Walk a mile in dairy farmer shoes

Can’t just walk off the land if the going gets tough

In one sentence, Adam Creighton demonstrates why farmers harbour an ingrained antipathy to economic commentators (“Helping the farmers? And cows might fly”, 26/2). His throwaway line “No one is forcing farmers to keep farming” is the disinterested economist’s standard response to cries of despair from the bush and casually sidesteps the many factors — financial, social, psychological — that keep farmers on their farms through good times and bad. Being a farmer is not a job (like journalism) you can just walk away from at any time in favour of another; it's usually a serious investment, an end result of many years of education and on-the-job training, and a multi-generational commitment.

Farmers, by and large, will keep on farming through tough times, even while losing money, if they consider that their business model is right. They hope and expect that profitability will return once the season, or market, improves. If they threw up their hands and walked off their farms every time the going got tough, we’d soon be all starving.

Peter Austin, Mount Victoria, NSW

Before Adam Creighton is convinced to walk 50m down the road to Woolworths to pay an extra 10c a litre for milk, he should first walk in the shoes of a dairy farmer. The fact is the price of $1 milk does not reflect the cost of producing that product. Farmers are afflicted by steep grain and water prices, which continue to rise. Some supermarkets have raised the price of bread by 20c, citing the high cost of grain, so why should milk continue to retail at bargain basement prices?

Remember, the big supermarkets dropped the retail price of their store-brand milk back in 2011 and this increase doesn’t return the price to parity. Woolworths made a brave decision to ditch dollar milk, and now it is up to Coles and Aldi to follow suit.

Terry Richardson, president,
Australian Dairy Farmers

Adam Creighton extols the virtues of the free market for cash-strapped and drought-stricken dairy farmers. However, I bet he is happy to have a regulated wages system and conditions including holiday pay, paid parental leave and sick leave.

Jock Munro, Rankins Springs, NSW

Wisdom of old

The phenomenon that is Jordan Peterson has garnered attention, praise and, of course, opposition from those against anything left of Genghis Khan. For the most part he sets out some principles and backs them up with evidence or clinical experience. Despite the plaintive cries of the unsettled, much of what he says deserves to be heard. It is packaged coherently. The sad fact is that at times it is not a great deal more than the forgotten, homespun wisdom of our grandparents. In all this process, one hopes that Peterson will not be idolised and become like some for whom fame becomes their undoing.

James A. Athanasou, Maroubra, NSW

Propaganda rules

I am horrified to read that University of NSW students are required to participate in a “gender misconduct” course with rigid interpretations (“Uni clubs must fall in line on gender”, 26/2).

At high school history class I learned how propaganda had brainwashed past civilisations. I felt confident in the late 20th century that we would no longer be victims of propaganda. We would be informed, educated, and we would have freedom of speech to debate issues. In the 21st century, censorship of debate is alive and well, and we are greater victims of propaganda than ever before.

I acknowledge that some Australians may genuinely feel gender fluid, and I hope Australians show tolerance and respect for them, but the rest of us do not have to apologise for feeling that our gender is fixed. The insistence on homogenous opinion and the censorship of debate in our universities is tragic.

Tiffany Daly, Graceville, Qld