Food for Thought - Matt's Food Talk
World treatment of the farmer
The next big thing may not be so new..... yes food is set to become the commodity of choice with the world currently in deficit of protein and China buying up farms in NZ and Australia to secure their food source and of course an income stream.
All the while governments around the world refuse to give a farmer a fair go.
In our own backyard we have a government hell bent on taxing and restricting farms and farmers out of existence.
So is it like this in other countries?
In Holland, you can’t farm there any longer and make a dollar as input cost and government restrictions have made farms non-viable.
America is subjected to some of the most draconian laws for agriculture with the 5 Big players all holding Congressmen and women in their hip pocket to shut out the average farmer.
Like in Australia they are being subjected to ravages of drought and storms with no help from their government and prices dictated to them by the big super processors [the big 5].
As in Australia a US farmer is paying $300 per ton for feed and getting just 19c a litre for their milk, that’s around 1c under production cost.
At least they have import subsidies but for how long?
Russia is the shining light at this time with its emergence as a food production nation but with world standards and restrictions most of their products are not available to Western nations and that’s probably a good thing for their own people.
In our history a farmer was considered a fortunate occupation with the expected return of 10 times the investment.
Today if we get break even we are having an ok year.
Every nail in the coffin for a farmer is a worldwide reduction in food availability.
Most of us in Australia are in the ‘lucky country’ and can afford quality food and plenty of it.
This is not the case worldwide and with a shift in economy to Asia etc. the $ will dictate who can buy the food.
The future for the farmer is on a knife edge and at this point in time world wide the odds are stacked against them yet we have a trend that indicates we have the potential to revert to income only heard of in history.
No matter the individual farmers ability to hold on until that day comes Food is the new GOLD.
What can we do to help this situation?
We can purchase our food direct from the farmer.
We can only purchase Australian produce.
We can ask our local supermarket to stock more local produce.
Why not join the National party, the only party that truly represents the regions and the farmers within them and ask our local member to campaign for local food in local stores and a fair deal for the Australian Farmer.
Food for thought!
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