As a leader in the Cairns Group of Nations, Australia has been advancing deregulation in agri-food trade. Successive governments have assumed that Australia would benefit from a greater deregulation of international trade because this would allow increased access to world markets for primary agricultural commodities. But regulation exists, at least in Europe, to protect the social value of the rural landscape. Australian governments, strongly influenced by economic rationalist ideology, have given insufficient consideration to the rural social landscape. Little critical reflection has taken place about whether Australia, and its farmers, would actually benefitftom deregulation, or what the social impacts of this trend might be. Deregulation inevitably invokes structural adjustment, forces farmers out of agriculture, depopulates rural areas, and creates social hardship. Them are also environmental ramifications. The exit of farmers from agriculture has not been as fast as was expected by economists and policy-makers, with many farmers adapting to new situations.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Environmental Sciences
Research Group:	Environmental Science and Management
Research Field:	Environmental Education and Extension
Objective Division:	Environment
Objective Group:	Land and Water Management
Objective Field:	Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Land Management
Author:	Vanclay, FM (Professor Francis Vanclay)
ID Code:	24161
Year Published:	2003
Web of Science® Times Cited:	31
Deposited By:	Agricultural Science
Deposited On:	2003-08-01
Last Modified:	2004-04-21
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