AN INCONVENIENT FARMING TRUTH
I’VE had some ideas knocking around in my head that I wanted answers for.
So with the power of Facebook at my fingertips I decided to ask a random selection of Australians a couple of questions.
Armed with a photo of a bush scene I wrote a question on the top of the photo: “In the Australia of tomorrow, will it really matter who will be left down on the farm?”
I also asked a few lead-in questions to start the post such as: “Do we as a nation value our farmers?”; “In today’s society, is farming actually necessary?”; “Does it matter if the Australian farm and grazing lands are not owned by Australians?”
Such a simple set of questions raised comprehensive replies from approximately 350 people who actually took the time to answer.
I had about 1500 people actually ‘like’ the post and approximately 45,000 people that saw this one-person survey.
I was taken aback by the passion and the detail that many people went into in response to my review.
People were overwhelmingly concerned about the future of farmers and farming in Australia. They expressed dismay that too much of our nation was being sold off to foreign interests.
They saw our national food security as a major problem, and felt as though the decision makers in Canberra and the state’s capitals were not hearing their voices.
Here is a direct quote from a woman called Mandy who responded to the questionnaire: “Yes, it does matter who owns our farming land. If we keep going the way it is now, we won’t have control or influence over land or food production and we will be paying overseas countries for food produced here. We will not control our export markets, not to say we do now, but the benefits of export will not be our children’s or ours. Urban has lost touch with rural, simple as that. We no longer care where our food is produced as long as it is cheap and readily available. Some people have never set foot on a farm let alone understand how their food is produced.”
This is the reply from Sharon: “The first question that needs to be addressed is whether there will be any farms left and yes it matters a lot – family farms tend to ride with the good and bad times – corporations are interested in profit and will cease when the money isn’t there and start up again when it is – which puts double the amount of stress on those who stay in for the long haul and the other question that needs to be answered is whether food security can be achieved if our farms are in foreign hands. It makes sense they would export to feed their population before worrying about us.”
The above quotes are a small sample of the answers that came flooding in.
Thinking Australians are perturbed by the looming agricultural crisis. Australia is at a crossroads.
Will we face up to the inconvenient truth and take action now before it is too late?
I believe we need to start a national farming revolution and make the politicians of all persuasions understand that Australia’s farming future is vital to our nation – the people have spoken.