By Margaret Maccoll
During the Covid-crisis the ability to access good quality local food increased in importance but as restrictions ease will customers return to less expensive imports?
Not if Shane Stanley from Noosa and Kawana Farmers Markets can help it.
Mr Stanley wants people to continue to see the value in good quality local produce and wants a better deal for local farmers.
Last Friday he brought together local farmers with Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud and Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien at a forum at Noosa Boathouse.
“There’s an exclusivity about Noosa,” Mr O’Brien said told the forum. “It’s uniqueness is what people come here for.
“We want to find out how to be more efficient and more sustainable to make strides at local level not export level.”
Mr Littleproud sang the praises of local farmers and Noosa Farmers Market which he described as the conduit between people and farmers.
“Despite the droughts, bushfires, floods and Covid-19 farmers have never faulted. They just get on with the job,” he said.
During Covid agriculture was seen as an essential service, he said.
Mr Littleproud said you only needed to see the panic in supermarkets when people thought there would be scarcity of products to see the importance of farmers. “People started to panic. We have to make sure of continuity of supply to give people confidence. If you don’t social discord follows.
“Covid has awoken Australians to the importance of agriculture.
“In the city people have lost that contact.
“This is a real opportunity to get back to our roots – to understand what made our nation, what drives our nation. In times of crisis we get back to basics. Basics is making sure you have the best food in the world.”
Shane Stanley said it was his passion to deliver good local food produced from Gympie to Moreton Bay to the local area.
“What we can do as a group is to get the best outcome for our farmers,” he said. “It always comes back to our farmers. How do we create better margins for our farmers.
“A lack of locally produced, fresh food will reduce the capacity to form a robust and resilient food supply system. Overdependence on long food supply chains is detrimental to long term food security in Australia and will lead to reduced nutritional and environmental outcomes”
“We have an opportunity to grasp what people want. Outcome must be farmers are number one.”
One livestock producer said mapping the forest fuel would provide farmers peace of mind to detect the threat of bushfire and take action to reduce it. The technology is there, he said.
Mr Littleproud said the report on the Royal Commission into bushfires was due in the next two weeks which would provide some insight into future action.
Another farmer raised the question of the high cost of aviation fuel, saying it was reducing the ability of farmers to economically use small planes and queried the possibility of tax reductions on fuel.
Mr Littleproud said taxes were reinvested in airport upgrades to create safer environments at airports. He said service requirements to meet CASA standards on small planes were an issue among farmers.
Shane Stanley asked about unfair competition in the local market.
He said cheap imports created unfair markets for local farmers with small family farms.
“How do we equalize imports,” he said and suggested introducing a GST on imported foods.
Mr Littleproud said in Australia we had a nation of 25 million people but produced enough produce for 75 million.
“If we impose tariffs, they do too,” he said.
“It’s our place in the world but opportunity is still there.”
He talked about the use of labelling to give customers choice to buy Australian-made and locally-made produce but of the complications of introducing tariffs to advantage Australian-made products nationally when dealing in a free trade market.
Another local farmer raised the issue of loans to small scale farmers, saying during Covid had been the first time loans had been made available to them. Mr Littleproud said there were challenges in handing out taxpayers money.
“You can’t hand it out if you can’t get it back,” he said.
