Jamie Walker
Source: The Australian
October 12, 2009

Brisbane, Australia - Scientists have backed the Queensland government's crackdown on farm runoffs to the Great Barrier Reef, describing new laws to limit the chemicals on sugar crops and pastures as "the right answer".

Conservation groups have swung behind the measures, after producer organisations and individual farmers branded them unnecessary and a sop to the green lobby.

Judy Stewart, managing director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a think tank that funds research into the impact of climate change and other threats to the reef, said the increased nutrient levels associated with agricultural runoff had been identified as the biggest threat to the corals after global warming.

"It's the right answer," Ms Stewart said of the law requiring farmers and graziers to use only the optimum amount of fertilisers and pesticides.

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