Agriculture makes an important contribution to all Australian consumers and to the national economy, exporting two thirds of total production. The face of Australian agriculture has changed over the past two centuries as farmers have developed resilience and adapted to environmental and economic trends. The challenges have been many and varied: changes to land use and farm management practices in response to climate change, water restrictions, farm debt, financial and health pressures on farmers, reliance on seasonal and migrant workers, as well as variable productivity and international competition. This book examines the current state of the agriculture sector and the environmental and economic outlook. What is the future of farming in Australia?
Focusing on the technologies that the farmers and graziers actually used, this book follows the history of each of the major commodities of groups of commodities to the end of the 20th century, grain crops, sheep and wool, beef and dairy, wine and others. Issues facing agriculture as it enters the 21st century are also discussed.
'This is a book about the human aspects of life on the land - the stories of success and failure, life and love, of hardship and celebration - and the passion and gritty determination that characterised every family I interviewed.' Author Deb Hunt sets out to discover what makes what makes Australian farming families tick. She travels tens of thousands of kilometres to properties at either end of the country, from a vast, dusty cattle run in outback Queensland to the wheat belt of Western Australia and dairy and sheep farms in Tasmania. She introduces us to eight families who survive, even thrive, on the land despite fires, floods, personal hardship and uncertain economic times. We see a different sort of family life, where the kids are expected to pitch in, the classroom is often the kitchen table, the nearest maternity hospital is a five-hour drive, and generations live and work side by side. We meet the French family, whose connection to the bush goes back seven generations, Philip the Philosopher, who by 29 was managing a property of more than one million hectares carrying 20,000 head of cattle, and the outspoken Roma Brittnell, who was awarded Australian Rural Woman of the Year in 2009. Inspiring, moving and sometimes challenging, these stories provide a window into a way of life that defines the Australian spirit at its best.
Dreaming about a tree change? Ready to get out of the rat race to run your own race? Already farming but not sure how to make the most of your venture? Read this book and be inspired by the experiences of more than 25 Australian farmers and industry leaders who will show you how you too can make a life and a living on the land. This book will answer key questions including:- Why farm?- Have you got what it takes to be a farmer?- How do you decide the what and where of farming?- What ways can you value add your produce?- How do you fast track your knowledge?- What regulations do you need to be across?- How do you market and sell your produce?- What are the best ways to tap into agritourism?- What will farming mean for your family?
This is a practical guide for people in the aquaculture industry and for those about to enter it. Australian Fish Farmer covers current as well as potential aquaculture industries and provides practical skills that will allow people to solve everyday problems in the day-to-day management of aquatic stock. This new edition reflects the considerable advances in technology, farming methods and commercial development. These aspects and more have been included in the revised edition, which also deals with financial and administrative management to provide the reader with sufficient information to operate a successful venture. The authors have drawn on their experience of designing and conducting aquaculture training programs and incorporated feedback, to ensure this publication is relevant and practical to Australian fish farmers.
There is no farmers and others. If you eat or wear clothes, the decisions you make influence farming. ‘Eaters will be the ultimate arbiter of where and how food is grown and how the land is cared for ... We all have a stake in the future of food and farming. I am going to show you why.’ Farming sits at the intersection of the world’s biggest challenges around climate change, soil, water, energy, natural disasters and zoonotic diseases. Yet Australia has no national food policy. No national agriculture strategy. Our water policy is close to the Hunger Games. People with means can shop at farmers’ markets and order brunch, by the provenance of their eggs, bacon, butter, tomatoes and greens. But do they really understand the trade-offs required to grow it? In this book Gabrielle Chan examines the past, present and future of farming with her characteristically forensic eye. She lays out how our nation, its leaders, farmers and eaters can usher in new ways for us to work and live on our unique and precious land. We must forge a new social contract if we are to grow healthy food on a thriving landscape, while mitigating climate and biodiversity loss. This important book will change your thinking about food, farming and how you eat.
“Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence." --Paul Hawken In Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health. It is the story of how a grassroots revolution—a true underground insurgency—can save the planet, help reduce and reverse climate change, and build healthy people and healthy communities, pivoting significantly on our relationship with growing and consuming food. Using his personal experience as a touchstone—from an unknowing, chemical-using farmer with dead soils to a radical ecologist farmer carefully regenerating a 2000-hectare property to a state of natural health—Massy tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. With evocative stories, he shows how other innovative and courageous farmers are finding a new way. At stake is not only a revolution in human health and in our communities, but the very survival of the planet. For farmers, backyard gardeners, food buyers, health workers, policy makers, and public leaders alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a tangible path forward and a powerful and moving paean of hope. It’s not too late to regenerate the earth. Call of the Reed Warbler shows the way forward for the future of our food supply, our planet, and our health.
Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing - behaviors inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources.
Explains why it is important to sustain native plants & animals in agricultural landscapes, outlines issues in developing & implementing practical approaches to safeguard native biodiversity in rural areas. Considers ecological & agricultural issues that determine what native biodiversity occurs in farmland.--
