Consumers can expect to be hit in the pocket again from around November, with experts warning this year's Christmas could be the most expensive ever if the drought continues. Murray Bros sales manager Stephen Aistrope said while prices would increase if the drought continued, consumers did not need to worry about vegetable prices rising as sharply as bananas did last year. Market Information Services principal Jon Brewer, who operates at the Brisbane Markets, said broccoli, cauliflower and...

Entrants at "the Chunk" gather yearly to smash records--and pumpkins--in front of some 35,000 spectators. In the adult human-powered category, a spring-loaded device known as "Gene's Machine" sets a new record with a pedal-powered throw of 1827 ft. After a bit of fine-tuning, Seigars and his two sons load a 10-pound pumpkin onto the launcher and let it fly. Many of the machines are either catapults, which are torsion driven, or trebuchets, which are gravity driven. The truckers who haul...

It culminated last year when the organic soil and landscape company he grew and nurtured merged with one of the nations largest eco-friendly lawn and garden maintenance companies. Catering to the niche of those looking to grow plants, fruits, vegetables, and flowers without pesticides or other chemicals has been his career for the best part of the last 25 years. Ever since opening the doors to his business a year ago, Jessop has remained optimistic about spreading the word on the benefits...

WHEN Prime Minister John Howard announced last month that all irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin would be cut to zero unless there was substantial rain over the next two months, it sent a wave of fear over skyrocketing food prices, Soviet-style queues and shortages and, worse yet, the possibility that we might have to import food. WHEN Prime Minister John Howard announced last month that all irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin would be cut to zero unless there was substantial rain...

The concept to converge all agriculture-related databases into one Web site and to summarize the information by using clickable maps came from a collaboration between the University Of Illinois Extension, the Initiative for the Development of Entrepreneurs in Agriculture, the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research and Illinois Department of Agriculture. However, the information is spread out among a variety of different Web sites and those sites are often hard to navigate. It...