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Listed under:  Economics and business  >  Industries  >  Primary industry  >  Agriculture
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Biodiversity and farming for a healthy planet

This is a digital resource containing information and resources, such as printable games, that relate to biodiversity and farming, and how food and materials can be produced while protecting the Earth's natural resources. It includes an extensive glossary of important terms, and external links to teacher and student resources ...

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Producing cattle and sheep...and beef and lamb: producer video

This is a video about the operation of a Southdown sheep stud and olive plantation at Gum Park farm in South Australia. Introduced by farmer Dee Nolan, it shows the sheep in the olive groves, the lambing paddocks and birthing shed as she describes the farm's certified organic approach that starts from the soil up and uses ...

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Cotton Australia photo library

This is a library of freely reusable photos and videos of the modern Australian cotton industry. Photos and videos are of the farms, practices, crop and the technology used to grow and process the cotton crop. They include the plant at various stages, flowers, bolls, farm machinery like pickers and seeders, bales and cotton gins.

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Cotton Australia fact sheets

This library provides a series of one to two page fact sheets on a range of topics related to the Australian cotton industry including: an overview of the industry, history of the cotton industry in Australia and in the world; economics of Australian cotton; biotechnology; climate challenges and cotton; properties of cotton ...

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Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing

This is a video of a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk by Professor Marla Spivak about the dramatic decline in the number of bees. The 16-minute video begins with a discussion of why humans should care about bees, including their critical importance for the world's food supply. Professor Spivak explains that ...

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ThinkKind lesson plan archive

This is a collection of lesson plans addressing the ethical treatment of animals and animal welfare. The archive includes lessons focusing the on animal welfare in food production, the treatment of animals in horse racing and the animal needs. Each lesson contains teacher notes and student resources and is aligned to the ...

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Investigating technologies in agriculture

This is a teacher resource containing a series of inquiry teaching sequences about the role that technologies play in the production of food and fibre in Australia. It contains material to assist the planning, implementing and assessing a study of a range of primary industries and the innovative methods and equipment they ...

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Biosecurity

This is a unit of work about the biosecurity of Australia’s agriculture. The unit focuses on how introduced species can affect the balance of ecosystems. The major activities in this unit focus on the concept of interdependence in ecosystems; the importance of biosecurity and control of outbreaks. A simple experiment models ...

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Kitchen gardens – sustainability action process (Years 3–6)

This resource guides students through an extended school-based or local investigation focussed on kitchen gardens using the five-step sustainability action process. The resource supports the investigation of a real-world issue or problem. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and ...

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Where would we bee without them?

This is a unit of work about bees and their vital role in the food chain and in agricultural production. The unit supports primary students to understand the basic biology of bees and to differentiate between native bees and the introduced honey bees. The unit is divided into a number of activities that focus on: bee anatomy; ...

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Breeding a sustainable future

This is a unit of work that focuses on improvements in livestock and crop production brought about by agricultural practice, scientific research and technology. The unit is organised around six learning experiences that include investigating how agricultural products have developed over time; identifying the role of technology ...

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Greener farming: protecting the environment

This study guide examines ways Australian cattle and sheep farmers are monitoring and researching how greenhouse gas emissions are being produced by farms and steps farmers use to reduce them. This includes selective breeding programs to produce cattle and sheep whose digestive processes emit less methane, research into ...

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Future foods: Science and sustainability Years 5-6

This study guide explores the modern practices in sustainable farming and its role in the future of food production. It investigates the challenges Australian cattle and sheep farmers’ face and how science can help them to meet the challenge of sustainably feeding the world with a growing population and climate variability. ...

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Fertility Research in Beef Cattle

This is a resource about fertility research on cattle raised in northern Australia. It consists of a unit of work and two data sets from the Belmont Research Station in Queensland presented as spreadsheets. The unit of work supports students to understand the important role research and data gathering play in improving ...

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Where would we bee without them? video

This is a video about bees and their importance for Australian agricultural production. Intended for mid-primary students, the video is presented by Trevor Weatherhead of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council. He describes how numerous plants, such as the pumpkin crops seen in the video, are dependent on bees for pollination. ...

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Catalyst: Sustainable fish farming

There are already more people around the world who eat farmed fish than people who eat beef. With the world's population and demand for food increasing, why is it so important for us to farm sustainably? One fishery near Kakadu in the Northern Territory practises sustainable farming. Find out what makes this farm so sustainable.

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Landline: Developing bush tucker into a seed crop

Which native plant might provide a ready-made crop that could be used as a very nutritious food source? Meet two South Australian growers who are investigating just such a native crop. Find out more about the seed crop that does not require significant amounts of water or fertiliser and has a long history of use by Indigenous ...

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Catalyst: What are modular farms?

Modular farms are flexible and self-contained systems that allow you to grow herbs and vegetables without the need for soil or sunlight. What are some advantages of modular farms? What may be some of the disadvantages?

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Catalyst: Growing avocados

Demand for certain kinds of food changes with time as people's tastes change. Avocados were not always popular, but in recent years their popularity has increased so much that supply cannot keep up with demand. Learn how stem cell scientists at the University of Queensland are leading the way in research that could cut ...

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Catalyst: Would you eat insects?

A lot of resources go into the production of beef. For example, 20 litres of water is needed to produce just 1 gram of beef. In order to produce food more sustainably to feed an ever-growing population, some alternatives to protein have been suggested. What are some of these alternatives? Do you think they will ever replace meat?