Library & Innovation Centre

 Effects of food production on the environment
We can survive without many things but we cannot survive without food, the production of which has become a serious environmental concern.

 What are the impacts of humans on grassland biomes?
Human population growth has a major impact on the different biomes of the Earth. Grassland biomes, characterised by large areas of land where grasses are the primary form of plant life, are affected by expanding human civilisation in particular ways.

 Agriculture in Australia: growing more than our farming future

Food and agriculture are fundamental to human survival and it was the birth of agriculture and farming that laid down the basis for human civilisation.

Since the first crops were domesticated around 10,000 years ago, advances in agriculture have been intimately linked with human development and the growing world population.

  Australian farming and agriculture – grazing and cropping
Australian agriculture benefitted from many different agricultural practices, formal and informal land grants, overseas capital and access to relatively cheap labour through Indigenous workers and indentured schemes. Combined with invention, ingenuity and hard work this has led to Australia becoming a leading exporter of fine food, meats and grains.

  Anthropogenic Biomes of the World
Anthropogenic Biomes (Anthromes) offer a new way to understand our living planet by describing the way humans have reshaped its ecological patterns and processes.

 Sustainable Table | Impacts of industrial agriculture
This website provide detailed information, along with resources for promoting a sustainable alternative. (Please note the bias in the documents)

  Anthropogenic Biomes
Anthropogenic biomes, also known as "anthromes" or "human biomes", describe the terrestrial biosphere in its contemporary, human-altered form using global ecosystem units defined by patterns of sustained direct human interaction. 

Clearance of the Amazon region's forest for pasture by cattle ranchers has enabled Brazil to become the world's largest exporter of beef. Farmland is currently worth more than the forest but is there a way to place a higher value on the rainforest? There is money to be made in the trees - it's just a matter of perspective.

This is a video about the mixed farming operations of Boonderoo Pastoral Company in South Australia. The farm is introduced by owner Lachie Seears who describes its size, family history and how region's Mediterranean climate allows him to diversify across a range of valuable commodities including Angus cattle, cross-breed ewes and lambs, wheat, broad beans, barley, canola and carrot seeds. Explaining how the farm is run as a system with crops on the heavy black soil and sheep and cattle grazing in areas with shelter trees, he discusses the advantages of these commodities. Sustainability is seen as the key for profitable farming for future generations and Seears comments on the strategic tree-planting being undertaken, the technologies being used for harvesting crops and monitoring irrigation, and his employment of young people. The video lasts 5:02 min and visuals of the farm provide background for the commentary.

P. (2015). Biomes that produce our food, industrial materials and fibre: producer video. Retrieved April 06, 2017, from https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/Resource/LandingPage?ObjectId=a8ce891f-bb2a-4de8-95d7-4d5b385b8188&SearchScope=Secondary