20 January

Years ago already, Mike Archer (picture) suggested that Australia needed more mines, and far fewer farms. The mythology around farming in Australia masks the fact that it’s the single most destructive force in Australia, and in most other countries. It destroys entire landscapes. For a country that rode ‘on the sheep’s back’, this is an almost impossible fact to even talk about. People assume farming and agriculture are what feed us. They do, but most of it (nearly 80%) is exported. It’s basically soil mining.