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The Forum > Article Comments > Securing Australia’s food future > Comments

Securing Australia’s food future : Comments

By Sophie Love, published 13/8/2012

Where will Australian food come from when every farmer has left the land, we have mined and fracked the fertile food plains and sold the farm overseas?

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The filthy foreigners will cart our farms away on ships.

And we'll all be rooned.
Posted by DavidL, Monday, 13 August 2012 9:28:37 AM
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Good article Sophie. Welcome to OLO.

We’ve also got to be very mindful of the demand side of the equation. That is; Australia's rapidly growing population, which demands ever-more food and changes the balance of exports and domestic consumption, and thus reduces export income, all else being equal.
Posted by Ludwig, Monday, 13 August 2012 9:39:21 AM
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Great article.

Let's see.

The critical thing is to change the FIRB conditions for foreign investment in food production and crop production. Ensure that what is grown here stays here, to the benefit of the Aussie population first. Limit the financial considerations.

Ask yourself. Where will "our daily" bread come from?

Wheat harvested here, pre-processed, shipped to China and imported as frozen goods to either bake in the supermarket or at home? And all that because its "cheaper"?

We also need to be mindful of climate change here. In WA's SW at least, rainfall has been and is still diminishing.

We have an issues that transcend the petty arguing our our so-called leaders.
Posted by renew, Monday, 13 August 2012 10:19:50 AM
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The only bright spot is that with peak oil biting harder, there will be no way soon that the 'furriners" will be able to cart the food away.
Maybe we can find a way to replace our politicians with a new lot that actually have brains?
Posted by sarnian, Monday, 13 August 2012 10:24:00 AM
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<when are the pollies going to catch up?>

It's not just the pollies you need to be concerned about Sophie; they are only the more visible part of the self-serving Class who rule over the rest of us.

Individual pollies come & go, but their 'parties' and those who 'manage' (control) their agendas behind the scenes live on. Same as our career public servants ...oops, sorry, EXECUTIVE Public Managers!

Driven by a lust for money, power and a privileged lifestyle for themselves and their families, these narcissistic men and women create 'strategic alliances' with their counterparts in the Australian and foreign corporate sectors, aided by the privately owned, for-profit media. Using words and phrases such as 'growth' and 'progress' and 'there is no alternative', they sell out their fellow Australians to satisify their own greed.

When are these people going to catch up? ... when they too are made redundant, placed on the dole and given plenty of time to reflect upon the true nature of the anti-social, anti-democeratic Capitalist system.
Posted by Sowat, Monday, 13 August 2012 11:01:06 AM
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A really insightful and extremely intelligent article!
Farmers should read it and re-form/rebuild local cooperatives or farmers markets.
And wouldn't that make a pleasant change from the eternal whinge, or price taking, debt laden farmers, blowing their flamin pea-brains out; because they believe they simply don't have any other WAY OUT!
I have no beef with foreigners. Even those I have to stand upwind of, and welcome all those, who want to relocate here and bring their cash with them; to invest in Australians and their better ideas!
I just don't want them shipping/trucking my food halfway round the world at considerable cost to the environment; and then irradiating it or adding a pharmacological warehouse to it, simply to extend the shelf life?
Why?
To save a couple of centavos or keep slave labour outcomes alive and well?
Why?
To protect the bottom lines of, too big to fail, entirely heartless dehumanised tax avoiding multinationals alive and well?
This practise is being reversed in the USA, because of the tyranny of distance, ever increasing transport fuel costs and behaviour changing tax breaks, local industry is now receiving, to process/manufacture at home!
Utilising high tech and much lower costing energy options, [around a third of ours, and they do have carbon trading schemes,] which allow the most advanced nation to compete, with a dollar a day slave labour!
Cheers and hear, hear! Rhrosty.
Posted by Rhrosty, Monday, 13 August 2012 11:11:17 AM
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Look fellas, I hate to break this to you but the article was clearly hysterical nonsense. Why any of you congratulated the author is beyond me.

Food prices have increased of late and, thanks to the US drought, may well go much higher. Does that mean there has been a fundamental break in the market? Answer: no. A major part of the reason for the price run up, evident well before the drought, was the rise of the Asian and Indian middle calsses thanks to major market reforms in those countries.

When prices rise, output will follow and ther is no indication that the food producers will be unable to respond in the long term. It would help in the short term if the US and Brazil would drop their nutty insistance on using good crop land to produce biofuels.

Before any of this, incidentally, the trend was for marginal farm land to fall out of use.

As for this instance that somehow Austalia, a major food procing nation, will run short of food, it is simply irrational. OLO writers are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. Sophie Love should find some justification for her vapourings.

As for her insistance that fracking is somehow dangerous how much of it is to actually occuring in Aus? I know there's lots and lots of coal seam gas development, and at least two reports on water use of CSG which found nothing much, but Love is concerned about fracking .. so are there projects in her area that have concerned her?
Posted by Curmudgeon, Monday, 13 August 2012 12:19:41 PM
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I'm rather taken by Sophie's name. Sophie Love. It has a film star quality about it. But back to business.

According to the National Farmers Federation, there are approximately 134,000 farm businesses in Australia, 99 per cent of which are family owned and operated.

Each Australian farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people, 150 at home and 450 overseas. Australian farmers produce almost 93 percent of Australia’s daily domestic food supply.

Australia’s farm exports earned the country $32.5 billion in 2010-11, up from $32.1 billion in 2008-09, while the wider agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors earn the country another $36.2 billion in exports. About 70 per cent of arable land is currently under crops. Of that 70 per cent, farmers keep about 10 per cent fallow for rotation.

Australian live cattle exports totaled 694,429 head in 2011 (down 21 per cent on 2010 due to Indonesia cattle ban), valued at A$629.4 million, according to ABARE (2012). According to Australian livestock export industry statistics review (2011) the nation exported 2,458,448 sheep in 2011, valued at A$328 million.

We import about a little under $10 billion in foodstuffs per year – mainly packaged goods - and about one third is due to reciprocal trade agreements with New Zealand and other nations.

The knee-jerk reaction is to say that we are running out of food or that we will run out of food. This is blatantly false. If in a moment of madness we decided to drive our exports on to the domestic market, every man, woman and child would be required to eat about $500,000 of meat, grain and vegetables per year, every year. Bon apetite.
Posted by Cheryl, Monday, 13 August 2012 12:27:59 PM
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"It is becoming increasingly clear that both politicians and corporations are completely out of step ..."

Sophie is right. Politicians are ripping the heart out of farmers, like this:
http://ideologee.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/farmers-spirit-crushed-by-coal-seam-gas.html

Buy organic/direct and support fringe political parties like Katter's Australian Party or the Australian Protectionist Party etc.
Current political leaders have lost their soul.

We need someone like John Hatton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H2nz-O495s
Posted by mralstoner, Monday, 13 August 2012 2:17:24 PM
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I do not resile from my comments Curmegeon. Love's essay if it did nothing else serves to draw attention to the issue.

I do not think the FIRB rules are appropriate for today as they might have once been. The fact that we are governed by the corporate world and not be elected reps who do what we say ( within obvious constraints) but what Utah Coal or GM tell us to do is reprehensible and wrong.

Be happy buying your frozen bread from China, with all the FSANZ controls (such as they are) gone.
Posted by renew, Monday, 13 August 2012 2:30:17 PM
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Sorry, the article is junk; I got no further than "Gasland"; any one who mentions Gasland as authority for any comment on gas extraction is delusional; see:

http://www.energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Debunking-Gasland.pdf

Also of interest;

http://www.nohotair.co.uk/gas-guru-blog/shale-gas-2012/166-shale-gas/2348-methane-in-the-water-pennsylvania-1783.html

Seriously folks, I know the oil, coal and gas companies are b.....ds but this handwringing concern get's anyone who wants to keep them under control nowhere.

Gas, oil and coal are the best energy sources; the anti-fracking movement is drivel; there are real pollution issues with the mining and transport of coal and oil, not so much gas, but please stick to them.

As for food security; simple; repeal the Farming Initiative legislation which allows productive farmland to be converted to CO2 sinks at taxpayer expense, and get rid of every vestige of green legislation which restricts agriculture, and encourage the building of dams and other irrigation projects so the vast area of Australia which is marginal can become productive.

Australia is vast but underutilised for a variety of progressive cause reasons; get rid of the bleeding hearts and start working this country.

Do any of you people really think the rest of the world is going to allow a bunch of self-indulgent Europeans let this country lie fallow?

Grow up; and peak oil is garbage
Posted by cohenite, Monday, 13 August 2012 4:29:31 PM
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Despite the knocking the article has received there really is a problem.
Someone mentioned oil decline not enabling ships to take the food away.
Well not quite true, China and Mongolia have a lot of coal and as it
would be an emergency they would use coal fired ships to move the food.
So that will not stop China from moving the crop.
I find it hard to believe that they would not use 437 visa to bring
thousands of Chinese labourers to work the farms.
They do that in Africa where the system is already working.
If we do refuse them the facility, will they simply send the PLA ?
A billion hungry mouths could stir things up.

The real question is could enough ships be organised to move the quntities needed ?
Posted by Bazz, Monday, 13 August 2012 4:52:17 PM
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renew - well, I'm sorry to hear that you don't want to see sense. The bit about getting bread from China is pure nonsense.. some bread products may come from elsewhere (New Zealand maybe) but so what.. If you try interfering with market forces to ensure that more bread is made onshore or more farms are localy owned or whatever, all you will end up with is more expensive bread in exchange for no benefit of any kind..

This sort of nonsense is far worse than any of this imaginary stuff about corporations running the government.
Posted by Curmudgeon, Monday, 13 August 2012 5:13:19 PM
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What's the old saying, no brain no pain ? The way we're going our next generation won't know what hit them because they're rapidly losing the feeling anyway.
Talking to a union bloke today who insisted it to be his "Right" to sell his land to any foreigner who had the money.
Well, let him buy his tucker from somewhere else I say until his money runs out.
Posted by individual, Monday, 13 August 2012 5:52:40 PM
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"No one who has watched the American amateur documentary ‘Gasland’ can believe that we are still having a discussion about fracking in this country."

That would be the discussion conducted by those of us who prefer to get their facts on scientific issues from sources other than amateur documentaries.
Posted by Mark Duffett, Monday, 13 August 2012 11:09:58 PM
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Sophie, while I share your sentiments about our future food security, what you must understand is that the only way forward will be for our governments to own farm land and subsidized workers to work it.

Why, because wages and costs will simply make food production a non viable option.

You know yourself how the costs of dairy farming have escalated and in fact, if dairy farms and the like were given the green light for subdivision, the developers, planers and councils would be killed in the rush of farmers wanting to sell up.

However, should our governments choose this option, they must act fast, otherwise there will simply be no farmers left to train the future farming workers, unless of cause we import this as well.

As for CSG, there is little chance of it being canned, because our governments, both state and federal have wasted so much money in the past decade or two, that they now rely on these income streams from royalties just to keep the wheels turning.

One would have thought these funds could have secured the financial webbing of future generations, but that's simply not the case anymore, as ome thing governments seems to forget is that you can only spend money once.

God help us if we loose mining!

The only way that can change is to take a bug stick to all the hand outs that we offer, from wasted welfare,Indiginous affairs, to boat people.

Billions upon billions just keep being thrown at these problem areas without any real end or solution in site.
Posted by rehctub, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 6:53:53 AM
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according to rehctub "The only way that can change is to take a bug stick to all the hand outs that we offer, from wasted welfare, Indiginous affairs, to boat people.

Billions upon billions just keep being thrown at these problem areas ..."

What rehctub fails to mention,of course, are the OTHER billions upon billions handed over, each and every year, by Common-wealth and State Cabinet ministers and senior public servants to the CEOs and wealthy shareholders of large national and foreign corporations in the form of Tax breaks or 'holidays', Industry assistance grants and various other 'incentives'... Corporate Welfare on a huge scale, while increasing numbers of Australian women, children and men are being forced into poverty traps in our 'rich country'!
Posted by Sowat, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 8:33:22 AM
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There is confusion between shale gas and coal seam gas. Fracking is
used for shale gas but seldom for coal seam gas. The coal seams are
naturally cracked. That is what I found out from a past discussion.

We will need food. It is too important to let its control slip away
to someone else. What we are talking about is very large scale farming
by a foreign government and/or its agencies purely for their own
consumption. They are doing this here and in Africa because they will
not be able to grow enough at home.

I am sure they would not allow us to set up farms in China on this scale.
We can grow the crops here and export them to China.
Posted by Bazz, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 9:03:28 AM
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*This sort of nonsense is far worse than any of this imaginary stuff about corporations running the government*

Well I can tell you that in Tasmania they have brought the "corporations running the government" to a fine art.
This is one of the reasons for Tassie being a basket case. One of the Corporations that has run the place for the last ten years or so has gone bust and taken Tassie with it.
I am quite sure that this is situation normal in the other states, as in fly in fly out workers for big mining companies when there is nearly 10% unemployment here in real terms.

*God help us if we loose mining!*

Well it is only a matter of time and the Chinese economy which is already trending down will taper off and then they will close down their Australian quarry.
That will leave us with our farm exports..... which could be owned by China by then.
Posted by sarnian, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 9:08:25 AM
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An addition to my previous post,
see below.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/hayman-oligarchies-elites-pd20120813-X4SQN?opendocument&src=idp&utm_source=exact&utm_medium=email&utm_content=89496&utm_campaign=kgb&modapt=commentary
Posted by sarnian, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 9:36:28 AM
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I'll stick with my "nonsense". Like Tasmania, we'd aupposedly be lost without mining and resources in WA. Who the hell runs WA? The oil, gas and mining suits on St George's Terrace. Barnett may think he does, but apart from some minor issues like a rare subterranean spider holding up an $11Billion mining project in the banded iron country, its dig it up and ship it 24/7.

Everything from the cost of getting photocopying done at OW to accommodation costs is influenced by the excessive demands of mining and resources. And what does the government do? Nothing - because it cannot. House prices in Karratha? Broome? Geraldton?

I'd say that is all indirectly related to the control of a few big corporations.

If that's "nonsense" so be it.
Posted by renew, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 10:03:57 AM
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<< And what does the government do? Nothing - because it cannot. …. I'd say that is all indirectly related to the control of a few big corporations. >>

That’s about the size of it, renew.

And what makes it even worse is that any political leader and his/her party is just going to go along with this, because no one with an opposing view is going to become leader in the first place, or become an elected representative… or even become a member of the party! And if a leader or party did develop an opposing view, they’d be out on their ear real quick like! Liberal or Labor, the same applies.

That’s how totally the dig-it-up-faster-and-faster big corporations have got the situation sewn up!
Posted by Ludwig, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 10:15:56 AM
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Sowat, unfortunately, the truth often hurts.

As for corporate welfare, how else do you propose big business continues to invest, which in turn creates work.

The god simarton dcinario just doesn't cut the mustard.

Look out if we stop corporate deductions away.
Posted by rehctub, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 12:48:26 PM
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And we'll all be rooned.
DavidL,
Yes & knowing my luck they'll leave you here !
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 1:01:40 PM
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It's not so much the buying up of the land, it's the buying up of the water licences, which are well under FIRB purview - however, if all the water is obviously polluted, it probably doesn't matter who controls Australia's water supply.
Posted by Heath-Carstairs56, Monday, 20 August 2012 7:58:43 PM
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