Post by Chips on May 17, 2008 10:48:14 GMT 9.5
Rural life is a different beast, still endangeredArticle from: Font si ANGELA GOODE
May 15, 2008 12:00am
TWO weeks ago in Sydney, I spoke to city radio presenters at a national conference about some of the issues which affect rural people. It is a difficult challenge, trying to discuss what people living in urban Australia do not know about rural Australia.
They justifiably feel as though we rural people are criticising them for being ignorant.
I try to get over this by speaking of the foolish mistakes I made when I first moved to Padthaway 27 years ago, and about how different our two worlds are.
I speak of the changed world of farming, where increasing numbers of men and women have university degrees, but where too often the stereotypical image is of slow-talking, grizzling hicks who are cruel to animals and don't care for the land.
Sometimes, I get the feeling that some people think rural dwellers, by choosing to live outside cities, should put up with hardships because, after all, they have a wonderful lifestyle.
Not being able to eat the lifestyle, or pay bills with it, it is comforting that at least the Federal Government understands this and helps out in times of unbeatable weather such as drought with exceptional circumstances funding. And, despite what many think, no farmer gets EC help unless the farm is still viable and passes stringent financial analysis.
Farm life is endlessly challenging, intellectually and physically. No longer does the dimmest son stay back on the farm as might have happened once upon a time - and even that story might have been apocryphal.
The business is far too complex. You need to be commercially savvy, politically smart, technologically adept and a marketing whiz.
However, distance from the centres of power and population makes our business of growing food more of a mystery than it should be.
It is distressing that few people in cities have ever visited farms.
When we out here worry about cutbacks to our hospitals or the lack of rain, the urban eye-rolling, glaze-over is understandable.
For the seven million people who live outside the major cities, the issues of rural Australia are compelling. In addition to medical services, we worry about rising costs and our future viability. We worry about the loss of population from rural towns. We don't know what to do about lack of labour now that mining has taken so many people out of the district. We can't afford to send our children to university because we need to provide a place for them to live in the city - yet education is vital to our communities' futures.
The increasing trend to corporate farming is a two-sided issue. Is the family farm, with its ability to react quickly to changed weather or consumer needs, to gradually disappear?
Or are we better served by investors buying up, say, 30 farms at a time and forming monoculture conglomerates? Pluralist or corporates - there are arguments for both.
What is happening in the Riverland and towns like Meningie, which is literally drying up from the lack of water, is horrendous.
Yet in rural SA, we are battling to get federal politicians to see sense and provide justice. Let the river run to the mouth, we want to say. Then if there is water to spare, use it for essential food crops.
While the population outside the capitals is large, it is disparate. Our voices get lost in the cacophony of competing issues.
We cannot threaten to stop work or withhold our produce to make people listen - as other pressure groups do.
May 15, 2008 12:00am
TWO weeks ago in Sydney, I spoke to city radio presenters at a national conference about some of the issues which affect rural people. It is a difficult challenge, trying to discuss what people living in urban Australia do not know about rural Australia.
They justifiably feel as though we rural people are criticising them for being ignorant.
I try to get over this by speaking of the foolish mistakes I made when I first moved to Padthaway 27 years ago, and about how different our two worlds are.
I speak of the changed world of farming, where increasing numbers of men and women have university degrees, but where too often the stereotypical image is of slow-talking, grizzling hicks who are cruel to animals and don't care for the land.
Sometimes, I get the feeling that some people think rural dwellers, by choosing to live outside cities, should put up with hardships because, after all, they have a wonderful lifestyle.
Not being able to eat the lifestyle, or pay bills with it, it is comforting that at least the Federal Government understands this and helps out in times of unbeatable weather such as drought with exceptional circumstances funding. And, despite what many think, no farmer gets EC help unless the farm is still viable and passes stringent financial analysis.
Farm life is endlessly challenging, intellectually and physically. No longer does the dimmest son stay back on the farm as might have happened once upon a time - and even that story might have been apocryphal.
The business is far too complex. You need to be commercially savvy, politically smart, technologically adept and a marketing whiz.
However, distance from the centres of power and population makes our business of growing food more of a mystery than it should be.
It is distressing that few people in cities have ever visited farms.
When we out here worry about cutbacks to our hospitals or the lack of rain, the urban eye-rolling, glaze-over is understandable.
For the seven million people who live outside the major cities, the issues of rural Australia are compelling. In addition to medical services, we worry about rising costs and our future viability. We worry about the loss of population from rural towns. We don't know what to do about lack of labour now that mining has taken so many people out of the district. We can't afford to send our children to university because we need to provide a place for them to live in the city - yet education is vital to our communities' futures.
The increasing trend to corporate farming is a two-sided issue. Is the family farm, with its ability to react quickly to changed weather or consumer needs, to gradually disappear?
Or are we better served by investors buying up, say, 30 farms at a time and forming monoculture conglomerates? Pluralist or corporates - there are arguments for both.
What is happening in the Riverland and towns like Meningie, which is literally drying up from the lack of water, is horrendous.
Yet in rural SA, we are battling to get federal politicians to see sense and provide justice. Let the river run to the mouth, we want to say. Then if there is water to spare, use it for essential food crops.
While the population outside the capitals is large, it is disparate. Our voices get lost in the cacophony of competing issues.
We cannot threaten to stop work or withhold our produce to make people listen - as other pressure groups do.