Environmental and Social Consequences of Economic Restructuring in Australian Agriculture

The changing nature of Australian agriculture is such that corporate farms are becoming more common, family farms are disappearing, and the remaining family farms are losing autonomy by the increasing corporate control of commodity distribution networks, by the increasing significance of contract farming, and by new developments in biotechnology. These changes in agriculture have considerable environmental impact and need to be considered at a policy level if widespread environmental degradation is to be avoided. Furthermore, there are enormous social consequences of these changes that have wide ranging effects not only on the nature of farming but also on the nature of community settlement in rural areas in Australia.