The Weekend Australian, March 6 – 7, 2010
A hand up, not a handout
Labor rethinks the assistance offered to farmers
Asa Wahlquist
Droughts are not what they used to be, and changes to drought policy are long overdue. So when Federal agriculture minister, Tony Burke, this week announced interest rate subsidies would be axed from future drought policy, few who work in the area were surprised. But they are still anxiously waiting for news of what will replace it.
Drought Support
May 6th, 2010Winegrapes oversupply hits Murray Valley farmers
May 6th, 2010The Australian January 23-24, 2010 p 32
Tried and tested irrigation region becomes a vineyard graveyard
The oversupply of winegrapes has hit the inland areas of the Murray hardest
Asa Wahlquist
On a hill near Merbein, high above a bend in the Murray River, lies the Pioneer Plantation. At the foot of upright Murray pines and under leaning desert gums are small metal plates bearing the names of the district's pioneers, the soldier settlers and their wives, the doctors, teachers and labourers who first settled this place.
On the plains below, the land farmed and irrigated for over a century is being laid to waste hectare by hectare, farm by farm. Families who have grown grapes for generations are exiting the industry, the weakest link in an massively over-supplied industry.
Too few agricultural scientists
May 6th, 2010The Australian November 18, 2009 page 27
Agricultural scientists are too thin on the ground
Agricultural science, food and natural resource management, have never been more important, argues Mark Adams, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at Sydney University.
"Carbon, water, food. This is what it is about," he says. "The world is going to be desperate for food, is desperate for food and will be increasingly hard pressed to supply it."
Clancy blogs about Stig
March 29th, 2010We have a new dog. Actually he is a really old dog, nearly as old as me, but a bit more wobbly on his paws.
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cattle and methane
November 12th, 2009Cattle and Methane, broadcast on Ockham's Razor, ABC Radio National,
August 12, 2012.
A lot of people, amongst them Britain's Lord Stern and Sir Paul McCartney, argue that eating less meat could help save the planet. But there is a growing body of evidence that it is not simply a case of less meat means less heat. Rural journalist Asa Wahlquist takes a closer look at this issue.
Black Saturday bushfire
October 12th, 2009The Australian, February 10, 2009 p. 13
Scorched Earth
The long-term forecast is hot and dry, with frequent megafires: all we can do it learn to live with them reports Asa Wahlquist.
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Clancy’s blog 3
October 12th, 2009If they had given prizes for silliness at the Wentworth Park Games Day maybe Emmylou would have won something.
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Clancy’s blog 2
September 10th, 2009Hi, Clancy here.
Emmylou and I have been very busy, helping Åsa look after her niece and nephew, Paloma and Ronan, who were visiting from New York. They live in something called an apartment and can’t have a dog. The thing is Paloma, the girl, is crazy about dogs, and she really kept Emmylou busy. I didn’t mind, I got in some good snuggles with the boy, Ronan. When Paloma came to stay we both slept on her bed. I was a bit worried I was not going to get any sleep, she was so excited. She was laughing and laughing. But she settled down and I even had a sleep in! Then when Ronan stayed too we divided them up: I slept on the boy’s bed and Emmylou slept on Paloma’s. Actually we all ended up in the same bed, with their mum. Åsa got quite a surprise when she peeked in on us in the morning!
Emmylou
August 10th, 2009Hi, it’s Emmylou here at last.
I have been asking and asking Åsa and Clancy. Can I write a blog, I said, please, please, please. But they told me I had to wait, and I hate waiting.
I had to wait until Clancy wrote his, and Clancy is VERY SLOW, but I am VERY FAST!!!
Clancy and Emmylou
June 26th, 2009Hi, it’s Clancy here. Åsa has been asking me to write a blog, but I was worried. I said to her there are so many things I just don’t understand. And she said that was OK, I didn’t have to explain anything, just write about how I feel, so here goes.
Clancy and Emmylou