Fruit & vegetables

Raiders of the lost seeds

Rebecca’s garden is replete with heirlooms. Different colours, shapes and sizes, they dot the landscape, sparkling like diamonds when the sun catches them at the right angle. Rouge d’Hiver, Cherokee Purple, Zucchino Rampicante, Little Marvels, Tonda di Paragi…   More →

Poultry

Egg debate tough to crack

It used to be thought of as an easy meal. Nothing prepared for dinner? Boil an egg. Need a nutritious breakfast? Try scrambled egg. No time? Bolt down an egg flip. But as versatile as they may be in the kitchen, there is nothing easy about selecting a carton of eggs. For the past 30 years the egg has been at the forefront of campaigns by animal welfare activists, concerned about inhumane production.   More →

Meat

Green cows

It can be a challenging game running cattle on the rangelands of Australia. There is the extreme isolation, the heat and dust, the seasons are unreliable and even when the rain comes, there isn’t much of it. But Scott Fraser, along with a couple of his fellow cattle producers in the channel country of far west Queensland and New South Wales   More →

Dairy

Milking it

Two glasses of cold, fresh, full-cream cow’s milk. Around the base of each one, fat drops of condensation bulge and fall. To the naked eye, the contents of both glasses appear to be exactly the same; they are both the colour of translucent, fine-bone china. Appearances aside, these glasses are in fact worlds apart. The milk in one derives from a wide range of dairy   More →

How to eat ethically

When did food become so scary? Fruit and vegetables coated with pesticides. Dairy laden with additives and flavourings. Fish riddled with mercury. Canola courtesy of genetically modified crops. It seems every day we read another reason not to eat something previously regarded as safe, or even healthy. Throw in questions about the ethics of eating and suddenly heading to the shops takes on the appearance of a minefield.   More →