Agmates

You paint a rosy picture of live exports. Unfortunately in real life, your picture is a myth. We are well aware of the number of animals which die on the ships of shame. 40,000 last year though it was some 75,000 around 2002. But your leaders talk in “one percent.”

The majority were sheep but then overall, sheep predominated. I am afraid to say the industry you are in has no room for ethics - only profits. When a ban was placed on live exports overseas, the chilled and frozen meat exports increased. Yes and also to those countries which you claim “lack” refrigeration.

Furthermore, the billions of tonnes of animal faeces and urine, dead and diseased bodies chucked overboard, contaminating our oceans is not funny and that you are trashing Australia’s environment where cattle emit millions of kilograms of methane, just to send them overseas for maximum profits is bereft of morality.

Greenhouse is not 50 years away but now. Time for you to consider growing something else, I’m afraid.

What about opening a couple of abattoirs then you can keep your live animals in a humane environment prior to slaughter? With Australia’s “clean green” image, I assure you the Brazilians wont have much chance with their foot and mouth image and if the Indonesians say they lack refrigeration but can afford your meat then that is tough!

Enough spin from your industry. We are well informed and fair-minded citizens in a nation which has resorted to barbaric practices for maximum profits. You will have to learn the hard way.

Katie,
Can you please suggest to all the readers of Agmate’s what we should grow in northern Australia, to fill the growing world demand for food? I like many other people involved in rural Australia are more than willing to hear the thoughts of “well informed and fair-minded citizens”.

The solution that you present should provide a positive income to the northern communities of Australia, be sustainable, be able to be utilised both domestically as well as providing benefit to the world population, and most importantly be as carbon neutral as possible.

You talk about the thousands of tonne of methane the livestock industry emits, but how much carbon do we stored each year as well.

I surely look forward to hearing your thoughts, maybe they may be so good that Steve might even make a story out of it. What do you reckon Steve!!!

Hello Katie

I hear your comments and am glad to hear that you rare in touch with the media. However I am in touch with the people who breed the cattle, sell the cattle, travel with the cattle, unload the cattle and market the cattle. I am connected to the people who buy the cattle over there and also have traveled to Asia and seen a wet market and the public in action.

As to your comment on the Brazilians it should be noted that the largest “Australian” meat processors are owned by a Brazilian company.

Australia has spent a lot of our money improving the way other people perceive animal welfare Unfortunately Australian beef growers are verbally bashed buy the ill-informed who watch the news and see an animal abused which would not pass Australian standards to be exported. Yet here at home we are apparently to blame.

I wish there were more abbatiors in the NT as well. Unfortunately our government is not in support of the beef industry at this point which is very sad.

As to pollution next time you drive your imported car (which came to Australia by boat) to your local supermarket, read the cans and plastic packages of you groceries and when the kids sit in front of the imported plastic TV on the Malaysian Timber furniture or when you turn off the grid system electric light please think of me in my office which is run by solar, at my aussie Jarrah desk, with my horse outside the window and my farting (methane emitting) cows in the paddock which are exported in the name of trade balance so that you may indulge in the modern ways.

I assure you what you are quoting could well be on A Current Affair (if fact it was a few months back)
However I am living a much tougher existence than you so that you may enjoy many different convenience’s and if you want to deal Aussie graziers a kick in guts then feel free but remember at the bottom of every food chain is a producer and people must eat.

If you want to start the abbatiors in the NT then you have my full support.

My article was to show the “other side” of the story, and maybe what you see on TV is not always what is going on on the land. We are people with our heart and soul invested in this, we are not a bunch of barbaric hooligans out for a buck.

You may think I’m talking Aussie farmers up but I believe they are unsung bloody heroes! And its about time they got a mention instead of a kick in the guts!

yours sincerely
Rashida Khan

It is so easy to perceive what we read, see and hear in the media as a well balanced look at what goes on in the world today; unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. Media is driven by sensationalism and money, nothing else. The days of independent main stream journalism are gone.
Yes, we all know that cattle produce methane, so lets stop grazing cattle and find another income stream for Australia. Lets dig another hole in the ground and sell its contents overseas.
One must face the fact that we ALL have changed the environment in Australia. It isn’t just going to go back to what it was before white settlement, no matter what we do. We can only now manage what we have to the best of our ability. It is easy to blame farmers for today’s problem, or to expect them to carry the cost of climate change, the lack of abbatoirs in Australia, the loss of native vegetation; the list is endless. It is so easy to blame a minority, when we ALL have a responsibilty.
If we think about it, what choice do we have now that most land in Australia has been converted to farming land, the plant species altered to maximise production, fertilizer use etc etc.
So we stop grazing cattle in the northern parts of Australia. What then, do we let the insect species that produces more methane than cattle consume the grass (white ants)? Do when then try and control the white ants?
Maybe we can just burn all that organic matter, is that the solution? All that smoke could help reflect some sunlight back into space and reduce climate change!!
Alternatively farmers just walk off the land and let nature take over. Will the native animals and plants return or will the feral camels, horses, water buffalo, pigs, dogs and cats; and all those non-native plants take over. What do you think would happen?
Still WE can still blame the farmers, they should have stayed on the land and cared for it without the income that the rest of us have.
All this highlights is the need for Australian’s to work together for the advancement of the country, with suggestions and actions on how we can improve the situation. Criticism without some suggestion on viable alternatives, can only make the situation worse for Australia.