The European Union has some of the highest standards for organic foods and has largely rejected gene editing and genetic modified foods. Member countries only have the option to further tighten those rules, or simply follow regulations set by the Union. But in the UK,...
The worsening relationship between the governments of Australia and China has resulted in China’s imposition of punitive tariffs and bans on some major agrifood imports from Australia, alongside a slowdown in trade activity across many other categories of trade. The...
There has been a flurry of complaint in the ag media recently about the delay in the payment of a milk price step-up in the current Australian milk production season which runs to the end of June 2021. Step-ups are a milk payment increase, usually announced once the...
EU leaders have managed to reach an agreement on a €750bn package that will provide a post-COVID stimulus to member states. It took 100 hours of negotiation as northern member states – the “fiscal frugals” resisted some of the largesse on grants for countries most...
Thankfully for most Australians the impact of COVID-19 has been in the abstract, at least in terms of health. With case numbers still low at the time of writing, the financial impacts have been highlighted in expanding queues outside Centrelink Office as government...
The world is still in the early days of the COVID-19 experience but there is already much to learn from the 70-odd days since news of the virus broke in China. There isn’t a lot of hindsight to work with just yet. The apparent reluctance of Western governments to act...
In the midst of an historic dry period and calls for the federal government to “do something” Professor in Australian politics at the University of Canberra, Linda Botterill has examined the question of why there is no drought policy in Australia. Australia...
There have been reviews of the last remaining state GM moratoriums in Australia carried out almost simultaneously in recent months. In South Australia the government has announced it will lift its GM ban, allowing for GM food crops to be grown on the mainland from...
Earlier this month, people travelling to work in Melbourne’s CBD were delayed when around 150 activists blocked traffic in front of the busy Flinders street station. Trams and busses were disrupted as vegan protestors sat down in the busy intersection while holding...
The recently published EAT-Lancet Commission report - Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems - warns obesity, undernutrition and climate change are the biggest threats to humanity and called for a global...
A recent study from the University of Oxford that puts forward the case for a meat tax has gained significant media coverage. Most of the coverage has presented the results of the study – that the “optimal” tax could prevent 220,000 deaths and save over US$40 billion...
It’s tough being a dairy farmer right now. Any farmers reading this might say it’s always tough, but extended drought conditions that have sapped emotional and financial resources in many regions are taking a particular toll at present. Dairy Australia is now...
