Some twenty years ago I gave a series of talks to stimulate audiences to think of the sort of Australia they would like. How would they visualise a future Australia?  I condensed the result of their feedback into "I choose Australia". This has been produced on a card and diploma which has been handed out by councils at new citizenship ceremonies and given to school children.

Recently there has been talk of trying to define 'Australian Values'. What are they really and how can they be identified? The more I hear that, the more I realise that the feedback which inspired 'I choose Australia' is a start for such an identification.

Many years ago, when studying agriculture I was fortunate to spend  time with a man who was a lateral thinker is this area. He had already, in the early part of the last century, spotted the damaging trends in 'modern agriculture'. It was through him and the practical work he had carried out that I came to realise our health starts with the complexities of a healthy soil. Plants are a conduit for transferring that health to us. For some years I published a monthly news sheet of information about the link between our health, degenerate diseases and nutrition. 'Nutrition, Health, Myths and All That' summarises much of that and warns, with evidence, against the unchallenged reliance on 'experts'.

Frank Tennant