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BAYER Signs Herbicide Development Deal with GRDC Australia

It is not only humans that are becoming resistant to drugs developed to fight disease, chemicals used by farmers to combat crop destroyers are also not working so well. The world's supply of grain is at risk.

Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) signs deal with BAYER

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in Australia is signing a deal with Bayer CropScience. This Herbicide Innovation Partnership aims to find more effective weed-fighting chemicals.

More than 40 Australian researchers will be taken on board at the Bayer’s global centre of excellence in Germany. Australian is a major grain producer and Bayer will target agriculture in this country. Benefits will spread to other countries.

Australian farmers spend $3.25 billion on weed control every year. This is the largest input cost, greater than fertilizer. Resistance to herbicides is pushing the cost higher as growers spray more to defeat weeds.

✴ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Wild Glycine Crossed With Soybean

Selection of the most suitable plants has been going on for thousands of years, but it has never been so intensive as modern times. It is not so much farmers who do it today. Scientists are doing this as their main work.

Glycine crossed with soybean crop agriculture fertility hormone

Ram Singh a geneticist crossed a wild Australian plant with soybean to produce a super crop. Many soybean diseases have been stopped in their tracks. It wasn't easy though. Success came after years of research. The first attempt to "blend" wild Glycine attributes with soybean took place in 1983.

A new process which prevents hybrid seeds from becoming sterile was the key to creating the special soybean. Many back crosses with the parent plant were necessary. Ram Singh sent seeds to other scientists as he was working. Outside input from them was a great help.

Soybean is a very imported crop that feeds the world. Many products are derived from it. There is hope for the future as 26 wild species of Glycine exist. Most are disease resistant. The hormone anti-sterility treatment has opened-up the whole crop breeding field.

✴ Genetics by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Drink Your Own P.

It says in the Bible that a time will come when Man will eat his own .... and drink his own .... This is not so absurd as it sounds. Already effluent is cleaned and recycled as drinking water in populated cities. Plans are also afoot to use human waste as crop fertilizer.

With reusable energy a high priority for the future, this agenda will probably be followed for high density regions of the world. If clean water is not available everywhere disease will spread across the globe. Production of food will also have to be maximized. Human waste is not the primary fertilizer yet.

Obtaining sufficient amounts of food and water is under threat from global warming. Make no mistake: climate change is a reality. It is not a fear campaign by the political Left. Denial is stupidity. The planet is a degree warmer today that is has been in past centuries. Predictions of a rise of at least two degrees are in the offing.

The Internet has come at the right time for Man. More efficient communication will be needed to create and deliver the staples of human life. Political refugees have been a thorn in Australia's side for a long time now. There is no prospect that this country will be a target for climate refugees. Climate change will have a greater effect here than anywhere else.

✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Australia is Heading for Economic Disaster

The Australian economy is heading southward and this does not mean we are moving closer to Antarctica. Our financial health is still in primary products. The price and demand for iron ore and coal still drives the economy. At the moment the foot is really off the accelerator and we are idling downhill. We will eventually reach the bottom. Then the country will have big problems.

Tax revenue is already falling due to lower demand by China. US demand for Chinese good remains sluggish. As the world economy falls it impacts strongly on Australia. We have not made the move away from agriculture and manufacturing. This is mainly because our resource bowl has kept wages high. Manufacturing countries always have a wage differential advantage. In time, wages will rise in China as they have in Japan. Then companies will probably move to Southeast Asia.

The hope that Australia will have a increase in IT start-ups to offset the fall in resource exports is not well founded. Products in the Internet sphere have short lives, a few years at most. IT moves on the initiative of individuals. It never will be a mass employer. We need to forget this pie in the sky and concentrate on something else.

It will cost to improve employment. Government will have to subsidize companies to keep jobs here. Politicians make the same incorrect assumption over and over again - the free market will solve all economic problems. The free market has never done much without human input. International trade exists due to comparative advantage. If a country does not have this in a sector, other sectors that do must pay.

A start would be tax breaks for enterprises who bring home their support services from India and the Philippines. To allow mining employment to fall without stimulation elsewhere is economic suicide. The country will fall into a very deep hole down the track. Opening more shopping centres is not the way go. This is not increasing the capital base. It is dividing up the market between too many sellers.

✴ Economics by Ty Buchanan ✴

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The Impact of Peak Oil

It seems that we have pushed the peak oil period further forward by obtaining coal seam gas from just about everywhere we look. Fracking does damage the environment and the current freedom for the gas companies could be curtailed.

When peak oil is reached the impact on Australia's rural areas will be significant. Supplies of oil will fall and prices for the scarce commodity will rise. Farmers use advanced machinery to sow, plant and harvest food crops. If governments set priorities then agriculture will have to be given precedence over private use. Transport will be next in line.

There are two aspects of transport. Movement of food is very important, but as people will not be able to freely use their cars they will opt for public transport to get to their places of employment.

People will have to live with limited mobility as they did in the days of the horse and buggy. A day out will be a luxury. Economies will go into recession as trade slows down. Perhaps people will turn to other sources of energy like wood. This will not be sustainable. Stricter and clearer laws will be needed to control activities. Rationing will not be a choice. It will be absolutely necessary.

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Australian Truffle Industry at Risk

It may be hard to believe, but Tasmania has a thriving truffle industry. Perigord, the company that began truffle growing in Australia, has a trained team of dogs to search out the valuable product.

Something is damaging the crop. A beetle related to the European truffle beetle has appeared. Truffle beetles have not been studied to a great extent. Until now the fungus has been pest free. In Europe they are also destroyed by flies, gnats, and larvae. Because the European truffle has only been here for about thirty years, growing them was easy. The pests have found them and are attacking. It seems the local beetle likes them too. Moreover, the European snail has inadvertently been imported.

There is a problem in doing research to identify the culprits. Truffles must be dug up to be examined before they ripen. Once brought into the light at this early stage they are no good for the market. Using pesticides as is done in Europe would be very expensive. Few Australian producers are willing to come forward to assist the study, fearing financial loss.