Word: australian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...faith had been noted by those around him since he was a small child. Blair "rediscovered" his Christianity, he told me, while a student at Oxford in the 1970s. He was part of an informal late-night wine-and-cigarettes discussion group led by Peter Thompson, a charismatic Australian student and Anglican priest then in his 30s. (Thompson, who now lives in Melbourne, does not talk about his relationship with Blair.) I went up to Oxford just before Blair did; it was absorbed with sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, with a sprinkling of student politics...
...normal year, Australia exports 85% of its rice production as branded product to some 70 markets through Asia, the Middle East, the South Pacific and other destinations. So it is that although Australian rice represents only 0.2% of world rice production, it accounts for more than 4% of the global rice trade - enough to feed 40 million people one meal a day for a year...
...drought has also savaged recent Australian wheat crops. Normally among the top three or four wheat exporters in the world, Australia has managed to produce little more than half of its usual 20 million metric tons in each of the past two years. But these setbacks are having a paradoxical effect. Not nearly as thirsty a crop as rice and expensive now on world markets at about $350 a ton, wheat in Australia is attracting new growers. "Some are looking at putting wheat in this year instead of restocking on cattle - because it's cheaper and because they...
...That's a big if. A La Niña weather pattern, which is associated with above-average rainfall and had been giving farmers in southeastern Australia hope over the Southern winter, is weakening, according to forecasters. "Australian farmers have been incredibly innovative in overcoming water shortages and maximizing production under trying conditions," says the National Farmers' Federation's Heffernan. "If they just get a bit of rain, you'll see production kick in very quickly because they've done the preparation." Any Australian rebound would be a bonus on top of expected bumper wheat crops...
...farms, and they've had enough and want out. They're sick of drought and sick of the politics of water." Murray Hartin's poem ends happily, with the hero hugging his wife as "they heard the roll of thunder and smelled the smell of rain." For many Australian farmers - and some of the world's poorest people - real life mightn't be so kind...