Deep green campaign an enemy of progress

THEY have the appetites, we have the land. What could possibly stop Australia becoming the food bowl of the Asia-Pacific in a world of nine billion people?

It was left to Graeme Acton, of Acton Super Beef in central Queensland, to grab the audience microphone and bring the conference back to earth.

"Someone said this morning we're in the best position," he said. "That's right - we are in the best position, but we're in the worst situation."

The shift from hard to soft resources, from mining to dining, will not be easy and is by no means inevitable. Billions to our north will need to be fed, just as they are now hungry for iron ore and coal. Extracting the nutrients from the earth, however, is a more complicated and perilous task than extracting minerals.

As one drought ends, another one begins. Time and again the discussion at yesterday's Global Food Forum came back to the arid investment climate.

Significantly, there was only one representative from the superannuation industry in attendance; the low returns simply do not excite domestic investors. Farmers can be their own worst enemies when it comes to enticing willing investors, Macquarie Agriculture Funds Management's co-head Tim Hornibrook told the forum.

He said the farming sector had almost as many representative bodies as farmers, and most of them spend their time talking down their book. So much effort had been put into convincing governments that farmers were in trouble that the investors started to believe it.

Lyndon Schneiders from the Wilderness Society volunteered further reasons not to invest in farming, at least in northern Australia. The argument was too contested, he warned, and investors risked doing their dough. Northern Australia was "a green field on a massive level," and Australia "as we all know is an ancient country with ancient soils."

The agricultural sector would be wise to pay attention to Schneiders's veiled threat. The Wilderness Society has form; it was active in the campaign to pass the Wild Rivers legislation, locking out development from Cape York to the anger of Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson.

Farmers still cannot make up their minds as to whether environmentalism is an opportunity or a threat. The green path to innovation is enticing, offering the scope for cleaner, healthier niche products badged "sustainable".

In the development of northern Australia, however, the deep green movement is the enemy of progress. For progressives, Australia's frontier closed 30 years ago with the scuppering of the Gordon-below-Franklin dam, and they are not about to change their minds.

The temporary closure of the live cattle trade to Indonesia last year, in response to the video evidence of abattoir cruelty has shaken the agricultural sector beyond the cattle trade.

The argument runs both ways; beef producers had left themselves in a vulnerable position by failing to diversify.

Yet the government's knee-jerk reaction in response to the footage brought home the widening gulf between city and country. The latte suburbs around the CBD seem particularly remote from the realities of farming, and it is there that opinion leaders congregate.

Farmers clearly have an image problem; their role in keeping Australians fed and clothed and their contribution to the export economy is under appreciated.

Anthony Pratt recalled his youth in the 1970s, when agricultural science was harder to get into than medicine. Today, only 750 graduates a year are emerging with agricultural science degrees, despite more than 4000 vacancies in the food industry.

One simple idea, however, seemed to catch imaginations. Vicki Meyer from Deniliquin Freighters suggested renaming the agriculture ministry the ministry of food. Andrew Robb, who in five months' time may well be a person of some influence, said the idea had merit.