The " Land Resource " question ?

There have been recent warnings that the fruit and vegetables on offer in our supermarkets are increasingly imported and this raises the question of how our land resources are allocated.   The spread of housing is gobbling up farm land near our cities and agriculture is under threat from the expansion of the coal industry and the fast developing coal seam gas well projects.   At the same time, foreign interests are acquiring rural properties to ensure long term food availability for their citizens.

Now a new threat to Australian farming feeding this nation is emerging.   The expansion of Wollongong's Port Kembla will include a $ 273 million  Biodiesel plant, due to commence operations in 2014.   This will help to replace our reliance on mineral diesel fuel, but it is it's future plans that raise concerns.

The raw material to be converted into Biodiesel will be Soybeans.   Initially, these will be imported from the USA but that is only an interim measure.  The plan is to convince Australian farmers that converting to Soybean production will give them a better financial return.   There is a danger that land presently used for wheat and other grain production will be given over to Soybean and as Australia is a world leading wheat exporter, this valuable part of our economy will be damaged.

From the point of view of economics, it would not be in our interests to reduce the quantity of an export product that brings dollars into this country with an internal product that simply fuels the Australian transport industry.

In a democracy like Australia, farmers are free to make their own decisions on what they plant and what they grow to achieve an economic return.   If Soybeans prove to be easier to bring to maturity with fewer risks than other crops, then that would be the logical decision to make.    What is best for the farmer would not necessarily be best for this country or it's economy.

The last thing we need is some sort of bureaucracy .dictating to farmers what they are required to grow.  That was tried in several Communist countries decades ago, with disastrous results that included famines.
What we do need is a logical plan to balance our agricultural output and ensure that this country is at least  self sufficient in it's food needs.    We live in an uncertain world and relying on imports for our daily requirements could one day lead to a food disaster.

There is probably room for a Soybean production farming segment in Australia, but to prevent it damaging or replacing other essential crops the taxation applied to farmers incomes needs to be selective in regard to what is being grown.    If a bigger wheat crop is in the national interest then the income from wheat growing should be more lightly taxed to influence farming decisions.

As things stand, the " one size fits all " taxation policy we have does nothing to prevent disastrous changes to our farm economy !