Should we mainly cultivate in the wet north ?....
Or should we pump water to the dry south instead ?
Senator Heffernan from NSW is probably the biggest proponent of more food grown in northern Australia.
That idea is being criticised now:
www.abc.net.au/news/2009-08-18/heffernans-northern-food-bowl-mythical/1395224
So basically we will probably have to choose a third option, importing some of our food. This option is already happening, unfortunately.
^^^^^^^ I'm with him... and stop using it to grow grapes too.
you tend to use much less water than you think; most of us already have water tanks (containing water thats niether floridated or chlorinated), the contents of which we usually waste on grass lawns and ornamental trees. grapes and bananas don't take that much water if you water them sensibly
you begin to realise just how much food you get for a relative little effort when you grow your own (and how little space you actually need), and when you tee it up with your neighbors and all grow different things, you get heaps in terms of variety and waste very little.
and they taste great, you don't have to use pesticides, and you end up eating healthier...
Tank water is quite suspect, and i would think that in lots of places across Australia it would be interesting to obtain definitive samples of water in your tank, it may surprise you .
Water to me is not the only problem of feeding the nation or world. Corporations that take up the land,as against the small block farmer, destroy it. They tend to get in and clear the land of all natural vegetation, then land plane it all so that the natural topography is destroyed, then add many chemicals etc to [help} the land produce. I think they just rape it.
There are many thousands of square k's in Australia that have been treated like this then abandoned some years latter after they have ransacked the land and developed our food into a tasteless, chemical supported product.
With small holdings and real people working their own plot we will all live better, and as a flow on the planet will be better looked after.
Help keep corporations out of our food, do what you can.....you know!!!!
Should we mainly cultivate in the wet North or pump water to the South?
Have a good look at the environmental damage every irrigation scheme world wide has resulted in and answer the question yourself.
This country has a very quaint approach to water. Desalination is now being used quite widely to fill metropolitan reservoirs. A lot of this value added seawater is used to flush toilets and wash humans and their possessions.
We suck water from our aquifers to process minerals and irrigate thousands of acres of the Murray Darling for cotton, land which will be rendered useless for decades when it finally gives out, as it has in every state in the US where cotton was grown.
In 1995 I listened to a talk on the science show on ABC radio. There was a drought on at the time and the guest speaker was a proponent of water recycling. Los Angeles was, back then, recycling 40% of its fresh water using Australian filtration technology.
The sooner we wake up to our responsibilities as far as the environment is concerned the sooner we will secure a future for our beloved offspring. I am 54 and do not hold out much hope when gormlessness like taking water from the north to the south is still being debated.
