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admin /10 April, 2009
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| By cracking a lucrative specialist fruit market and fine-tuning their operation to the point where labour costs have been halved in a decade, Ken and Jennie Ross (pictured) are providing a perfect example of small-area farming efficiency. |
54,000 small farmers in NSW Australia have built a recession proof financial institution based on investments in small intensive farms that are very efficient and do not carry large debts and high overheads.
The members of the BananaCoast Credit Union celebrated forty years of local operation by lending another 20 percent of its total capital to local operators in the last six months.
Agribusiness specialist in the Coffs Harbour, NSW office of the credit union said that profitable members were taking advantage of a good season to borrow money and expand their operations by buying less profitable operations and building long term infrastructure.
admin /5 April, 2009
European photovoltaic manufacturers are beginning to plan for the recycling of components from panels that have rolled out over the last fifteen years. Because volumes have risen dramatically from a very small base in 1990 and the lifespan of the cells is about 25 years, the issue is set to become a serious business in about one decade and deliver significant returns another decade after that. Early cells used thick wafers of silicon which can be simply re-etched, making a significant saving in energy. Modern technology uses thin cells or thin film technology which cannot be re-used but must be re-cycled as raw materials.
admin /5 April, 2009
The Australian Conservation Foundation and Meat and Livestock Australia both issued statements last week about the important role of agriculture in managing Australia’s carbon emissions. Both groups emphasised the importance of perennial pastures, biochar and organic farming techniques in reducing emissions and called for further research into the analysis of methane emissions from livestock and the sequestration of carbon through regeneration of forests and use of tree crops on degraded land.
The primary divergence was one of emphasis, with the conservationists stressing the advantages of a vegetarian diet and the meat growers pushing for more attention being given to pasture management. Chairman of Meat and Livestock Australia, Don Heatley, said “Farmers are environmentalists in the truest sense of the word and have delivered huge environmental improvements that they generally don’t get acknowledgement for,” Mr Heatley said.
admin /5 April, 2009
Speaking in Sydney last week, Woolworth fresh foods boss, Michael Batycki told reporters that the company rejects only one percent of the fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to the supermarket chain. He also denied claims that the supermarkets dominate the fresh food market. He said that Coles and Woolworths together sold only 47 percent of Australias fresh fruit and vegetables and 60 percent of meat. Woolworths faces widespread and ongoing criticism for aggressive buying practices that cripple primary producers. These charges led to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Inquiry which came to the conclusion that there was insufficient proof to charge the supermarkets over the claims. One farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Generator that the criticisms are becoming irrelevant as the supermarkets buy into the agribusiness sector and supply themselves. “It is mainly independent farmers who are getting the rough end of the pineapple,” he said.
admin /5 April, 2009
Victorian forestry workers in conjunction with government departments have lit fires in at least five national parks since the February bushfires to capitalise on public sympathy for controlled burning to reduce the fuel load. Immediately after the bushfires, News Limited media and talk back radio stations ran concerted campaigns to blame the bushfires on a Continue Reading →
admin /5 April, 2009
The government of the United Kingdom revoked a permit for an anti-poverty group to protest outside the G20 summit last week, according to the Telegraph. The World Development Movement, a registered charity that had originally been given a permit, claims that police told it the permit had been revoked on orders from 10 Dowling St. In contrast, The Royal Bank of Scotland Building was publicly targeted by black bloc anarchists. Police allowed the group to march on the building which was the only building in the immediate vicinity not boarded up and had a large contingent of national and international media waiting. Representatives of the World Development Movement and media group Prison Planet have claimed that the government is deliberately stage managing the protests to minimise public sympathy for protests designed to support the developing world and ending world poverty.
