Past Programs
Agribusiness - 2008
Dairy farmer reaction to National Foods takeover
14/11/2008
In a postal ballot, 96.3 per cent of members of Australian Co-operative Foods Ltd, controller of the Dairy Farmers brand, have agreed to a cash buy-out worth almost a billion dollars by National Foods, owned by the Japanese brewer Kirin.
Life in 2030
13/10/2008
As the credit crunch generates a radical transformation of the global finance sector, another even more powerful force is at play to change the world as we know it.
A new report into the effects of climate change by the year 2030 will see central Australia abandoned because it's too dry, while millions of refugees flee to Antarctica.
But the projections also contain some best-case scenarios, where the world will be spurred by strong economic growth after technological innovation frees us from our reliance on fossil fuels.
Pacific Islanders to be welcome workers in Australian horticulture
18/08/2008
Orchardist Ron Stanton is looking forward to recruiting his first guest workers from Pacific Island nations. The government will allow 2,500 workers to spend up to seven months in Australia as part of a three year trial to ease a shortage of labour in the industry.
Farmers nervous about emissions trading
07/07/2008
Australia's farmers are still not clear on how any future emissions trading scheme will affect their industry, despite the release of the Garnaut report last Friday. The Queensland farmers federation chief executive officer, John Cherry, says many details will have to be ironed out if the agriculture sector is to survive intact.
Drought panel to review national drought policy
01/07/2008
A government-appointed panel will soon visit 25 towns across the nation to look at how the drought has affected families Australia-wide. The project is part of the Rudd government's many reviews, this one being the national review of drought policy.
Family farms
02/05/2008
The first national statistics on family farm numbers during the drought have been released. Figures prepared for the Background Briefing program show that more than 10,000 families have left farming between 2001 and 2006.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also reveal the long term decline in family farming. The number of family farms has gone down by 30% in just the last 20 years.
Di Martin has looked at the state of family farming from a personal perspective and prepared this report.
Listen to the full report on Background Briefing, Sunday 4 May at 9am, repeated Tuesday 6 May at 7pm.
World rice shortage
29/04/2008
Australia has harvested its poorest rice crop in more than 80 years. Rice farmers say the drought and zero water allocations has led to a miniscule harvest, and what they have managed to grow will go to the domestic market. The failure by Australia to produce an export crop is contributing to a worldwide food shortage, which some say is bordering on a global crisis.
