“There is a crisis in Australian farming and grazing fraternity. Bank foreclosures are increasing at a rapid rate. Land valuations, lending criteria, misrepresentation from business advisors, increasing cost of production, low commodity prices, over regulation, animal rights activists all these, and many more reasons are causing a tidal wave to crash down on the rural [...]
Tag Archives | Food & Farming
Retraction of GM-Maize Rat Study Findings
Dear ABCA Subscribers, The journal Food and Chemical Toxicology today announced the retraction of the article Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize by Séralini et al first published online in September 2012. Shortly after the article was originally published, the journal received many letters to the editor expressing [...]
Northern Australian Agriculture Will Need GM Cotton
As part of his election campaigning, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was recently in Darwin and Kununurra revealing plans for an expansion of the Ord River scheme including into the Northern Territory. But there was no mention of a major obstacle to making such a plan viable, in particular the removal of absurd anti-cotton [...]
Scientific Community Condemns Destruction of Golden Rice
On 8th August 2013, vandals destroyed a Philippine government field trial of Golden Rice (GR). A petition organised by Dr Channapatna S. Prakash, a professor of plant molecular genetics, explains that… “As the world’s population continues its increase, sustainable food production is becoming increasingly challenging. More food must be produced in the next 50 years [...]
Coalition’s Soil Carbon Plan Unviable
THERE will soon be a federal election in Australia. One of the issues that should be discussed and debated is ‘climate change’ and how the Australian Labor party, led by Kevin Rudd, versus the Conservative Coalition, led by Tony Abbott, plan to address this important issue. Central to the Coalition’s policy is a Direction Action [...]
Causes of Honey Bee Decline
I visited Hidcote Manor Gardens in Warwickshire earlier today. They have several honey bee hives and a notice board claiming three different reasons for the decline in honey bee colonies across the UK. “The number of honey bee colonies in the UK has halved in recent years. This is probably due to: 1. The use [...]
Sarah Ferguson Defends Abattoir Footage of Dubious Origin
IN June 2011 the Australian government halted all live cattle exports to Indonesia after ABC Four Corners broadcast disturbing footage of Australian cattle being mistreated in Indonesian abattoirs. As I wrote in May 2012, Australians were lead to believe that this footage, that shocked the nation, was typical of what occurs inside many abattoirs in [...]
Away with Rio+20: The Voice of the Peasant
‘GOVERNMENTS from all over the world will meet in Río de Janeiro, Brasil from June 20-22 2012, to supposedly commemorate 20 years since the “Earth Summit”, the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, that established for the first time a global agenda for “sustainable development”. During this summit, in 1992, three international conventions [...]
Who filmed the video clip of Australian cattle in the Indonesian abattoirs?
IN June 2011 the Australian government halted all live cattle exports to Indonesia after ABC Four Corners broadcast disturbing footage of Australian cattle being mistreated in Indonesian abattoirs. Australians were lead to believe that this footage, that shocked the nation, was typical of what occurs inside many abattoirs in Indonesia: that the footage was real. [...]
Bad Farmers Produce More Food
You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs and you can’t grow food without water – and lots of it. That’s reality. But fashion dictates that farmers pretend otherwise. Consider the ‘Rice and the Environment’ page at the Ricegrower’s Association of Australia website. It says that the rice industry was “the first to initiate a [...]
Jennifer Marohasy is a scientist, author and speaker.
Dr Marohasy has a PhD from the University of Queensland, worked for twelve years as a researcher for the Queensland government, then six years as environmental manager for the Queensland sugar industry, and then six years as a senior fellow at the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs. She is currently an adjunct Research Fellow at Central Queensland University funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.