"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

I used to be a constituent of Bob's, he is not universally loved
there, but he is a noisy axle (needs greasing). I admired his stand
when the other 2 supposed rural reps went commo. I prefer to eat
Australian rice, first the drought and now maybe faceless cityites
will prevent that. I want this country to grow it's own food.

Amen to that. That doesn't mean necessarily that we should grow all foods
regardless of the climatic suitability or cost effectiveness of it.

that's right. i'd rather buy australian any day, but _should_ we be buying
australian rice?

having said that, i think rice is about the only food we possibly should not
be growing. there is somewhere in australia for every crop - it's offensive
that other foods are imported when we grow it ourselves. at a minimum, food
security is actually really important; "food miles" are an important
consideration, and so forth. and to address the original issue, any
irrigators who are growing (for example) wine grapes for export probably
should just shut up right now.

This is another continuing problem. Many towns and cities were
established in the most fertile part of the region - usually near rivers.
Our planning people keep allowing them to grow and plant houses instead of
food. At some point the comparably little good soil we have in reasonable
rainfall areas needs to be protected. Right now it is more profitable to
dig it up for coal or subdivide for building lots.

i think this is actually the more important issue here imo. farmland can NOT
be given up for mcmansions or coal. THAT is obscene. how can this be allowed
to happen??!
kylie