Ben Rees - Farmer & Economist writes:
Some extracts from a terrific article that Ben wrote as a perspective for the Courier Mail.
INTERNATIONAL discussion on the food crisis has more balance than the blatant environmental agenda pushed by Australian commentators.
Ethanol production is only one factor influencing United States and European Union food prices.
Other factors are speculators trading commodity futures, energy prices and farm input costs.
Like all policy changes, environmental policies carry opportunity costs. Land transfer from agriculture to forestry carries costs of forgone food and energy production. A land clearing ban at the expense of food production were acts of political opportunism and ideological extremism. Agmates article - Grow Trees or Grow Food.
Future food security for our growing population has become hostage to environmental extremism.
Food inflation originates from failed market economics, environmental extremism, escalating farm costs and high energy prices…………
To read Ben’s Courier Mail Article online Click Here.
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Have your say!
Read the article and come back and leave us your thoughts.
Tags: Environment, Food
Ben, you have nailed the games that have been played with farmer’s lives and livelihoods by both political mobs too. Pity we were unable to alter the direction; it is a start to understand what has happed so we may make better decisions later. Keep up the good work, glad to see you in this forum.
Yes, and couched in language the beauracrats may understand, if they ever read it!
The world will starve, but not due to climate change or biofuel production, but through the ‘failed market’. When the price signal for food is not passed back to the producer, we eventually stop producing.