Compose a 1000 words essay on Ongoing Participation with On Line Postings and Discussion Forum. Needs to be plagiarism free!The food industry in Australia covers an extensive range of products. Austra

Compose a 1000 words essay on Ongoing Participation with On Line Postings and Discussion Forum. Needs to be plagiarism free!

The food industry in Australia covers an extensive range of products. Australia has various land types and climatic conditions but it is mainly dry and barren. It has northern tropical areas, high rainfall regions as well as some arid and semi-arid type of weather which is normally used for food production. This diversity along with the advanced technology makes Australia a continuing supplier to international markets(DFAT, 2008). The food industry of Australia is vital to its economic growth and social well-being. It contributes to around 20 percent of Australia’s manufacturing sales and service income(DAFF, 2011). Around 98 percent of fresh food, vegetables, meat, milk and other dairy products sold in the Australian markets are produced domestically.This is quite different from Australia’s various food and beverage exporters like UK, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore which import majority of their staple goods from Australia. Australia exports more than half of its agricultural produce. Normallyits food exports exceed its food imports. In 2009-10, Australia exported $24.3 billion worth of food compared to $10.1 billion of import. Most of the food imports comprised of highly processed food like specialty branded spirits, sea food and processed vegetables and fruits which are not produced in Australia(DAFF, 2011). According to Household Expenditure Survey 2009-10, Australian households spent an average of $1236 weekly on goods and services. The major categories on which majority of household income was spent were housing costs which consumed an average of $223 per week. food and non-alcoholic beverages, with an average of $203 per week and transport, with an average of $193 per week (ABS, 2009-10). In the discussion that follows, a comparison of the trends in consumption of three main food groups viz. cereals, meat products and vegetables for two countries (Australia and China), over two 5-year periods (1996-2000 and 2001-2005) is provided. The largest proportion of calories in Australian diet comes from cereal products. This is also true for almost all countries throughout the world with cereal, rice, corn, bread and noodles being staple items. The consumption of sugar products and meat is comparatively high in Australia which leads to a specific health related issue called obesity (SA Food Consumption Report). According to the data obtained from the (Food and Agriculture Organization), during the 5 year period from 1996-2000, there was a steady decline in the consumption of cereals in the Australian population, with the supply being 90.40 kg/capita/yr in 1996 and falling to 81.80 kg/capita/yr in 2000 (FAOSTAT, 2011). During the next 5 year window (from 2001-2005), there was an initial increase in the supply and consumption of cereals from 83.50 in 2001 to 92.20 kg/capita/yr in2003, followed by a gradual decline back to 83.1 kg/capita/yr in 2005. Thus, overall, during the 10 year period from 1996-2005, the consumption of cereals decreased in Australia (FAOSTAT, 2011). A similar trend was observed in the Chinese population. Although the supply and consumption of cereals in China was higher at baseline than in Australia, i.e. 173.7kg/capita/yr in the year 1996, there was an observed decline in the supply of cereals to 165.2 kg/capita/yr in 2000 and then a further decline to 155.