This week's burst of catastrophic bushfires in Australia
continues a run of extreme weather events that, aside from the
toll in human suffering, is pushing up the cost of doing
business in the Australian agricultural sector. Australia is one
of the world's most efficient food producers, particularly of
grain, meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables and wine. It vies with
other exporters such as Brazil, Argentina, Canada and New
Zealand for a large slice of the $1 trillion a year global
market for imported food. And in a world where contaminated
soil, acid rain, poisonous water, disease and pestilence blights
much of the food production capacity in the big consuming
nations of China and India, Australia's reputation for a clean
and relatively unstressed growing environment has given it a
marketing edge. But over the last decade its primary producers
have had to run a gauntlet of climatic extremes that is testing
both their resolve and their resources. With 20% of Australia
classified as desert, farmers have always had