Letter written to the Leader of the *National Party of Australia

Monopoly Control Of Australian Agriculture

Letter written to the Leader of the *National Party of Australia mid July 2002

Dear Mr Anderson

I am writing to you as a director of Santos Health Foods in Byron Bay and Mullumbimby.

You may be aware of the recent articles in the Sydney Morning Herald 8th  and 9th July, 2002 and the Australian  Newspapers that same  week  concerning the concentration of power and monopoly control in the Australian Fruit and Vegetable industry by the big chains Woolworth’s and Coles Foodland, and the concerns over growing GM crops in this country..

These articles are the tip of the iceberg of recent concern expressed in the media and on television news reports.

Does the National Party have a policy on this disturbing eventuality?

The End of the Family Farm?

My personal experience also bears this out, back in December 2001 my wife and I toured regional NSW and often would go and buy produce from local farms who sold at the gate or had retail outlets on their farms. Many were telling us that they would soon be forced to close because the big supermarket chains were controlling the market, forcing prices down and only buying from approved suppliers in huge quantities under contracts way beyond the family farm’s possibilities.

The end result is the demise of the family or medium business farm and the agriculture of the nation being run by huge corporations often owned by overseas cartels and run as factories with no regard to the land or variety or quality of the end product.  How long since you tasted a really nice tomato?

Small business has never been easy but now it is being squeezed inexorably out of existence by the direct and indirect effects of multinational and huge monopolies operating in the marketplace. The returns and profit margins are creeping downwards, and farmers rarely have any significant surplus cash these days to weather a drought. Farming is more than just a business it is alive and cannot be successfully turned into a mechanical factory system as the monetarist economists have been telling us. These people probably couldn’t grow a head of lettuce if their life depended on it!

Most small businesses in country towns I have seen are actually mining the future of the business to keep going, basically running at next to zero profit or at a loss, and hoping to make some money by selling it at a capital gain. Thus the constant turnover of small business owners in small towns and the erosion of community and social spirit and values.

Employment This process will increase the decline in rural employment and the loss of local small business from rural areas.  Consequently, as a result, an increasing percentage of farm work will likely be carried out by a reducing number of drifting casual workers instead of locals, as technology further reduces the human input to agriculture.

I see this leading to a further erosion of the National Party’s voter base. As I see it, the family farm and locals living in country areas have been the traditional voting base for the National party. Is the National party concerned at a further erosion of its voter base?

If these family farmers are forced to close, many of the owners will probably move to the city and probably be lost as NP voters. Itinerant workers cannot be relied to vote for anyone in particular or more likely don’t vote at all.

Large companies don’t vote at all! Their directors may vote liberal if they are Australian residents they would have a conservative city mind set.

A power vacuum in the bush easily leads to extreme right wing politics, which I am sure, you would agree, would not be in our mutual interests. The other possibility may be a big shift to green parties.

Community support for Organic/GMO free

The support of organic and GM free production of food will help stem this tide because Organic and GM free crops require skilled input and are very difficult to or impossible to grow in huge factory farms. Also consumer awareness of this issue is growing and there is an ever-increasing demand for organic and locally grown produce, as well as a wider range of specialty fruit and vegetables, In fact demand for organic/GM produce is predicted to rapidly outstrip demand in the next few years.

The dollar cost of production of Organic and GM free may seem to be higher but in the long term farming is more economical because the land fertility is maintained and our rivers are not going to be polluted by runoff of farm chemicals, or be affected by salinity.

The current relative low price of fruit and veg in the supermarkets is a result of severe price cutting and forcing the farmers to take low prices and “mining” the land’s resources.

There is a groundswell of public feeling on this matter. The letters to the editor in the national press express concern about Gm foods, the monopoly control of the produce market, and the consequences of our responsibilities under international treaties such as GATT, which we are being urged to sign.

Monopoly control of Crops

Since Monsanto is reported to own over 90% of GM patents one does not need to be very business wise to see the extreme danger of 90% of food crops becoming owned by one company.  The current tour of Australia by the Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser whose crop was accidentally contaminated with GM pollen from a nearby Monsanto test farm is a big wake up call to the danger. He was sued by Monsanto and subsequently had his crop confiscated. He was also ordered to pay $150,000 dollars compensation to Monsanto 

GMO free Australia provides a Lucrative export Advantage

 Since world trade is not free (note the recent US food trade subsidies) specialising in the export of Organic and GM agricultural products may be our best salvation (but not at the expense of local consumers.).

Also European markets are banning the import of GMO produce.  We are in a unique position to make a choice, which will affect the history of our country for a long time.

So contrary to what it may seem the National party and organic Gm free growers have a lot in common.

Education

 Promoting/encouraging the north coast as a vibrant Organic and GM free producing area will go a long way towards stemming the decline of the farm as we know it. We could become an example to the rest of the country and the world with all the talent we have here

Australia at a crossroads

The quality of politics affects our daily lives. On the North coast we have spiralling land values (caused by urban population growth), much of which is rich fertile volcanic soil. This further reduces the returns on farming, and the pressure to move farms further inland to more arid areas.

The National Party has the connections with the farmers and people Does the NP wish to become a new force in Australian rural life by taking the initiative and put life and vitality back into our wonderful country? 

Yours sincerely

 Robert Hart

*The National Party is a conservative rural based political party in Australia.
I wrote to them because our local member of parliament is a National Party  (NP) Member
and the (NP) has close connections with the farmers and the government.