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Lettuce has crossed the $10 mark, milk prices are soaring by major supermarkets and strawberries are $6 a punnet. Almost everywhere you look, the prices of food and other agricultural goods are on the rise. You’d be forgiven for thinking this must be a great time for Australian farmers, preferably gazing out the window at the gentle rain. Not too. Rising price Understanding what drives the price of any commodity can be a confusing exercise at the best of times. The current situation is generally caused by a number of problems, the first of which relates to the nature of Australia’s growing season. Australian vegetables come from different parts of the country depending on the season. Currently the main supplier is Queensland. Earlier this year, several developing areas were hit by two floods in 11 weeks. Queensland’s Lockyer Valley flooded earlier this year destroying large vegetable crops. ( Provided: Lockyer Valley Regional Council ) Belinda Frentz is a herb grower...

Woolworths and Coles are raising milk prices and there may be more price increases to come due to the expected decline in national supply. Key points: Farmers get record price of milk They say aggressive low prices are pushing farmers out of the industry, which has led to higher demand now Other factors come into play, including lower output from major overseas producers such as New Zealand, the EU and the US But relieved dairy farmers say supermarkets have caused these sudden price hikes on themselves. Earlier this week Coles said it would increase home-brand milk by 25 cents, from $1.35 to $1.60 per litre. Today Woolworths matched those gains, blaming higher supply chain costs, including payments to farmers. “Farm-level prices paid to dairy farmers have increased significantly this season and as a result we are paying more to our own brand suppliers for milk,” a spokesperson said. The spokesperson said “processors – not retailers – set the farm gate price...

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from the Florida launch pad. (SpaceX via YouTube) An experiment on its way to the International Space Station focuses on a subject as mundane as soil, but could be key to growing crops in space. The NASA-funded experiment — known as Dynamics of Microbiomes in Space, or DynaMoS — is being conducted by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. DynaMoS utilizes soil and bacteria collected at the Washington State University field site in Prosser, Wash. “Soil microbes are hidden players of life support systems on planet Earth,” PNNL chief scientist Janet Jansson, principal investigator for the DynaMoS experiment, explained during a pre-launch press conference. Bacteria work to break down organic matter and provide nutrients for growing plants. Space missions could expand the reach of microbes beyond our home planet. “Soil microbes can help make conditions on the lunar and Martian surfaces more favorable for plant growt...