weather conditions, it's the added cost of sun shades on orchards, the workforce not coping with the heat, along with just maintaining the quality of the fruit. Fact is, we no longer have the right patterns for growth.

Australia can still produce high quality food, in a responsible manner, if it gets the support of government and markets.

In 2011, we had just come through the millennium drought that devastated so much of South Eastern Australia, a drought more severe and unlike anything previously experienced. This was a drought that managed to deliver unseasonal summer rainfall causing extraordinary crop losses, frosts that stripped trees of fruit and, of course, was the cause of extreme water restrictions in the previously reliable Goulburn irrigation system. It affects everyone differently, but in the horticulture industry it has come at a huge cost to farmers. It was too much for our family.

At Tatura, we had a strong and vibrant Horticultural Research Station that developed fruit varieties and production systems, which are now being put into practice around the world. Many of our neighbours and friends continue to adapt in the industry, and it's now common to see frost protection fans and shade cloth as a guard against the extreme temperatures now regularly experienced. Most of those adaptations were developed in a time when science was respected and supported by our governments, a time the CSIRO, Cooperative Research Centres and universities provided industry with the tools and confidence to take on the world. That has been run down in recent years.

Our Goulburn Valley fruit industry and other rural exporting industries have invested heavily in Australia's clean and green reputation as a supplier of quality food to world markets. Increasingly, the quality assurance programs that judge just how "clean and green" you are, include environmental issues such as the carbon emissions. There's no question that winding back Australia's action on climate change will hit those metrics hard, and the markets that will be hit are some of our highest return markets.

There is still a great future for farming in Australia. We aren't the food bowl to Asia but we can produce high quality food, and do it responsibly if we get the support of governments and markets. Our farmers, given time, can adapt to changing conditions. We can reduce carbon emissions on-farm, move towards sustainable farming systems and even play a major role in producing renewable energy for our urban centres. But if our experience over the past decade is anything to go by, time is not on our side.

John Pettigrew is a Goulburn Valley fruit grower.