EcoRadio

Category: Sustainable Settlement and Agriculture

The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.

  • Germany bans GM corn

    Germany has banned the cultivation of GM corn, claiming that MON 810 is dangerous for the environment. But that argument might not stand up in court and Berlin could face fines totalling millions of euros if American multinational Monsanto decides to challenge the prohibition on its seed.

    From Der Spiegel

    The sowing season may be just around the corner, but this year German farmers will not be planting gentically modified crops: German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner announced Tuesday she was banning the cultivation of GM corn in Germany.

     

    Greenpeace activists take a sample from a Monsanto test site near Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia: The GM crop MON 810 has been banned in Germany.

    DPA

    Greenpeace activists take a sample from a Monsanto test site near Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia: The GM crop MON 810 has been banned in Germany.

    Under the new regulations, the cultivation of MON 810, a GM corn produced by the American biotech giant Monsanto, will be prohibited in Germany, as will the sale of its seed. Aigner told reporters Tuesday she had legitimate reasons to believe that MON 810 posed “a danger to the environment,” a position which she said the Environment Ministry also supported. In taking the step, Aigner is taking advantage of a clause in EU law which allows individual countries to impose such bans.

    “Contrary to assertions stating otherwise, my decision is not politically motivated,” Aigner said, referring to reports that she had come under pressure to impose a ban from within her party, the conservative Bavaria-based Christian Social Union. She stressed that the ban should be understood as an “individual case” and not as a statement of principle regarding future policy relating to genetic engineering.

     

  • Growth in organic sales nutures sustainable UK hopes

    No sector of industry has been immune, however, to the chill wind of recession blowing since October 2008. Organic shoppers, like all consumers, have clearly been tightening their belts – by shopping less often, buying fewer premium products and prepared foods, and switching to lower-cost retailers. The overall growth in organic sales by value masks a net decline in the sales volume of a fair few categories of organic food products during the year. The picture is mixed, with dynamic growth in sales of organic food through farmers’ markets and at Asda, as well as in some new, and still small, areas of organic sales such as textiles and health and beauty products.

    In the UK, economic conditions are particularly tough because of the significant burden of mortgage and consumer debt, and the pivotal role played in the economy by the beleaguered financial services industry. In some other European countries the credit crunch appears to have hit less hard so far, and demand for organic products has held up better than in the UK. It is difficult to predict how the global organic market will fare in 2009, however. Global sales of organic food and drink exceed £23 billion and grew by £2.5 billion in 2007, but we do not yet have the kind of clear picture on European and global sales in 2008 and early 2009 that this report provides for the UK.

    Importantly for the UK market, this report does show that there is a core of consumers who are in no mood to ditch their commitment to organic products. They are far more likely to cut their spending on eating out, leisure activities and holidays than to reduce what they spend on organic food. They would rather economise by buying cheaper cuts of organic meat or by buying frozen organic vegetables than by compromising their organic principles. 36% of these committed organic consumers expect to spend more on organic food in 2009, and only 15% expect to spend less.

    Some organic enthusiasts who are finding it tough to make ends meet may turn to the UK’s rich variety of independent outlets such as farm shops, farmers’ markets and box schemes. Price comparisons over the past year have shown organic fruit and vegetables to be consistently cheaper through box schemes than through the leading supermarkets, with the bonus that producers receive a bigger share of the price paid by the consumer.

    Whatever happens to organic sales in 2009, there are huge changes ahead in farming which are sure to favour organic production. The government has agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Such cuts can only be achieved in agriculture by deriving fertility from sunshine and organic matter – as organic farmers do – rather than from fossil fuel-based chemical fertilisers. It is ironic that the recession has triggered a slowdown in sales at the very point when policy makers are expressing unprecedented interest in sustainable food systems.

    It is clear from this report that much more work needs to be done to communicate the wider benefits of organic production to the public, especially in relation to health, animal welfare, climate change and the environment. The economic downturn has given increasing profile to ‘single issue’ market alternatives such as free-range, local, pesticide-free, fair trade, seasonal and ‘natural’ foods. Consumers have plenty of different ethical options – so many, in fact, that the choice can be bewildering.

    To cut through the confusion the organic movement needs to demonstrate more forcefully than ever that organic principles encompass all these single issues and deliver a set of interlocking benefits that can and will still motivate consumers.

    Where understanding of these interlocking benefits is limited, consumer commitment may be limited too – particularly in tough times. As we hear from a succession of voices in this report, however, those with a sophisticated understanding of all the benefits are the ones most likely to become or remain committed buyers – they know too much to turn back.

    » Read the full report [PDF, 756 KB]

  • Exotics and sheep restore farmland

    From The Land

    There’s nothing conventional in the management of the Marshall family’s farm at Reidsdale, NSW, and nothing conventional about the results, either.

    Willows, poplars, chestnuts, oaks and bamboo are used as fodder and to regenerate farm soils and streams, running against the official preference for native species—and yet by any measure of health, the landscape is flourishing.

    Soils are friable and well-structured, ensuring that any moisture that falls on the farm stays there.

    Streams flow permanently, in contrast to when Peter and Kate Marshall and their children Keith, Gus and Rita, bought the former dairy farm ‘Woodford Lagoon’ in 1990.

    At the time, the farm—now 250 hectares—was “ruined”, Mr Marshall said, with no permanent water; compacted, acidic soil with no ‘A’ horizon, and dozens of hectares infested with broom bush.

    In one spot, water penetrated only about two centimetres deep during a 10 hour immersion under a flood.

    For much of the property, the first step toward health has been a Yeomans plow towed behind a low-ground pressure Antonio Carraro 4WD tractor. With a seven-tonne break-out on the tynes, the plow rips to 700 millimetres deep, shattering compaction and opening up the soil volume available to plant roots.

    “We’ve got some areas where we excluded the stock 20 years ago and the soil still hasn’t loosened up,” Mr Marshall said. “But the minute we’ve passed a Yeoman’s through it, everything comes to life.”

    Only sheep and goats are allowed back on the uncompacted soil, because the Marshalls have found that cattle hooves apply enough pressure to cause the farm’s soils to “plastically fail”, or compact beyond a point where natural processes can undo the damage.

    Goats have been an essential tool in the farm’s regeneration. Killing the broom with chemical wasn’t an option, Mr Marshall said, because it encourages the seeds scattered beneath the bush to germinate, requiring another dose of chemical—an ongoing vicious cycle.

    Instead, the Marshalls introduced goats to continually defoliate the mature bush and its seedlings. They settled on the Boer as the most fence-friendly and productive breed.

    Between goats, fire, mulching, blading and soil improvement—strategies designed to encourage competitive species as well as kill broom—the bush has been eliminated as a problem on Woodford Lagoon and is now being dealt with on a recently purchased block, ‘Sunnyside’.

    Having worked hard to manage broom, the Marshalls then introduced what some consider to be a range of other weeds.

    Willows, poplars, chestnuts and oaks and bamboo have all played central roles in other human cultures, where they have been valued because of their utility, nutritional value to livestock and, in the case of the trees, their ability to coppice, or quickly reshoot after lopping.

    The Marshalls are using non-invasive single-sex varieties in a grazing system they call “lop and drop”, which utilises the 20 tonnes per hectare per year of timber and vegetative growth produced by their deciduous trees.

    Lopped limbs, “long fodder”, are fed to Suffolk sheep or the goats. The leaves provide a high-protein feed, utilising nutrients drawn from deep within the soil, and are high in condensed tannins, Mr Marshall said.

    That means that less digestive activity is needed by livestock, and subsequently less methane is produced. New Zealand research suggests that condensed tannins also improve twinning rates in sheep.

    Browsing lopped limbs up off the pasture conserves grass, and reduces the parasite load in livestock. Lopped poles are also nibbled free of bark, which prevents them from reshooting where they lie.

    “Once you get used to the sight of poles on the ground, having these big chunks of carbon lying around the landscape are a good thing for many different reasons,” Mr Marshall said.

    “They roughen up the landscape, so wind speeds are slower near the ground.

    “You get different pasture species establishing against the chunks of logs as they rot down.

    “And the logs act to trap debris on the hill slopes very effectively.

    “This system mightn’t suit someone else with a different aesthetic view. But it suits us, and we think it suits our landscape.”

  • Death of Murray Darling forces farmers off the land

    The ABCTV 7.30 Report

    Towns in rural Australia are at risk of dying off as drought and Federal Government policy takes a toll on agriculture and forces a “mass exodus” in some regions.

    The town of Deniliquin in south-west New South Wales is the heart of what was once a thriving agricultural region. But after years of drought, water levels in the Murray River are at their lowest in more than a century.

    With the Federal Government offering to buy back farmers’ water allocations, some are giving up on agriculture altogether.

    Many families and businesses are struggling to survive, prompting a mass exodus from the town.

    The Wettenhall family has been farming in Deniliquin for 30 years, but they have decided they cannot go on.

    The worst drought in history means they have had no water for irrigation for three years and Adam Wettenhall says this year they are only promised a trickle.

    “It’s been incredibly tough. In fact the last three years have just been negative income, we’ve had to pull the heads right in, we’re not spending money on any machinery, we haven’t had a new machine in five or six years,” he said.

    The Wettenhalls are financially crippled by the fixed charges they are forced to pay for water they do not receive.

    ‘Exploiting farmers’

    The Federal Government is buying water directly from farmers to replenish the ailing Murray-Darling system.

    For some it is a welcome cash grab to pay off mounting debt. But Rob Brown, a financial planner in the region, says many farmers believe they are being exploited because the Government is the only buyer and it sets the price.

    “The farmers are frustrated and hurt and know they’re being exploited and the reason they’re being exploited,” he said.

    “They know the Government knows that after 10 years of drought, you’re sitting ducks.”

    Deniliquin has enjoyed decades of prosperity on the back of the rice industry and farmers were drawn to the region by an irrigation scheme they believed would make the region droughtproof.

    But times have changed and the town is experiencing an unprecedented downturn.

    Last year hundreds of people lost their jobs when the rice mill closed. The mill was once the symbol of Deniliquin’s prosperity, the largest rice mill in the southern hemisphere, capable of producing enough grain each day to feed 30 million people.

    Deniliquin’s Mayor Lindsay Renwick estimates that two families are leaving the town a week.

    “Since the rice industry has stopped we have had a mass exodus,” he said.

    Deniliquin’s future

    Now, the big question is, how will farms remain productive when the drought does break if the Federal Government has bought the majority of the water?

    Chairman of the Murray Action Group, Lester Wheatley, is worried that the Government has not considered the future of both food production and the town of Deniliquin.

    “There has been absolutely no concern, no apparent concern by either state or federal government about what we’re going to do about security for the future,” he said.

    “I’m convinced that the Government is not in the slightest bit interested in fact their attitude is more likely to be ‘Well, it’ll be natural attrition. If nobody lives in Deniliquin and everybody moves to the coast, well so be it’.”

    But the Federal Government says it is doing everything it can in the face of a changing climate.

    Minister for Water and Climate Change Penny Wong says the Federal Government is trying to keep the agricultural industry going.

    “We have to face up to a reality of a future where we’re likely to see the less water. What we’re doing is rolling out projects – seeking projects that will ensure efficiencies and continue to produce more crop per drop.”

     

  • Government fails to finance food

    From The Land

     

    CLIMATE change poses a threat to Australia’s food supply on a scale that urgently requires the attention of the Prime Minister, says industry leader Kate Carnell.

    The combination of drought, the proposed emissions trading scheme and the global downturn are all posing significant challenges for Australia’s food industry, but there is a lack of strong government direction to address the problems confronting the sector.

    “The viability of the food manufacturing sector is under threat – and if these challenges are not addressed, they will significantly impact on Australia’s long-term food security, and our capacity to be self-sufficient,” said Ms Carnell, the chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.

    The $70 billion-a-year food industry, employing 200,000 people, is Australia’s biggest manufacturing industry yet is regulated by about 20 government departments when what is needed is a co-ordinated approach overseen by the Department of Prime and Cabinet, Ms Carnell, a former ACT chief minister, said.

    The impact of drought and the prospect of a carbon trading scheme that would penalise the local industry but not foreign food competitors is highlighting the need for a national food policy.

    “This whole industry is based on available water and low-cost power and really, like any other agricultural products, if your water is not there – no water, no food – that’s a bit of a problem,” Ms Carnell told the National Press Club yesterday.

    That problem becomes more daunting if the price of power rises as a result of the emissions trading scheme, with significant knock-on effects given 90 per cent of the inputs to the food industry comes from Australian farms, Ms Carnell said.

  • Farmers Greenies almost agree on farm carbon

    Green groups have put a dampener on Meat and Livestock Australia’s campaign to raise public conciousness about the role of agriculture in the carbon cycle, arguing the dangers of methane from livestock far outweigh their benefits.

     

    Healthy Country campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation Corey Watts agreed the “go veg and save the planet” message was very powerful and potentially very dangerous for an industry that did not always deserve such bad publicity.

    “There are plenty of good land stewards out there but sadly plenty of bad ones as well,” Mr Watts said.

    “Yes, farming is a crucial part of the carbon cycle but the methane emissions from agriculture are much more potent than carbon dioxide and on a global scale this easily outweighs the positives of pasture.”

    Mr Watts added an independent, honest appraisal was required to measure the Australian industry’s carbon footprint in a farming perspective, but warned MLA to base the value of its campaign on real environmental merit.

    “Agriculture has not been given enough prominence in this debate so far and industry leaders have been very slow to come to the debate and admit there is a big problem,” he said.

    MLA chairman Don Heatley does not deny that sheep and cattle emit carbon, but he said targeting ruminants was unfair as it did not see the animals in the context of an overall farm, the trees, perennial pastures, the fenced off creeks and the improved genetics.

    “Farmers are environmentalists in the truest sense of the word and through programs like Landcare have delivered huge environmental improvements that they generally don’t get acknowledgement for,” Mr Heatley said.

    Not helping MLA’s cause is the lack of scientific knowledge surrounding carbon sequestration in farming systems.

    “Sadly all some celebrities, scientists, academics and journalists see is the carbon emissions from livestock and it has become a snowball,” Mr Heatley said.

    “We need to really provide them with the right information and open their eyes to all of the other positive environmental work being carried out on farms.”

    Farmer case studies will form a key plank in the MLA program to help battle the greenwash against farmers.