NEWS BRIEFS Food for thought An announcement of $1.5 million from the Federal Government to help Australian students learn about their food is a positive step forward. The announcement aims to inform students of food production, increasing the profile of agriculture among teachers, careers advisors and students, and helping to attract a new generation of young people into agriculture. The Government program, Food in the Australian Curriculum, will involve the development of education resources, which will be linked to the Australian curriculum.
The program stops short of embedding agriculture in the curriculum, but it does commit to developing materials and up-skilling teachers to teach students about food in conjunction with the curriculum.
Ararat, rats on its farmers Ararat Rural City Council proposed a 16% rate hike for farmers, while keeping the residential rate rise to just 1%. “This is a complete insult to farmers,” Ararat farmer Charlie de Fegely said. “It pushes a completely city-centric rhetoric which is not what you would expect from a regional council.
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“The Ararat Council’s Rating Strategy shows it wants to shift $316,700 of the rates burden off residential rate payers and onto farmers. “Considering farming families are already paying as much as seven times the average residential family this is insulting.” Last year the council agreed farmers would pay 52.5% of the residential rate for 201213. “The lower rate was originally set to recognise the value of a farmer's property (capital improved value) and in no way reflects the income earned off that land,” de Fegely said. “But now council has announced it’s going ▶ to jack-up the farm rate to 60% of the
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AUSTRALASIAN FARMERS’ & DEALERS’ JOURNAL - AUGUST 2013