The forum was hosted by influential Sydney radio broadcaster Alan Jones.

The chair of the Bellata/Gurley action group Penny Blatchford, attended the forum along with Moree Plains Shire Mayor Katrina Humphries, a militia of mining activists, farmers and other agricultural producers.

“It was a fantastic day. However it was so overwhelmingly sad – I can’t believe we are fighting for our right to farm the land we love,” Mrs Blatchford said.

According to Mrs Blatchford, the forum speakers at times brought tears to the surface of the audience.

Alan Jones opened the forum with stories of Queensland landholders who have been harassed, intimidated and manipulated by powerful mining companies such as Eastern Star Gas.

Mr Jones reminded the audience that “we are the community” not gas mining companies.

“The Politicians of NSW and Australia are our public servants elected by us the community not our masters,” Mr Jones, the son of a Queensland farmer said.

According to an article by the Northern Daily Leader, the forum came in the wake of comments made by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd last month that the global food production would need to increase by 70 per cent by 2050 to feed and expected population of 9.3 billion.

Mr Jones said the irony of the Rudd speech was that it was presented in Brisbane, when Queensland had lost so much prime agricultural land to mining.

President of the Lock the Gate Alliance Drew Hutton also strongly believed that coal seam gas mining and agriculture cannot co-exist, according to Mrs Blatchford.

“The impacts that CSG has on our landscape is enormous,” Mr Hutton said.

“The people that work for these gas companies are very manipulative, they take advantage of people in the country,” he said.

“Do you identify with this country?

“Do you love this country? Or do you see it as just a source for a quick buck?

“If you love this country you will have to fight for it,” Mr Hutton said.

Mrs Blatchford said the forum was a wake up call to the government, the public and the gas companies and believed the fight was only just beginning.

“Australia is in deep trouble and without these days and these people speaking out!

“If we don’t do something then Australia will become a quarry and a gas field,” she said