Agmates

In an article from international news agency Reuters yesterday the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said:

“The world will have to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people.

Annual cereals output would have to grow by almost one billion tonnes from about 2.1 billion tonnes at present to meet the projected food and feed demand by 2050, the agency said.

Interestingly the report says that Meat production will have to increase by more than 200 million tonnes to reach 470 million tonnes in 2050. The Australian Government through its Carbon Pollution Reduction scheme plans to reduce our cattle and sheep populations by 25% to cut methane gas emissions. Thats 28 million cattle down to 21 million and 70 million sheep down to 52 million.

The article goes on to say that the world will need to increase investments in agriculture. The Australian government has massively cut funding to Agricultural research.

The article goes onto say that the world can feed itself by bringing into production 120 million hectares of land in developing countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Interestingly the report expects Arable land in use in developed countries to fall by some 50 million hectares. This figure is interesting. The Australian government had legislated to take 32 million hectares of arable land out of production and into growing forests as carbon sinks over the next 40 years.

Also interesting is that the Australian government through its national water Buyback scheme is taking up to 50% of our irrigation water out of our Agricultural food bowl the Murray Darling for the environment. The report says global water use for irrigated agriculture is projected to grow by only about 11 percent by 2050.

I’d hope that the UN FOA has calculated in these numbers to its estimates. Australia is one of the top 5 food exporters in the world. Obviously our Government has decided that it is more important to protect our environment than it is to play our part in feeding the people of the world.

I personally believe we as a nation have a greater moral obligation to feed people than we do to save the trees and wildlife habitats.

Apparently our government does not have the same moral priorities as I do.

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Agmates editor Steve Truman

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Intended or unintended the consequences of Kevin Rudd & Penny Wongs Twynam 240 gig, $303 million water buyback are already emerging. From todays Australian Newspaper

Richard Haire

The head of Australia’s oldest cotton company, Richard Haire, said his Queensland Cotton Corporation had suffered “collateral damage” from the Twynam agriculture company’s sale last week of 240 gigalitres of water.

Queensland Cotton bought three NSW cotton gins, or mills, from Twynam three years ago: in the Gwydir Valley at Collarenebri, at Warren in the Macquarie Valley, and at Mungindi in the Macintyre Valley.

Mr Haire said Twynam’s water sale meant the $20 million cotton gin at Collarenebri was no longer viable.

Anybody who has been to Collarenebri will know that will be the death of the community. QLD Cotton spent jusyt on $1 million in the townships of Collarenebri and Moree. Thats a huge hit to their local economies.

The township of Warren will also feel the brunt.

Mr Haire said half the cotton processed at the Warren gin came from Twynam properties.

“We will be doing everything we can to keep it open, but there is no doubt that this decision willcertainly shorten the season,” he said.

Haire believes the Twynam purchase and future buy backs has already killed irrigation investment.

The political and legal risk associated with investing in irrigated Agriculture in Australia has suddenly become huge. Capital investment in irrigated agriculture in Australia is going to evaporate.

Cotton Australia has estimated that every 270 megs (million litres) of irrigation water used generates one full time job. On these figures the Tywnam purchase will cost the bush 900 jobs. The Rudd government has allocated $3.1 billion for water bubacks. This will mean that an incredible 9,000 plus jobs will be lost in irrigation towns and communities.

The Rudd government has done no studies into the impacts of their water buyback on the economies of rural towns. That would be because they don’t care. The buybacks are designed to win Green preference votes not support the river and communities that grow our food and fibre.

The National Farmers Federation and its President David Crombie support the water buyback scheme.

My question is – How can you David Crombie – How?

Where is the line in the sand for the National Farmers Federation on this unrelenting attack on our nations Food and Fibre producers by the Rudd Labor government?

Doesn’t Crombie or anybody in the NFF realize that very soon there will be no one left for them to ‘represent’?

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Agmates Founder & Editor Steve Truman

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Things are bad when you have to almost raise a petition to get a rural press reporter to cover an issue. Just received this amazing email from Agmate Peter Cannon:

HI ALL,
Just spoke to the Land Editor about this Bloody 460 Million DOLLARS that the Rudd government is giving out to overseas Nations to help their primary producers.

Andrew Marshall said he needs more feed back from us the Australian producer on this issue before he would assign someone to write the article in the Land.

My thoughts are it’s a bloody disgrace, just another knife in Farmer’s backs where the hell are our Farm leaders on this issue?

Please ring Andrew Marshall 45704601. –NOW.

Pete.

Does anybody else find that whole thing just bizarre?

What the ‘bloody disgrace’ actually is, is that Andrew Marshall the editor of the Land Newspaper the flagship of the Rural Press 200 strong publications across rural & regional Australia needs to be convinced to put a reporter onto this story.

You’ll probably find that his skeleton staff is out covering the CWA meeting at Forbes, or perhaps they are having the day off after covering the picnic races or B&S ball in some far flung outback town over the weekend..

What about covering any of these issues that arose out of just last months budget.

Dangerous prevailing rural economic issues.

In case you can’t read the bullet hole points in the danger sign here they are below. Where you see a link, its to Agmates articles on the issue.

• Labors Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will slug Australian Exports – Import competing industries with an extra $2,500,000,000 tax. (Agmates has 235 Articles here)

• Private Health Insurance rebate to be reduced putting further strain on already stretched public Hospital system in regional Australia. Here
  

• Drought support payments including all Exceptional Circumstances, to cease from July 1 2010.  No replacement program announced. We first flagged this here way back on 31st Oct 2008.
  

• $12 million and 312 jobs slashed from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry whilst $460 million is sent overseas to help foreign farmers. Here,

• Changes to the Youth Allowance to deny income support to thousands of regional students.

• The $5.8 billion allocated by the former coalition government for water infrastructure to save water for the Murray Darling and food producers remains locked up whilst water buybacks are accelerating. (16 articles here.)
  

• $23.1 million out of the Australian Broadband guarantee program established to provide internet access for regional Australians. Here
  

• Key research agency Land and Water Australia abolished along with $12 million stripped from the Rural industries research and development Corporation. Here

• A decision to limit the tax deductibility of farm losses will impact on rural property values and small rural communities. Here
  

• New infrastructure funding has been targeted at passenger rail in the capital cities rather than being targets at the nations rail freight network.

• Promised flow-through-shares to encourage mining exploration, investment and job creation in resource industries have been forgotten.

• The Rural Partnerships Program has been scrapped, costing communities an important source of funds for local infrastructure and community projects.

Its really interesting that last week Rural press finally ran this front page headline just last Thursday their papers screamed. Beef hardest hit by Rudd’s ETS

Of course it was old news to Australia’s most informed people on rural & regional issues the Agmates members. Since the release of the final Garnaut report last year Agmates has run no less than 110 articles saying exactly that. See Here.

See these articles in particular. here on the 10th of january, here on the 8th January, here 25th November 2008, here 31st october 2008, here 30th September 2008, 24th September 2008, here again 24th September 2008, here 18th September 2008, here 15th September 2008.

The handful of journalists that Rural press employ across its 200 publications must have been to busy covering the social events to have notice all of these vital issues bearing down on rural Australia.

Things are bad when you almost have to raise a petition to get them to cover a critical issue. But then  again, how many Australians outside of the rural areas read their publications anyway – Answer, very few.

Still you can’t spend money employing Journalist to do quality Journalism and still make hundreds of millions of dollars profit from your advertisers each year – can you? After all that’s why journalist  call it the ‘Rural Pressing’ the press.

The rural press business model involves buying up every publication and running a skeleton journalist staff. The model has been highly profitable with the architect since 1994 Brian McCarthy rewarded for his ’successful business model’ by last year being appointed as the CEO of Fairfax Media.

But that’s for another article another day.

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Agmates Editor & Founder Steve Truman

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Agmates member David Boyd writes:

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David Boyd

THERE seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the cause of our record low river flows, particularly in the Murray/Darling; and buying back water licences simply won’t fix it (”Flood of cash to save rivers“, 29/5).

Take a look at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority website and the graph showing record low run-off into the Murray in recent years. The problem is clearly not extractions, which in any event are limited by low or no allocations; the problem is lack of run-off and too few efficient water storages.

Likewise consider the large allocation cutbacks that have already taken place, from which there has been no discernible benefit. Why? Because there simply hasn’t been any widespread heavy rain in the catchment.

Thus, throwing another $300 million at buying back water licences is really fiddling with the problem and will only restrict much-needed food production after we have the inevitable big rain event.

The central feature of Australia’s inland rivers is their massive variability. Storages can even this out and make agriculture economically and environmentally sustainable.

Under natural conditions, the Murray River would have stopped flowing 2-3 years ago and salt water would have entered Lakes Alexandrina and Albert (the Lower Lakes), as it always did prior to the building of “The Barrages”, when river flows were low. Yet in this drought, with some water available from Eildon, Hume and Dartmouth Dams and from the Snowy system, a flow in the Murray has been maintained.

Conclusion? What we need is more dams and more efficient dams, not fewer licences. When the federal Government recognises this and applies its collective mind to doing something about the profligate waste of fresh water in the form of evaporation from the human-engineered Lower Lakes and Menindee Lakes and to identifying new sites for additional efficient storages, I will believe that it’s actually addressing the real problem.

When it does so I will believe that it has moved on from shallow, South Australia-centric political games and is addressing the problem.

With increasing world food shortages, Australia has a moral duty to maximise production, providing this can be done, as it can, without damage to our long-term productive capacity.

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First published on Davids Blog

Extract from Davids article appeared in the Weekend Australian 30-31st May 2009.

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Independent Senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon writes:

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A decision by the Victorian Government to abandon a 10% limit on the amount of Murray-Darling water that can be traded is proof the restriction was wrong.

The move comes after the South Australian Government threatened to contest the legality of the Victorian restriction in the High Court – a move of which I have been a long time advocate.

The Victorian Government knew this scheme wouldn’t hold water if it was scrutinized by the High Court. This is further proof that state governments can’t be trusted to act in the national interest.

The abandoning of this cap will mean more water can be traded which in turn should mean more water for South Australia.

However, Victoria’s 4% cap on the amount of water that can be traded outside the State remains.

In February this year I negotiated with the Federal Government for a $500 million fast tracking of funds for water buybacks along the Murray-Darling River system.

The South Australian Government decided to take the Victorian Government to court when it became clear the Federal Government’s accelerated buyback was being hindered by the Victorian government’s caps on trade.

Victoria’s decision today is a tacit acceptance of the fact that state and territory governments don’t actually control the rivers. If this went to the High Court, I believe the Federal Government would be found to be the ultimate authority over the rivers.

That’s why I am again calling for an immediate national take-over of the Murray-Darling River system. We need one river system with one set of rules and we need that river system to be run in the national interest.

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Have Your Say.

Leader of the Nationals in the Senate Barnaby Joyce [pictured] writes:

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The exam results are in and show negative growth of 0.5 per cent. Not surprisingly it has become apparent that Rudd Labor’s fiscal stimulus package was not so much a stimulus as a waste of money.

It is money we can ill afford especially considering it is those same funds that will be required later on to sustain the provision of basic services and alleviate the requirements of those who will lose their job in this financial crisis.

Boeing, Anglo Coal, Pacific Brands, Bosch and Lend Lease have already announced job losses. Rather than put the wealth of the Australian people as represented in our previous surplus to work in the construction of infrastructure to take on board some of those who are out of work, Mr Rudd and Mr Swan in their manic spending packages have decided to return to the casino in some vain attempt of quadruple or nothing to get the money back.

They say a fool and their money are soon parted friends. The unfortunate thing is it wasn’t Mr Swan’s money but that of the Australian taxpayers.

How could he possibly think that ceiling insulation, boom gates and school halls could even vaguely compare to such projects as the inland rail between Gladstone and Melbourne which would create a new corridor of commercial opportunity and alleviate port bottlenecks or the completion of the missing link between Moranbah and the Abbot Point coal loading facility, a mere 69 kilometres of rail, which the Queensland Labor Government in their infinite wisdom have mothballed.

What about the obvious question continuously asked by all Australia, why are we not moving the water from the Gulf into the Murray-Darling?

All the Labor Party have suggested for us is an Emissions Trading Scheme which is a government policy that far from alleviating the financial crisis will exacerbate it.

There will be people who will have the locks changed on their house after it is repossessed by reason of them losing their job because of that government economic policy.

When will the Labor Government decide to stand up for working families?

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Shadow Minister for Agriculture, John Cobb [pictured] writes,

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Being the Local Member for the town of Bourke NSW I’m demanding to know how the Minister for Water and Climate Change, Penny Wong justified holding back water from reaching the Darling River until she takes part in a public relations stunt at Toorale Station near Bourke today?

Locals have been informed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) – the new owners of Toorale Station – that the floodgates have been closed because:

‘they are waiting for the Minister to come and open it as she wants a PR opportunity to show that the Rudd Government is physically releasing water back into the Murray Darling Basin’.

Communities and property owners downstream are wondering why the Rudd Government is holding the water back when the Government claimed the reason it purchased Toorale Station was to knock down the dams and weir to return the water to the Darling River.

The pipes on the weirs were opened two weeks ago after locals downstream of Toorale Station complained that they were closed, however in the days just prior to the Ms Wong’s visit to Toorale Station gates on most of the five dams were again shut in order to back the water up and make it far more impressive.

This disgraceful stunt is solely aimed to give the impression the Rudd Government is doing something to alleviate water shortages particularly in her home State of South Australia. However, none of this water will reach the Murray or the Lower Lakes in South Australia.

Even worse, given that Ms Wong is in Bourke, why has her visit been shrouded by more secrecy than a visit to Afghanistan by the President of the United States?

Could it be that she is too frightened to meet the people of Bourke whom she is pushing into Recession faster than any financial crisis?

As a direct result of the purchase of Toorale Station, Ms Wong has created a permanent jobs drought in Bourke, with over 100 full, part time and casual jobs lost forever. Morale in Bourke has been more affected more by the purchase of Toorale Station than seven years of devastating drought.

Bourke businesses estimate the economy of the Bourke Shire will contract by more than 10 percent, plunging the already drought-stricken community into a severe economic recession. As a result of Toorale Station being turned into a national park, the Bourke Shire had also lost four percent of its rate revenue, seven to 10 percent of the district’s sheep and cattle and 15 percent of its water entitlements.

I’m appalled by Ms Wong’s callous disregard for the welfare and economic security of the Bourke people and called on the Prime Minister to personally intervene and discipline Ms Wong.

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Independent Senator Nick Xenophon [pictured] writes:

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The government must immediately release the results of a full audit of all water in the Murray-Darling Basin.

In August last year I called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to conduct a full audit of the basin so we all could see where the water is, who owns it and how it can be best allocated along the river.

On the 14th of August 2008, in Adelaide, Prime Minister Rudd said

“We will commission one of the independent accounting houses of the world to separately and independently audit the accuracy of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s figures.”

Earlier this month a spokesperson from Water Minister Penny Wong’s office wrongly claimed the audit figures were publicly available.

I understand the audit has been completed and private briefings have been conducted with government officials about the findings,” Nick said. “It is time for the federal government to come clean with the people of South Australia. What is the government hiding?

The people of South Australia should not be kept in the dark.

I will join a candlelit vigil at the Milang pier tonight to protest government plans to flood sections of the lower lakes with salt water.

How can anyone trust government claims there is not enough water to save the lower lakes when they won’t show us the figures?  Taxpayers paid for this audit and we have a right to see the findings.

WHAT:  Candlelit Vigil for Lower Lakes.
WHEN: PM Friday January 30th 2008.
WHERE: The sand spit at Lake Alexandra, Milang (near the pier)

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Have Your Say!

The Rudd governments Carbon Sink legislation is designed to promote the planting of of carbon forests on Agricultural land. The Carbon Sink legislation is a vital plank of the ETS as it will lower the cost of emission permits, but will have a devastating effect on rural and regional Australia.

AUSTRALIA’S proposed climate change regime would push up food prices, cut inflows to the Murray-Darling and cut agricultural exports if it continues to encourage the development of carbon sink forests.

As I wrote Here, the ETS is designed to force livestock producers out of the industry.

A research paper co-authored by Mick Keogh [pictured]and Alex Thompson of the Australian Farm Institute has warned that livestock farmers faced with declining profitability under higher carbon emission prices will be encouraged to sell their land to forestry plantations, or convert significant portions of farms to permanent carbon-sink forests.

Once again rural & regional Australians are to be the sacrificial lambs for the national good (read urban Australia).

If this change occurs, it would have far-reaching consequences for the Australian economy, for rural communities and for the environment,” Mr Keogh said.

“It would undoubtedly result in higher prices for some food items in Australia. Ironically, it would also result in a reduction in the market share of Australian agricultural products in both international and domestic markets, and an increase in market share for developing-nation agricultural exports with no net reduction in global greenhouse emissions being achieved.

Rural & Regional Australians are the big losers from the Rudd government emissions trading scheme. Once again we have a federal government eager to crucify rural & regional communities to achieve their urban based political agenda. What a disgrace.

Have your say!

Our current Australian anti-farmer policies coupled with a population that grows by 1 person net each 1.3 seconds will lead us to a point within 40 years where we will be a net importer of food. As the world population grows by another 2.3 billion people, food in Australia will indeed become a scarce resource.

During the past 8 years just on 11,000 Australian farmers have left the land. Today just 130,000 farmers or 0.6% of the population not only feed 21.5 million Australians but export enough food to feed double that number.

Australia is one of the world’s major agriculture exporters not because we are a major producer on a world scale, but because we have a small population. Our population is exploding whilst each day our policy makers work hard at reducing the number of farmers and their capacity to produce, in the name of ‘free trade’ and the environment.

As the Australian anti-farmer Federal and State Labour governments continue with policies that shrink our farming sector, world experts are urging them to pour money into ag & water research to avoid world wide food shortages and civil unrest.

THE director-general of the International Water Management Institute, Colin Chartres, has warned that Australia, along with the other developed nations, needs to invest more in research into agriculture and water management and in international aid.

The Rudd government is doing the exact opposite with huge cuts to CSIRO ag research funding including the closing of a number of world renown research facilities.

One of the first things the new Ag Minister Tony Burke did in coming to power 12 months ago was to scrap the very successful Farmbiz program which subsidized training and ongoing resource management education for farmers.

The QLD Labor government has followed up with an announcement it will close more Department of Primary Industry research facilities in that state.

Chartres says the food crisis of the past year was an important warning sign. “We have to heed the warning. Otherwise the ultimate outcome is, if we have millions of people starving in the developing world, much more social unrest, much more fertile ground for terrorists and extremists and the whole world becomes a lot less safe.

There is whole lot standing on it in terms of social security, as well as food security.”

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