Anyone who has dined out at an even moderately fashionable restaurant in Australia recently would have observed the rush to include providence and credence information as a feature of the menu. Favoured words include "local", "natural" and "sustainable", along with the name of the district where the food was produced. The question of what these words actually mean came into sharp focus recently at a Sydney restaurant that proudly claimed that it only sourced product from sustainable, local farmers, but then proceeded to list steak on its menu that was sourced from a large feedlot located more than 1,000 kilometres away!  View the rest of the post here

The 2016 Federal Budget seems more like an entrée than the main course voters have traditionally expected to be served up at this time each year. The big issues – such as the measures that will be needed to reduce the long-term budget deficit now running at an estimated $37 billion per year – have been left for a future date, as have decisions on issues such as university funding, the tax system, and the major infrastructure investment that will be required to lift national productivity. View the rest of the post here

Over the last few days, the federal Opposition has announced new greenhouse emission reduction policies, which includes a Commonwealth Government 'trigger' mechanism which would enable the Commonwealth to over-ride decisions by State Governments in relation to native vegetation management. In particular, if implemented this would mean that in the event the Commonwealth considered that state legislation was too lenient, it could override that legislation and impose stricter controls. While the proposal might fill landholders with horror, it might also trigger a long-awaited move to implement mandatory compensation payments to farmers for the public good carbon sequestration services associated with the retention of trees on farms. View the rest of the post here

If you are looking for a new way to waste time on the Internet, dive into the rabbit hole that is Google trends. Simply input a search item or two and it will show you how often that search has been performed compared to all other searches, which countries the searches have been originating from and what other terms have been used alongside that search. View the rest of the post here

Accepted wisdom is often a dangerous thing, as it provides an easy path for those wishing to advance a particular argument but who can't be bothered to first build the evidence. An example may well be the accepted wisdom that farmers as a general group are progressively ageing, and that this will result in reduced rates of productivity growth and a loss of competitiveness for the sector in the future.  View the rest of the post here

There is widespread recognition that all is not well with the agricultural innovation system in Australia, with agricultural productivity growth essentially stalling since 1997, and agricultural research and development funding in free-fall as state governments in particular use any excuse to shut down facilities and remove resources. It might seem illogical, but one way to improve the performance of the Australian agricultural innovation system may actually be to shut down agricultural faculties and schools in Australia's major universities. View the rest of the post here

The forecast of annual farm production for 2015-16 released by ABARES at its annual Agricultural Outlook conference being held in Canberra this week was quite positive, indicating that the gross value of farm production will increase by around 5% compared to 2014-15 and equal almost $59 billion dollars. However, a farm commodity that is very quickly growing in value was completely overlooked in ABARES estimates. View the rest of the post here

The resurgence of controversy in both NSW and Queensland about tree-clearing legislation highlights that little progress has been made in the past twenty years, and that a long-term resolution will never be achieved unless the fundamental inequity inherent in state and Australian Government policy associated with this issue is addressed.  View the rest of the post here