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Water is the key to sustainability

By Michael Jeffery and Julian Cribb - posted Thursday, 28 October 2010


The ideas vary, but there is a spirit of give-it-a-go in the air, complemented by a growing body of scientific advice. The universal theme is to find ways to save water and build soil carbon.

For example, not only do recharging our wetlands, repairing our riparian zones, restoring forests and shelterwoods, using no-till sowing, using new organic fertilisers and practising cell grazing have the potential to increase the water stored in our dry landscapes, those measures also boost healthier food production.

Such action will also lock up millions of tonnes of carbon to offset Australia's greenhouse emissions.

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It's a win-win-win solution, provided we give farmers the essential incentive by putting a price on carbon.

But to achieve it, farmers are going to need much more help. They need to be seen not just as growers of food but as the primary managers of our ecosystem and rewarded accordingly. At present they are trying to develop these solutions in the face of a shrinking national agricultural science effort and a ferocious cost-price squeeze that makes investing in new farming systems risky and, often, unaffordable. Also, increasingly they are seeing their water being traded and good land taken away for urban development, mining, recreation and other uses, including being sold to overseas interests.

For Australia to be cutting back its food production at a time of looming global food insecurity makes no sense. Recognition of this by governments, federal and state, is overdue. Queensland recently has passed a law making development on prime farming land for mines or suburbs illegal. Though it applies only to 2 per cent of the state, it is a start.

As well as restraining their sprawl on to farm land, cities have to play their part by recycling their water so they do not rob farmers of their ability to grow food. It would also help if cities began to recycle the nutrients, food and organic waste they now send to landfill or out to sea. This is a colossal waste in a resource-scarce world.

No matter who we are, if we eat, we are involved in food production, through the economic signals we send as consumers and in the use of land and water resources in which we compete with farmers. Australians who want a secure food supply will see the logic of this and play their part in making ours a more sustainable continent. If governments want a strong, resilient economy, they need to pay more attention to the food sector.

We are building a body of knowledge that the world is going to need as the population climbs towards nine billion, food demand doubles and other resources become scarce and costly.

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But much of our landscape regenerative effort is piecemeal. We must look to best practice and reinforce success. In finding our own solutions to these challenging issues, we can help others find theirs. Indeed, Australian know-how could prove decisive in the quest for a sustainable human future on this overcrowded planet.

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This article was first published by The Australian on October 15, 2010.



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About the Authors

Michael Jeffery is a former governor-general of Australia.

Julian Cribb is a science communicator and author of The Coming Famine: the global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it. He is a member of On Line Opinion's Editorial Advisory Board.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Michael Jeffery
All articles by Julian Cribb

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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