NonGMFarmer wrote: "Like everyone else on the planet, we need to make a living and most farmers have huge debts that don't allow us to sit back and watch the native vegetation grow on all of the land we or our forefathers paid a fortune for."

This confirms what Jared Diamond had to say about land prices having ben set unrealistically high in the chapter about Australia (can't give the page as I have lent my copy of "Collapse" to someone else.)

What you are effectively saying is that we must put our childrens' future at risk in order to pay for the past windfall profits of property speculators and for the ongoing and inflated profits of banks.

Whilst I can sympathise with your predicament, I think the situation is clearly unacceptable, and it is time that we, as a society, took action to prevent property speculators and the finance sector from causing further harm to our environment.