Queensland Country Hour ABC Podcasts

As the nation debates if supermarket prices reflect the true effort and cost of producing food, one price farmers are getting is remaining high - for their land. 

Fewer farms are being sold, but rural property prices continue to rise. It's boosting confidence but would it be enough to encourage even the bravest investor to buy a meatworks?

The Federal Government announced it will spend more than $925 million over the next five years to provide people with financial assistance, to help them flee violent relationships.

But rural health advocates like Marianne Hendron want to see tailored policies supporting rural women in their unique circumstances. 

When it was first created, farmers flocked to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme as a source of willing, reliable workers, but now they're walking away from it. 

But after reports of mistreatment of workers, new labour laws were introduced requiring minimum weekly hours that farmers say make the scheme unworkable. 

Farmers who once bragged they didn't have to lock their doors are now finding themselves the targets of opportunistic thieves, and it's changing the way country people live. 

But the true picture of just how much rural crime is rising is harder to see, but there are efforts to shine a light on the issue. 

The science to breed fruit trees without seeds is rapidly improving, putting a future where everything from seedless avocados to zucchinis is within reach. 

While the challenge in some fruits is greater than others, the pioneers of pip-free's potential - watermelons - say there's good reason to give new varieties a try when you get the chance.

Growing up on a cotton farm in southern Queensland, Annie Henwood is no stranger to how tough life, and the people, on the land can be. 

So, when she had the courage to voice the parts of her own experience that others fear to share, she used it to soften them up to the idea of talking more through her podcast Pieces of the Mind.