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 [...]

RECENT supermarket price wars have started much public debate about the pressures on our farmers. At the same time there have been announcements of food processors closing down factories and moving offshore. These two issues are actually a manifestation of a fundamental structural shift that is occurring across the agrifood value chain. The past 30 [...]

The crop of genetically modified wheat destroyed by Greenpeace activists in Canberra today was rated by the federal government regulator of genetically modified organisms as posing a “negligible” risk to either people or the environment. This is in contrast to Greenpeace’s claims that the crop consisted of “untested and potentially unstable GM organisms”. The crop [...]

WE’RE told we could solve many of the world’s environmental problems if we stop eating meat. But is it true? That’s the question Simon Fairlie – a self-described “agricultural worker, smallholder, environmentalist journalist and hippie” in the UK – sets out to answer in his book Meat: a Benign Extravagance. “I embarked on it,” writes Fairlie, [...]

Recently, renowned infographic designer David McCandless of the blog Information Is Beautiful created a visual guide to eco-friendlier fish consumption, called, simply, “Which Fish Are Okay to Eat?” Based on data from the Marine Conservation Society, Greenpeace and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, McCandless’s guide  divides commonly eaten seafood into three categories that answer the title’s [...]

A joint venture between US-based ConocoPhillips and Karoon Gas Australia has received the necessary federal government approvals to begin a drilling campaign in three blocks in the Browse Basin, with a view to firming up sufficient gas reserves to pursue an LNG project, Karoon said Monday. The go-ahead was given by the Australian government’s Department [...]

The residents of Hendry Street Tewantin are behind one of the most sustainable streets in the country. And it just got greener after winning its share of a $1m prize pool of efficient goodies thanks to Origin Energy. Hendry Street Tewantin beat 1,569 entries state-wide to become Origin Energy’s first Sustainability Drive winner for Queensland [...]

Ed Storey, a third-generation sheep grazier from Yass in southern NSW, believes foreign investment is important for Australia.But he has a big concern: that companies backed by foreign governments are investing in Australian farms to guarantee them access to food, and are distorting the market for farming land, he told The Australian Financial Review. “We [...]

READING recent commentary on the debate over foreign investment, it has become clear the topic has become muddied with the mining v agriculture debate. Both issues are complex, but they are also distinct. The concerns about mining on agricultural lands have little to do with the source of investment. Whether the funds come from home [...]

Volcanic ash clouds might not be all bad and there is even some comparatively good news in the study of rising sea levels. Both issues will be up for discussion in the coming week at the 25th general assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) which opens on Wednesday in Melbourne. Discussion [...]