Coal 4 Breakfast? It's a question and a statement all in one, and a catchcry many Queensland farmers hope the State's city consumers will consider in the run-up to the March 21 State election. In 2008 a mining development licence was granted by the State government to Tarong Energy Corporation to develop a coal mine on prime agricultural land. There is a State Planning Policy SSP which claims it protects good quality agricultural land GQAL.
FutureFood Queensland co-chair Geoff Hewitt , who is both a third-generation farmer and also has business interests in the coal mining industry, said the group is calling on the State's political parties to agree to investigate proper planning procedures governing the use of iconic farmland across the State.
"We are not anti-mining, but some prime farmland simply should not be mined," he said.
"It defies logic that a farm capable of producing premium food for thousands of years into the future would be permanently destroyed to allow for 20 years of coal mining. Just 3.5 percent of Queensland's huge land mass is currently used to produce crops ? surely there is plenty of space for farming and mining to co-exist without destroying our most precious agricultural land."
The sustainable production of food locally is necessay for the current and growing population of people South East Queensland. The AgForce 'No Farmers - No Food' campaign is designed not only to place the issue of the future of food production squarely on the election agenda, but also, on a broader scale beyond the threat of mining development. Read the article in Queensland Country Life here.
In SEQ we have the added concern that high density living areas - or enterprise precincts for jobs or transport - are being included in urban footprint boundaries which are now in rural production. Read the draft SEQ Regional Plan available on line.