Police have raided Greenpeace’s Sydney headquarters, seizing evidence relating to last week’s destruction of a genetically modified wheat experiment, according to the industry website Food Navigator. Authorities investigating the destruction of a genetically modified (GM) wheat trial at a farm in Canberra raided and seized property from Greenpeace’s head offices in Sydney, Australia. Greenpeace activists [...]

The Gillard Government will invest $66.4 million in the environment, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management projects under a new round of Country for our Country funding. Environment Minister, Tony Burke, Minister for Agriculture, Senator Joe Ludwig, and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Dr Mike Kelly, today announced base-level funding across 22 regional natural resource management [...]

Australia’s sweeping plains are being overrun by rural raiders from overseas. Leonie Lamont and Paddy Manning explain how the humble back block has become global hot property. It’s not news that legendary global investor Jim Rogers likes agriculture and just about every bushel or belly that springs from it. ”We don’t have enough farmers. We [...]

FARMERS fear a new rush of environmental plantings for biodiversity and carbon offsets will accelerate the loss of land for food production. In an emerging trend, carbon traders are starting to buy farms to generate carbon credits for sale under voluntary schemes or – assuming legislation clears the Senate – the federal government’s Carbon Farming [...]

A CONFIDENTIAL federal government study into the impact of the Indonesian live cattle export crisis has revealed it has cost 326 jobs, left at least 274,000 animals stranded and 58 per cent of affected farmers out of pocket. A draft copy of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences survey estimates 176,000 [...]

Farmers in Western Australia say it will be some time before sheep stocks rise from the current low levels. Last year’s drought saw record numbers of sheep sold to the eastern states, a move that cost WA farmers up to $3 billion in lost revenue. The Department of Agriculture estimates WA’s sheep flock is about [...]

The massive heat wave that has baked much of the country’s eastern half has scorched millions of acres of farmland, threatening crops and likely leading to higher prices at the supermarket, experts say. Corn, which is at the crucial pollination stage in many areas of the Midwest, is especially vulnerable, but experts warn that if [...]

Ausveg warns Australia’s food security is at risk unless protective measures are taken. Ausveg CEO Richard Mulcahy warns that Australia doesn’t have an infinite amount of agricultural resources and action needs to happen now to protect the security of Australia’s homegrown food supply. Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the New South Wales Farmer’s [...]

AUSTRALIA has agreed to a trial shipment of Philippine Carabao mangoes after years of lobbying by Filipino producers, the Agriculture Department said over the weekend. “We see this as a good sign, and we’re hoping that market acceptance will be good as well,” Bureau of Plant Industry Director Lito Baron told the Manila Standard. If [...]

A proposal by South Australia Agriculture Minister Michael O’Brien to introduce mandatory pre-stunning of cattle in Australian abattoirs has not been accepted by other federal and state ministers. The Primary Industries Ministerial Council will meet again in three months to discuss the issue. All Queensland cattle are stunned before slaughter, and that state’s minister, Tim [...]