With 80% of the Scenic Rim and much of Queensland’s, and Australia’s, food bowl region under exploration leases for coal and coal seam gas mining, the Queensland Government’s plan to divert water into northern Queensland areas that are dry for much of the year does not address the dangers of food scarcity in Queensland and Australia.
Premier Bligh is talking about spending millions of dollars diverting water from the Flinders and Gilbert rivers so that highly water-intensive crops such as cotton and corn can be grown there (“Strategy heads north to new food bowl”).
Does this mean that the water that would normally come further south to the existing food bowls will be reduced, contributing to the wasteland it may become with coal seam gas wells everywhere?
Can we eat cotton? Do we really need more corn to turn into high fructose corn syrup? Besides being completely unnatural, high fructose corn syrup inhibits leptin, a hormone that tells us we are full and to stop eating. And I’m sure the same Queensland government would tell us that they are worried about obesity rates in our society!
Mother Food Issues
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