farmers fears overstated, page-2

"54 per cent (of farmers) said CSG activity was an important concern"

So a majority of farmers overall thought CSG mining was an important concern - that's a majority of farmers! What isn't mentioned here is where the farmers are located and what is the breakdown of concerns by geographical location, nor is there a breakdown by industry segment.

For example, presumably farmers in Tasmania were surveyed as part of an Australia wide survey. As there are no plans for CSG mining in Tasmania, I doubt they would identify it as an important concern.

All Australians should be concerned with foreign ownership of our food supply, not just farmers, so that is hardly relevant.

Any business has issues with imput costs - there is no reason why this shouldn't be a major concern for farmers as well.

Furthermore, there are obviously industry specific issues. An organic vegetable farmer in Mullumbimby is threatened in the medium term with loss of his business by CSG mining, but on a daily basis the supermarket duopoly is a major concern to him at the moment.

Without a breakdown of industry and geographical segment this broad result is hardly of value in the discusssion of CSG mining. What it is of value for is highlighting issues of foreign ownership and the supermarket duopoly, issues which are largely industry specific.

Show me a similar survey of farmers in the Northern Rivers who are to be directly affected by the acticities of MEL et al and I'll guarantee more than 3% will spontaneously mention it as an issue of concern, and more than 54% will say it is an important concern.

You're grasping at straws to cheer a poll which is not aimed at surveying a pertinent demographic AND which still dhows a majority concerned/opposed to CSG mining.

TR