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…
If farmers aren’t exempt, times could get even tougher.
Big Grey Mare/Flickr
The recent announcement that a carbon tax would not be levied on petrol for cars or light vehicles used by motorists, tradespeople and small businesses is an interesting political statement. But this statement…
For only the second time in history, scientists have eliminated a disease from the face of the Earth, saving billions of dollars and boosting food security in the process. Rinderpest, a deadly cattle disease…
Greens leader Bob Brown’s concern over acquisitions by China’s Shenhua Watermark Coal of farms on NSW’s Liverpool Plains is but the latest flurry in a gathering storm of controversy over mining developments…
Planting trees on farmland can offset emissions, but does it add up?
Fabio Strozzi/flickr
Planting trees in cleared agricultural landscapes is one way for the land use sector to help offset emissions of atmospheric carbon dioxide. But will it displace agriculture? Establishing trees is a robust…
That “fair trade” sticker on a bar of chocolate or bag of coffee beans might make you feel better, but there’s no guarantee it’s helping poor farmers. In fact, it may be making their lives worse. When…
Can trade regulation enhance - or block - improvements to animal welfare?
AAP
The suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia will also have significant implications on Australian cattle farmers, Australian and Indonesian domestic markets, and on the trade relationship between…
Throughout the heated debate around live animal exports over the past week, there has been an implicit assumption that the mistreatment of Australian cattle only ever begins after the animals have left…
Irrigators say they like the Windsor Inquiry, but are they looking after their own interests?
AAP
The Windsor Inquiry has handed down its report on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It recommends a halt to water buybacks, more investment in irrigation efficiency and a new governance model for the Basin…
Indonesian abattoirs should agree to stun cows before they’re slaughtered.
AAP
The Federal Government’s move to ban live cattle exports to a handful of Indonesian abattoirs will not, in the long term, end the inhumane slaughtering practices revealed in Monday’s Four Corners report…
Brahman cattle fed a wide range of tropical grasses emit up to 30 per cent less methane than previously thought.
Flickr
Tropical grass-fed cattle in Australia’s north, which constitute half of the country’s beef industry, emit up to 30% less of the greenhouse gas methane than first thought, CSIRO scientists have found…
Peak coffee or no peak coffee, it’s the farmers that end up empty handed.
AAP
Coffee prices are rising again, and you might be wondering how much more you’ll soon pay for your morning coffee. Although coffee prices are fickle the fluctuations affect most of us very little compared…
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University