Agmates

Trade Liberalization and now an Emissions Trading scheme is leading to Corporate Agriculture at the expense of the family farm in Australia and New Zealand. Its a dangerous trend.

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“A SECOND baby has died from drinking contaminated milk powder in China, after one fatality was confirmed earlier.

the baby formula ended up with dangerous levels of melamine, a chemical used to make plastic and glues.”

The number of babies sickened after drinking contaminated milk powder has risen to about 580, state media reported, citing a senior official.

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The milk processing company Sanlu Group is 43% owned by the giant New Zealand Dairy company Fonterra who first raised concerns about the baby Milk formula in August.

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“Fonterra, which has said it knew of the problem since August, had pressed for a full public recall of all affected products, but had been blocked.”

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ABC’s 4 Corners program in its show “The Price we Pay” covered the dangers of large corporates controlling the food chains.

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STEPHEN LONG: For now though the power is with the giant retailers. Once they control the product, supermarkets can tender out the work to the lowest bidder.

GEOFF CUTLER, RETAIL CONSULTANT: With the home brand business growing, the brand is owned by the retailer so all you’re doing is contract manufacturing and that contract manufacturing could be supplied from anywhere around the world.

REG CLAIRS, WOOLWORTHS CEO 1993-98: And in, who knows, in 10 or 15 years’ time there may be a handful of global manufacturers that win back that power base.

And that’s a frightening thought, that if that occurs in 10 years from now.”

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As home brand grows we have no idea which country and under what conditions the food was grown or processed in.

Baby Formula is an incredibly easy product to ship around the globe.

The idea of big profit hungry multi national corporations controlling our food chain is as Reg Clarris puts it “a frightening thought”.

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What do you think - Have your say!

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Agmates editor Steve Truman writes:

Recent submissions to the ACCC inquiry into grocery prices have heard submissions from a number of farming groups that the Australian Supermarket duopoly of Woolworths and Coles are ripping off Australian farmers.

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chairman, Graeme Samuels (pictured) has not been convinced that is the case.

However a great article written by respected Finance & Economic’s commentator Robert Gottliebsen sets out the situation as it plainly is. To everybody that is except the ACCC and Graeme Samuels.

Woolworths & Coles are Squeezing Farmers too Hard.

By Robert Gottliebsen.

Oil is now the major consumer pressure point. My prediction is that food is going to be as big, if not bigger, as a pressure point.

I make that prediction after talking to a middle ranking Queensland sugar and vegetable farmer who tells me what he and his mates are doing.

Watch out Woolworths and Coles, because growing numbers of vegetable farmers in Queensland, with plenty of water, are not planting vegetables.

Woolworths and Coles are being so tough on growers that the farmers have now, well and truly, set in motion forces that will make Australia much more dependent on imports at a time of growing global food shortages.

In Queensland the smarter sugar growers, like my source, are now able to bypass rent seekers (like the various boards) and are doing well. However, larger vegetable growers need the mass markets of Woolworths and Coles.

But Woolworths and Coles use their buying power to cut farmer margins and right now farm costs are escalating, led by the rising cost of diesel.

The supermarkets are helping the big transport companies (who have clout), but the Queensland farmer I spoke to cannot get them to budge on price. For the past few years he and his mates have been planting because that’s what they always did.

But Woolworths (and it was not Coles) took one step too many when the price of diesel skyrocketed and they refused to let the farmers raise prices to compensate. Of course, the supermarkets are now sourcing many food products like oranges and other fruits offshore.

Some vegetables can also be sourced that way. But the supermarkets can’t source the leafy vegetables offshore - lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts and so on. These staples of many Australian diets are going to rise sharply in price in the next two years as the word spreads among the farmers that it’s simply not worth growing them.

I believe that Woolworths and Coles are building up a set of forces that are likely, in time, to explode on them. Fresh fruit and vegetables are among the highest margin products in the supermarket and their margins are being maintained by imports and by squeezing the locals.

In similar fashion overseas processed food is becoming more and more prevalent on the shelves. The words “local and imported ingredients” is usually a euphemism for 90% imported product. Often these products are coming from areas where hygiene is not at the same standard as in Australia.

The chances of a lethal incident are rising. Hopefully it never happens, but if it does, the practice of squeezing local farmers out of business will become one of the greatest scandals ever seen in this country. In that event, politicians on both sides of the house will be under enormous pressure to act in punitive ways against the shareholders of both Woolworths and Coles.

I should underline that the supermarkets’ safety measures taken overseas have so far worked and there have been no health catastrophes. Perhaps they will continue to work, but as the volumes rise so the chances of error become greater.

In discussing Australian inflation, we should be aware that the higher cost of fuel has not yet been fully reflected in the food chain, and as it does it will underpin inflation in the next few months.

This article first appeared in Business Spectator.

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Have Your say! Tell us what you think of the way the Supermarket Duopoly are treating Australian farmers.

North Burnett QLD Cattle Producers Tom & Robyn Aisbett write:
(Click here to see where the Aisbett’ s live in a rural Australia. On the map Right click on marker to zoom in)

It seems that the AGRICULTURAL TERRORISTS - for that is what they are, who hold higher education and ability to debate subjects they think they are expert in - are destroying our Northern Security with misguided attacks on those specially innovative Pastoralists who are planting improved pastures on poor soils - Gamba Grass being the first one in the headlines at the moment.

(Photo below is of Robyn with her ‘pet’ Grey Brahman bull “Wibbley”. We run about 1,000 cattle and I have my Brahman herd and Tom has his Droughtmaster cross Limousin herd.)

Our sensible Scientists have been researching grasses from around the world, and since we are on the same parallels as South Africa, and that country has great migrations of hooved animals, their grasses are marvelously suited to improved production here.

(Pictured below is Tom Aisbett. My grandfather drew the block in 1935. He arrived here in the middle of a roaring drought. The place was just open forest, not a fence, no yards, no house nothing. I’ve lived on and worked on ‘Hillgrove’ all my whole life. Robyn’s family the MacPherson’s were on a soldiers settlement block “Dunrobin” just up the river. They drew it in ‘49. Dunrobin is now owned by Nagel Bennett.)

The world’s population is growing at a frightening rate, and have to be fed - Australia and Brazil are in a pretty good situation to be able to do this, but as Australia is the driest continent on earth - we have to work harder.

Australian Farmers manage to produce a huge surplus - providing export income, with very little help from the government.

(This is a photo of Tom looking at some of his maiden Droughtie x Limo heifers in the paddock. The country on ‘Hillgrove’ is mostly semi open forest country. We both love this country, we know every tree, every water hole and blade of grass on it. We have looked after it all our lives and its looked after us. ).

Our country should be able to feed itself. Northern Australia, Brazil and parts of Asia are among the few parts of the world still able to be developed to produce food - when the rest of the world is hungry.

Africa is a case in point. Subsistence farming is not very efficient, nor is hampering farm development.

It wasn’t so long ago people were protesting “No more Dams”, Dams are just big boys toys, now all the grandstanding about wild rivers seems to have come to naught - dams are going in places never dreamed of, particularly the Mary Valley.

(Below is a photo of our house. It was built in 1938. A condition of drawing the block was that you had to put a dwelling on it. I’ve lived all my life in this house. We are about an hour and a half’s drive from the nearest town, either Chinchilla or Munduberra. It’s only about 100-110kms (60-66 miles) but we have about 32kms (20 miles) of pretty rough dirt road to go over before you get to the bitumen. Our electricity is solar power with a diesel generator as back up, the closest place with 240volt mains power is about 25kms (15 miles) away. Our closest neighbour is Toms sister who is on a place about 16kms (10 mile) away. With the dirt road out of the place, when it rains we stay put until it dries out.)

The world will realize they are getting short of food - fuel prices are impacting on farming, and starvation in Africa is something happening to someone else.

When people are lining up in their supermarkets for foodstuffs that are not there, as it happened in The Soviet REPUBLIC, half ‘em won’t know why.

Zimbabwe is a case in point. The white farmers who have been there for generations have been thrown off their land, their workers burned out and murdered, and now they are starving. It is being done to Australian farmers in a more subtle way.

Have Your say!

What do you think comes first - satisfying the environmentalist ever increasing demands or our responsibility to the world too produce food?

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