Description

Farm men and women, their land and their livestock produce the food and fibre that sustains and clothes us. Agriculture provides one-in-six Australian jobs and its products are often the lifeblood of rural and regional towns (Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, 2013b). The Australian nation has a proud agricultural history and one of many contrasts. Consider those farmers portrayed as gentlemen farmers watching their stock grow fat eating grass, compared to those at the centre of the Shearers' Strike of 1891 and the subsequent formation of the Australian Labor Party. More recently Australian farmers have been recognised as some of the most efficient agricultural producers in the world (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2012). In May 2013, the Commonwealth Government of Australia launched the first National Food Plan (Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, 2013b) outlining its vision of Australian agriculture as being perfectly situated to feed the rising middle class of our northern neighbours.