The Australian Bite

Folkies flock to Canberra

30 April 2009

Listen and download: MP3

"The Amazing Brain Boy" busks at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. Photo by Michael Cavanagh

The National Folk Festival has just been held in Canberra, and this week on the Bite, we ask what exactly is folk music anyway?  We’ll also hear how the antibiotics fed to farm animals may impact upon human health.  And finally, an unlikely love story involving a Queensland cotton farmer, a Sydney gal and a life changing experience that all began at a conference on ethics.

Superbugs, livestock and antibiotics

Livestock producers are being urged to cut back on antibiotic use, to reduce the development of so-called super bugs in humans. Professor Peter Collignon from the Australian National University says large amounts of anitbiotics are used in the livestock industry to promote growth, with most used in food for chickens, pigs and cattle. Mary Goode went along to Professor Collignon’s laboratory to find out why he thinks it’s such a problem.

If you’re interested in finding out more about this topic, you might like to take a look at this article written by Peter Collignon which goes into greater detail: http://www.keepantibioticsworking.com/library/uploadedfiles/Use_of_Antibiotics_in_Food_Production_Animals_.pdf

“The music of the folk”

To many Australians, Canberra is about as colourful as its grey-suited public servants. But for one week each year, it’s swathed in crushed velvet as music lovers converge on the bush capital for the National Folk Festival. But as new styles of music emerge, and the old blends with the new, how do you define contemporary folk music? In an effort to find out, Radio Australia’s Michael Cavanagh let down what little hair he has left and joined the dread-locked holidaymakers.

From cafés to Queensland cotton fields

“Love in the Age of Drought” is Fiona Higgins’ own true story of a self-confessed urban, Buddhist-leaning vegetarian who falls in love with a cotton farmer and moves from her comfortable harbourside apartment in Sydney to a drought-ridden farm in rural Queensland just to be with him. The relationship has its ups and downs, and Fiona has some very interesting and challenging experiences along the way, as Heather Jarvis finds out.

Title: Love in the age of drought
Author: Fiona Higgins
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Music (not in podcast)

This week we hear a track from one of Australia’s top folk artists . . . . well folk, blues, roots, reggae, indigenous instruments and sounds – he’s into all of it really. Xavier Rudd’s songs, in true folk tradition, are well known for their social commentary. He’s a very popular artist on the worldwide festival circuit, has released five sudio albums and a number of live albums, and in 2007 was named the “World’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity”

Artist: Xavier Rudd
Track: Better People
Album: White Moth (2007)