Time for real change: the Government’s new draft National Food Plan puts the interests of big business ahead of health, equity, and food security.
Flickr/mermaid99
The Federal Government released on Tuesday the green paper for Australia’s first-ever National Food Plan. According to Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig, this plan “will ensure Australia has a sustainable…
It’s time to reconsider using antibiotics as animal growth promoters.
Bram Cymet
Two views in today’s Medical Journal of Australia deal with attitudes to risk and economics, but with the added gravitas of a life-or-death outcome added to the consideration. The articles discuss the…
Beef processing contributed to Cargill’s $US2.7 billion in earnings this year.
AAP
Welcome to “The most powerful companies you’ve never heard of” – an ongoing series from The Conversation that sheds light on big companies with low profiles. Today, The University of Queensland’s Clive…
Iron-rich rice helps feed the poor: could we do it without patenting?
Jane Rawson
By Michael Gilbert, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
Rice is the primary source of food for roughly half the world’s population. But it falls well short of providing enough iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements.
Iron deficiency…
GM is not being used to make fishbread Frankenfoods.
Dave Lifson/Flickr
The Conversation asked CSIRO scientist, Richard Richards, to look at the top five myths about genetic modification (GM), and correct the public record.
Myth one: GM is just haphazard, imprecise cross…
Environmental activists have targeted palm oil – an industry crucial to Indonesia’s development.
AAP
In 1990 there were about 400 international environmental groups. Today, this number is more like 1.4 million.
So why is the world apparently in a worse state now? Have environmental groups paid too much…
The benefits of lifting the import ban on bananas outweigh the risks.
Maxey
The ban on importing apples from New Zealand was lifted earlier this month, bringing to an end a restriction established in 1921.
With this long history of protection from imports, it is not unexpected…
The law treats animals as merely “property” – but is this out of step with community expectations?
AAP
Last week’s resounding defeat of two private members bills seeking to end live animal exports demonstrates the myopic vision Australian politicians have for the country’s agricultural industry.
This is…
Welfare standards adopted as part of the ban being lifted fall short of public expectations.
AAP
When it comes to the live animal export industry, the government’s knee-jerk reactions leave it open to criticism that it dances to whichever group, industry or the animal activists, plays the loudest…
