Can 900 Farmers Feed Australia?

With globalisation and free trade agreements, it is becoming obvious that Australia's industry simply cannot compete with the rest of the world. This is not just in agriculture, it is accross the board.

Take a look around you right now. Just see if you can identify anything that is Australian made. All of our electrical and electronic appliances are imported, as are our knives and forks, dinner plates, the clothes we wear and just about everything else we own. Why should food be any different?

The fact that frozen vegetables can be imported from Belgium and New Zealand cheaper than they can be grown here shows that there is something fundamentally wrong with Australian horticulture. Even with the added cost of shipping to Australia, our supermarkets can make more money by selling imported food products than they can by selling Australian grown food. We may decry that as being un-Australian but it is only possible because Australians are more interested in the price than they are in the origin of the product.

We have just seen Tasmanian potato growers lose half their contract to McDonalds and lowering their price to retain the other half of the contract. This inevitably means that many vegetable farms accross Australia will become unprofitable. As reported on ABC News (30 June 2005), the vegetable growers association, "AUSVEG is predicting that presently we've got 4,300 growers; they're saying that by 2010 it'll be 900, so it's a major drift." This article is headed, "Get big or get out, vegie growers told"

In our own area, we have seen the number of dairy farms fall with the remaining ones getting larger. This year, we will see many acres of grapevines pulled out whilst the bigger wine producers increase their holdings.

What is the future of agriculture in our area and in Australia as a whole? Lindsay Tanner may be right when he says the Government should not prop up impractical industries. However, we must retain the capability of feeding ourselves. Could 900 vegetable growers feed everyone in Australia in 2010 if or when oil prices reach a level that makes it uneconomical to move food products around the world?

See Also: Labor's farm subsidy criticism 'ludicrous'
See Also: Minister seeks to curb imported vegetables contracts
See Also: $10m vegie plant announced for north-west Tas

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