Academy of Social Sciences in Australia – 2011 Annual Symposium
The 2011 Symposium will be held in the Academy’s 40th year. To mark this event, the 2011 Symposium provides an opportunity for the social sciences to showcase their role in addressing issues of national importance, and the role of collaboration and cooperation across and between disciplines. The Symposium will examine the issue of food production,...
Food Security: We Need Different Experts in Charge
Article by Jane Dixon, featured in The Brisbane Link. Food security is about a basic human right, our right to nutritious, sustainably produced and affordable food. It has, however, become a tremendously complex problem with many of the stakeholders seeing the issues only from their own narrow perspectives. Here, Jane Dixon pleads for a more...
Agri-Food 2011
Sustainabilities, Justice and Agriculture in the Asia- Pacific Region 5-8 December 2011, Australian National University, Canberra Overview Agri-Food XVIII is the annual meeting of the Australasian Agri-Food Research Network. The Agri-Food Network was established in 1992 to provide a forum for researchers engaged in the critical analysis of contemporary agri-food systems. It is designed to...
Two PhD Fellowships Available in Agricultural Extension
The Open University in the UK and TEAGASC, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority are co-funding 2 postgraduate studentships, commencing in October 2011. The projects will involve participatory action research to improve knowledge exchange in agricultural extension. The studentships will support one year’s research training on an M.Res programme in the first instance. Satisfactory...
Food Security for the short or long term?
the following is a piece from the Agri-Food Research Network on food security and the government’s new National Food Policy Working Group In a context of the Queensland floods and cyclone and the floods in Victoria, many analysts have been asking questions about Australia’s food security. These severe weather events, which have destroyed the capacity...
Farms, mines and foreign ownership. A case for regulation in the national interest?
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...
Research Opportunity: Cornell University
The Department of Development Sociology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University is seeking applicants for a 9-month tenure-track position in Sociology of Food Systems. This position is part of an interdisciplinary cluster hire that also includes a position in Sustainable Cropping and Food Systems in the Department of Crop and...
Consensus democracy as a model for effective environmental policy? A case study of the stakeholder participation process in Finland
Kim Zilliacus and Hanna-Maria Bärlund (University of Helsinki) Since the beginning of the 1990s the emphasis of participatory democracy has become stronger in Finnish policy- and decision-making. This development involves various stakeholders participating in negotiations, or more specifically deliberations, around current issues in order to reach consensus and enable a continuance in the policy process....
An apple to stay: the economic and social health of Sydney’s Apple Orchardists
Bronwyn Isaacs (The Australian National University) Peter Malcolm (Department of Industry and Investment, NSW) Jane Dixon (The Australian National University) Australian consumers enjoy a cheap and diverse diet because of modern developments within the food supply chain. But the costs of our contemporary cuisine cultures include diet-related health problems, declining farming communities and a dislocation...
Planning for Australia’s food security
Ian Sinclair (Edge Land Planning and University of NSW) Food is a sustaining and enduring necessity. Yet among the basic essentials for life – air, water, shelter, and food – only food has been absent over the years as a focus of serious professional planning interest. (2007) ‘Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning’...
Land use planning – Numbers, area, location and relative importance of Sydney’s vegetable farms in providing for its vegetable requirements
Peter Malcolm (Department of Industry and Investment, NSW) Riad Fahd (University of Western Sydney) For the establishment of good policy and effective planning, it is essential to have accurate data regarding the size and relative importance of agricultural industries. This is particularly so in peri- urban areas surrounding the major cities where there is competition...
The future of farming in amenity landscapes: farmer perspectives from North East Victoria
Jane Roots (Charles Sturt University) The production of food and fibre in amenity landscapes is under transition, influenced by a myriad of local, state and international drivers. Farmers in amenity landscapes face challenges and opportunities from increasing land prices, subdivision of land, growing communities, competition for scarce water resources, changing commodity markets and changing community...
