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The facilitators for local landcare farming may be very different under the Carbon Farming Initiative.

Environmental management packages for a wide range of farming enterprises have been available for a decade or more but none have been adopted by major supermarkets for use by their own suppliers. This situation reflects the high level of disinterest in on-farm environmental QA taken by consumers and is in stark contrast to their animal welfare concerns.

The subtext of the Red Tractor QA program, as suggested by the Union Jack on the logo, is a flavor of “buy British” protectionism offering a two-fold reassurance to shoppers: certified quality assurance coupled with a “British is best” message.

For some Merino wool clothes manufacturers it is simpler to avoid the animal welfare controversy surrounding mulesing by purchasing their raw material from countries other than Australia where it is not practiced.

For most Australian Merino wool produced the commodity culture persists as demonstrated by the lack of interest in adopting a breeding alternative to mulesing.

Landcare and other programs have been in place for two decades to improve environmental health of the Basin, but it goes unrecognised in the final Plan.