The week’s top stories (week ending 07/11/18)
Every week, AUSVEG rounds up the top stories on issues affecting the Australian vegetable industry. Here are this weekās most important news items:
Australian industry:
- Thanks for fruit pick quick-fix, but donāt forget the long game (Mike Foley, Good Fruit & Vegetables)
- PM’s new backpacker changes an immediate relief ‘but not a long-term solution’ (Jodie Gunders, Warwick Long and Katri Uibu, ABC Rural)
- Pacific workers may be worse off under Government’s plans to extend backpacker visa (Sue Lannin, ABC News)
- Backpacker work plan creates more problems than it solves (Joanna Howe, Alex Reilly, Stephen Clibborn, Diane van den Broek and Chris F Wright, Sydney Morning Herald)
- Migrant workers are the worst paid and ‘unlikely to complain about stolen wages’ (David Claughton and Eliza Goetze, NSW Country Hour)
- NFF to build drought information website (Natalie Kotsios, The Weekly Times)
- Farmers dismiss BOM rainfall outlooks as worthless (Peter Hunt, The Weekly Times)
- Rural Aid and Aussie Helpers working with national charity regulator (Elle Rixon and Lara Webster, ABC News)
- Scenic Rim crops devastated by $10 million storm front (Larraine Sathicq, Good Fruit & Vegetables)
- Queensland farmers miss out on disaster funding despite hail storm destroying crops (Tim Shepherd, ABC News)
- Nationals call for water mining inquiry but Greens want it banned outright (Kim Honan, Joanne Shoebridge and Leah White, ABC Rural)
- Bottling water from a fertile plateau in NSW angers farmers who want to keep it for agriculture (Michael Cavanagh, ABC News)
- Free fruit fly traps hope to control Medfly pest in Carnarvonā (Good Fruit & Vegetables)
- Epping market being assessed to assist struggling growers (Alexandra Laskie, The Weekly Times)
- Rural rates reform pledge by [Vic state] Coalition (Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times)
- 20 ag chemical companies black-listed after refusing to pay drumMUSTER levy (Peter Hunt, The Weekly Times)
- Chlorpyrifos: Pesticides regulator misses its own deadline to review chemical linked to baby brain damage (Jackson Gothe-Snape, ABC News)
- Probiotics of the plant world: Why soil microbes are gaining worldwide interest (Tyne Logan, ABC South West WA)
- Australians urged to don the green for National Ag Day (Queensland Country Life)
International news:
- Global: Organic market ‘nowhere near saturated’ (Heleen Bos, Eurofruit)
- Global: Efforts multiply to address water woes (Tom Joyce, Eurofruit)
- United Kingdom: Gene find could herald disease resistance (Ed Leahy, Fresh Produce Journal)
- United Kingdom: Veg growers get new insect control option (HortiDaily)
- United Kingdom: NFU urges industry to āopen upā about mental health (Fred Searle, Fresh Produce Journal)
- United Kingdom: Brexit diet could lead to 5,600 deaths a year as fresh fruit and veg prices shoot up (Marco Springmann, The Conversation)
- United Kingdom: Natoora promotes seasonality with new store concept (Fred Searle, Fresh Produce Journal)
- United Kingdom: Revolutionary urban farms aim to take crop growing underground (University of Nottingham)
- Canada: Minimum wage freeze gives farmers time to adjust (Jan VanderHout, The London Free Press)
- Spain: Two people arrested for fraud on horticultural trader (HortiDaily)
- USA: FDA announces measures to prevent future E. coli outbreaks (FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb)
This post appeared in the AUSVEG Weekly Update published 7 November 2018. Subscribe to the Update using our online form to receive the latest industry news in your inbox every week!