CARBON POLICIES CREATE RISKS FOR MODERN FARMING SYSTEMS

THE peak lobby group for Queensland’s intensive agriculture sector, the Queensland Farmers’ Federation, said today that it had grave concerns that some agricultural production systems were “damned if they did, damned if they didn’t” when it came to carbon mitigation policies.

“From what we have seen of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), which is aimed at helping farmers participate in carbon markets, there is limited opportunity for intensive farms to participate,” QFF CEO Dan Galligan said.

“The nature of intensive farming systems means that these farms have little ability to, say, plant numerous hectares of trees to sequester carbon. A lot of efficiencies with our inputs have already been achieved in recent years.

“Yet these farms will still bear the impact of the carbon tax, given the utmost importance of energy inputs into the farming system.”

Mr Galligan said that there were also questions regarding the point at which an increasing carbon price made CFI activities worthwhile.

“Below that point, and it isn’t worth farmers’ time and money. Above that point, there is a risk of perverse outcomes in terms of losing food and fibre production.”

Mr Galligan acknowledged that the government had made big budgetary commitments to biodiversity and the CFI in its announcement on Sunday, and that there was enormous potential for benefits for rural communities.

“But we also need to be thinking now about the risks, especially for small, intensive farms,” he said.

“There is a vigorous debate about food security and strategic cropping land occurring at the moment. The last thing we need to add to these concerns is a policy that turns productive food and fibre farms into carbon farms.

“We support the CFI where it is sensible and can be integrated into existing farming systems, as well as the investments in research and biodiversity. But, at the same time, a purely carbon farm won’t put food on the table. It won’t produce clothes to keep us warm.

“We must avoid the risk of opening the gates to shifting our good food and fibre producing land to tree production.

“The Government has said it is putting safeguards in place to stop this from occurring – but we need to see the detail.

“Our farmers and farmland can’t be taken for granted, and historically, unfortunately that is how farmers feel they have been treated when it comes to their significant role in protecting environmental assets.”