It’s up to us to support our farmers

Support needs to come from those who farmers serve – their customers, writes Larry Quick.

The rate of depression and suicide among our rural communities is growing faster than the slim mental health services they have available can cope with, writes Larry Quick.

I LOVE writing for AgJournal. I get interesting feedback from farmers, their suppliers, customers and communities – that is all of us. While many have solutions, criticism and obvious issues, most of the sentiment drives two questions: ‘What the hell is happening to our farmers?’ and, ‘why is it taking so long to get our farmers back on track where they belong?’

I cannot provide a definitive answer to this. But a few things come to mind.

First, we have started late in appreciating the real contribution of farms, farmers and farming, and understanding the real cost of losing it all and acting to address the issues our food and fibre producers have.

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I could go through a list of conditions they have faced over a long time. If I were to, I would list things such as the growing extreme weather events that have been brewing for years (drought and flood) with no prior support, warning or action to mitigate the risk; the lack of strategic succession planning to allow farming properties to pass on in a manner that provides continuity of production and security for retiring and new farmers; a fair price for their goods and a fair income for their lifestyle and what it takes to be a farmer; the focus on ‘quick buck’ fossil fuel extraction that is unsustainable and destroys quality agricultural land, and; the ‘dumping’ of rural communities that all Australians rely on to sustain a spread of Australian occupation in a vast land that is all but empty apart from farmers and their communities.

You can see we have entered a place of … don’t get me started! (notice I didn’t even mention water fraud, and any politician’s broken promise or flawed policy).

So, I’ll leave it there and get to the point of this drenching from a great height.

I want to talk to the people. Australians. Yes the ones who live primarily in our cities and suburbs. Yes you who are reading this magazine on a weekend. You who take for granted our wonderful comfortable lives with ‘city jobs’, and most weekends off. Us all who, unlike farmers and their communities, are 24/7 within all of the above stated.

Farmers are literally dying on the vine. And that isn’t just a metaphor. The rate of depression and suicide among our rural communities is over the top and growing faster than the slim mental health services they have available can cope.

They are walking off the land. Destitute with little future for themselves and their kids. And the worst hasn’t yet started.

They are ALL FARMED OUT! Gone are generations delivering a basic capability that has always served Australia and still does (or should) – the secure production of food and fibre.

So, what happens to all Australians if this momentum continues. Pretty clear really. We will need to outsource our reliance on secure, nutritious food. We already do to a large extent. But do we want our farming to go the same way as our manufacturing industry? Lost and now outsourced to not just emerging countries that are new and cheaper than we are, but to other western countries that have been able to transform their fundamental economic capabilities like making stuff and producing food and fibre.

What can we do? I say, we don’t rely on government. Sure, they need to do their bit. But we – the people – we who care need to organise to get our farmers back on their feet. After all, isn’t it us who will lose if we let our farmers be all farmed out?

Come on people, let’s organise and support our farmers.