Opinion feature article written by Agri-Fooders, Michael Santhanam-Martin and Geoff Lawrence.
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 on farmland.
Whether it’s coal seam gas or coal, the question is whether the loss of some of our most productive farmland to mining threatens national food security.
World Vision’s Tim Costello takes a broader view and asserts that there is a global “ethical interest” involved.
Should we be worried?
Food security? It’s in the (free market) bag
According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), we shouldn’t be concerned. It recently concluded that “Australia is able to produce sufficient food to meet its needs and has the income to achieve…
Full Article Here
