Trade-offs between agriculture and the environment

Many expensive programs designed to protect the environment give the sense of achieving outcomes, but often they do not, according to Dr Anna Roberts from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.

In an Australian Academy of Science public lecture entitled Trade-offs between agriculture and the environment: how do we decide what to protect, Dr Roberts describes how agricultural land management affects the environment and large amounts of money are being committed to protecting aspects of the Murray-Darling Basin, Great Barrier Reef and many other areas.

Dr Roberts will explore the interactions among science, economics, politics, and policy, to address how to get more effective discussion about what aspects of the environment are sufficiently important to protect at an acceptable cost.

Today’s lecture is the second in the Academy’s 2012 public lecture series on Caring for the Australian countryside: lessons from the past and present. The series will examine sustainable communities, mining, agriculture, culture and environment in country Australia.

Media are welcome to attend and record the lecture. The lecture will be web streamed live from 6 pm at www.science.org.au/livestream/