FARMERS in NSW are calling for all new mining and coal seam gas developments in NSW to be suspended until there is a strategic plan which protects food security and agricultural land.
The calls follow a decision by Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, to give the green light to two CSG projects in Queensland worth $30 billion.
Mr Burke's decision came with 300 environmental conditions for each, including planned testing of the underground water supplies relied on by farmers.
The coal-seam projects approved by Mr Burke are a joint venture between Santos, Malaysia's Petronas and France's Total - known as the Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas Project - and British Gas Group's Queensland Curtis LNG Project.
Industry groups claim the two projects will create up to 18,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Shipping of gas is expected to begin in 2014.
The projects will also require the drilling of thousands of coal-seam wells in Queensland's Surat and Bowen basins, with the gas piped hundreds of kilometres to Curtis Island for conversion to LNG.
Local farmers have raised concerns about harmful effects the projects will have on the Great Artesian Basin and underground water supplies.
In NSW last week, in a move to pressure the State Coalition, which is poised to win government next year, about 80 members of the NSW Farmers Association's executive meeting in Sydney voted unanimously for a moratorium on all new coal, mineral and gas projects, as well as renewals and extensions of developments.
NSWFA spokeswoman Fiona Simson said the association had held talks with the opposition and NSW Minerals Council for 10 months, but farmland was increasingly being alienated, and 70 per cent of the State was now under mineral and petroleum title or application.
"If we continue to talk without taking a strong stand such as a moratorium, we're going to be talking forever," she said.
"Current legislation is against our water, against our food security and it is against our property rights."
Mrs Simson said farmers were not anti-mining, but their call drew an angry response from the Minerals Council, which said the association was sharing a policy platform with the Greens.
"It is a disproportionate and extreme response. It will affect investment decisions, hurt future job prospects in regional areas and make NSW the 'ugly duckling' of Australian States for doing business," said the deputy chief executive officer of the Minerals Council, Sue-Ern Tan.
However, Mrs Simson said landholders were often not notified when their property was subject to a new mineral or gas tenement.
They were often shocked when they saw a map revealing mining rights covered their part of the State.
Hunter Valley communities had suffered through "underhanded" government deals done behind closed doors, NSWFA councillor, Peter Dixon Hughes, said.
In many cases, they could not stop miners from coming onto their land, he said.
A blueprint for all future NSW development, which identifies productive agricultural land and water resources needing protection, tops a list of reforms the farmers want before any moratorium is lifted.
A new office of agricultural sustainability and food security, reporting directly to the premier, should oversee independent, peer-reviewed, scientific analyses of the effect mining or gas extraction would have on productive land and water before it is approved, the farmers say.
The State's Water Act should be overhauled to ensure that any interference with aquifers requires specific planning approval, they argue.
They also want "robust, independent monitoring" of any potential impact on air and water quality, and people's health, before exploration and development licences are granted.
Legislation is also needed to ensure landholders affected by mineral and gas extraction are compensated, they say.
Many laws governing mineral and gas extraction are outdated and need significant reform, Mrs Simson said.
The Onshore Petroleum Act "is seriously ill-equipped" to regulate coal seam gas extraction, which can involve carving up farms with access roads, she said.
Ms Tan said a rigorous planning process meant mining proposals were scrutinised for social, environmental and economic impact before they were approved.
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