Point of Order: Curbing the creep of concrete into the countryside to protect our most fertile land for food production

The Government’s policy to protect fertile land – food producers insist – has been too long coming.

The pace of urban sprawl and of concreting over fertile soils strongly suggests the growers are right. Over the past 20 years, about 35,000 hectares of our highly productive land has been carved up for urban or rural residential development while 70,000 hectares has been converted to lifestyle blocks.