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New survey data from Rural Aid shows consecutive disasters have forced most farmers to think about selling

Posted on 20 March 202420 March 2024

A spate of consecutive natural disasters and associated financial pressures are cited as two of the key reasons why more than two-thirds of Australian farmers are considering selling their farms, the results of Rural Aid’s inaugural farmer survey have revealed.

The ‘Pulse of the Paddock’ report shows many farmers are in need of diverse support measures, particularly mental health and wellbeing, to continue to supply quality food to Australian and international tables and contribute to the overall health and prosperity of communities across the country.

Released today, ahead of Rural Aid’s major fundraising campaign tomorrow, Mates Day, the survey attracted responses from 680 farmers and delivered some sobering statistics, supporting the charity’s urgent call to acknowledge the importance of farmers.

The Pulse of the Paddock survey revealed:

80% of farmers believe people do not value the work and effort that goes into producing food
76% of farmers rate their mental health as poor, very poor or average
70% have considered selling their farm in the past 12 months due to natural disasters and financial pressure
45% say their mental health has declined in the past 12 months

Rural Aid CEO, John Warlters, said the survey raises issues he believed every Australian should take heed of, given 93% of food eaten in Australia is produced right here on domestic farms.

“Farmers form the first link in the agricultural supply chain that connects the producer with the consumer. If that’s broken, if we lose farmers and their families because they’re mentally and physically drained from trying to recover from extreme weather events and poor returns, then we won’t be eating locally grown food,” Mr Warlters said.

“The survey results speak to the toll consecutive disasters have taken on our farming communities.

“We need to take their fears seriously, and actively help them to stay on the land.”

Profit discrepancies a key driver of distress

In the Pulse of the Paddock survey, an open-ended question about improving food supply chains garnered the most responses, with the overwhelming majority of farmers suggesting cutting out ‘middlemen’ along the food supply chain as a solution to the narrow the gap between their returns and retailer profits.

Soberingly, the survey revealed the extent to which mental health remains a challenge for the farm sector.

Only 24% of farmers described their mental health as good or very good, and half of the respondents said they had been feeling worse over the past 12 months.

The survey corroborates the statistics from the Norco National Farmer Wellbeing Report released in March 2023, which showed the top three factors impacting farmer mental health were weather or natural disasters (47%), financial stress (36%) and inflation and cost pressures (35%).

Quantifying the impact across the country, it found that 88% of Australian farmers have had their business significantly impacted by natural disasters over the past five years, at an average cost of $1.4 million per farm.

Mr Warlters said he was pleased the survey results showed many people in rural and regional communities were grateful for the work Rural Aid was undertaking.

“Almost 100 per cent of respondents said Rural Aid was having a positive impact on their daily life and household, describing the support as ‘life-changing’, ‘amazing’, and ‘vital’,” he said.

Laura Geitz urges Australians to take notice

Rural Aid’s Mates Day Ambassador, and former Australian champion netballer, Laura Geitz, said most people had little concept of what is involved in bringing healthy food from the paddock to the table.

“Wouldn’t it be great to have a conversation every time you sit down with a plate of food, about where that food came from? Most of us take it for granted that we can zip down to the shops, grab what we want or call Uber Eats, and the food just arrives,” she said.

“But strip it back a bit. Every plate tells a story. What do farmers have to go through to provide us with that meal, and what happens if they can’t?

“I think this is a great opportunity to support Aussie farmers on Mates Day, whether you have ties to agriculture or not.”

Mates Day is Rural Aid’s major annual fundraising campaign. All donations ensure the ongoing provision of critical economic and empathetic assistance to farmers.

To make a donation to Rural Aid’s Mates Day, visit matesday.ruralaid.org.au

Rural Aid’s Pulse of the Paddock is available on the Rural Aid website https://www.ruralaid.org.au/Pulse-Of-The-Paddock.pdf

Media enquiries:
Kate Scott
0438 389 092
kate.scott@bluehillpr.com.au

Stacey Wordsworth
0438 394 371
stacey.wordsworth@bluehillpr.com.au

About Rural Aid
Rural Aid is Australia’s most trusted rural charity. We stand with our farmers when they need us most. Rural Aid provides critical support to farmers affected by natural disaster through financial, wellbeing and fodder assistance. Rural Aid’s community programs help create more sustainable communities by building stronger futures for all Australian farmers. Find out more at www.ruralaid.org.au

Australians lettuce all rejoice – and not take farmers for granted

Posted on 8 March 202414 March 2024

In the lead up to Rural Aid’s Mates Day, the one thing fourth generation vegetable growers, Brendan and Janne Dipple, want Australians to know is farming is not an unskilled profession.

“There’s actually a lot that goes into farming. It takes a lot of effort, technical knowledge, and ability to be able to do the work at all levels in the farming enterprise,” Brendan said.

Add to that, the need to be agile, to pivot to another product if there’s a glut in the market, and to be able find resilience in the face of floods, drought and hailstorms.

Held on 20 March, Mates Day is all about recognising these challenges and the hard work Aussie farmers invest, each day, to put food on Australian tables.

Starting from scratch with $20,000

The Dipples started Bare Essentials Quality Vegetables in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley from scratch with $20,000 in 1998 after moving from Brendan’s great grandfather’s farm at Mitchelton in Brisbane.

On a flat and fertile 28 hectares at Mortonvale, they began by growing lettuces, before being scaled out by larger operators, and branching into bunch lines to fill a new niche producing shallots, spinach and silver beet, and in the past decade, fresh herbs.

“We had a dream to have our own farm,” Janne said.

“The great thing about the Lockyer Valley is it’s known as the salad bowl. This region supplies a lot of Australian tables. It’s also close to Brisbane and the Gold Coast where our family and friends are, and just far enough out of the city to be in the country.”

Bare Essentials supplies the Brisbane wholesale markets at Rocklea with leafy salad vegetables and herbs that are stocked by local greengrocers, used by restauranteurs, or sent to outlets around the country.

“The market and our customers are always evolving,” Brendan explained.

“Depending on what people want each week, we’re always picking up new lines and dropping stuff while we’re growing, processing and packing.”

Weather affects the whole community, not just farmers

The Dipples’ farm has been underwater five times in the past two years and endured extreme heat and hail. But Brendan doesn’t view the weather as only impacting farmers – it’s something that affects the whole community.

“In my head, the weather we have to deal with is the norm, and it’s not just the farmer’s problem, it’s a community problem. None of us can get away from that. Lately we’ve had a lot of extreme events, all stacked up behind one another.

“Extreme heat in the 2019 drought meant it was too hot to grow anything, and we had to use salty water, which makes it harder to grow quality vegetables. Then we went straight into heavy rain and lost a lot of topsoil because the soil was loose from the drought.

“We had a good run during 2023 where everything was stable and we worked like mad. Then we had a hailstorm in November which took everything, followed by another flood in 2024. We just mop up the mess and try to salvage crops or re-plant, but obviously it’s financially crippling.”

Rural Aid on hand to help

As Mates Day approaches, Rural Aid CEO, John Warlters, said the recurring weather events were often behind skyrocketing prices on fresh produce and were having a compounding effect on the frequency and nature of requests for support the charity is receiving from farmers.

“We’ve got families right now who are recovering from multiple events, one after the other, and in a very quick time frame,” John said.

“These events are the catalyst for our lettuce to suddenly cost $12, or we can’t get those potato chips on our plate because our potato crops have been wiped out.

“The donations we receive during Mates Day will be used to help these farming families recover and get back on their feet.”

Both Brendan and Janne can see how necessary Rural Aid is in helping farmers deal with their challenges. For Janne, it’s a case of agriculture – both food and fibre – belonging to everybody.

“People should get behind Mates Day and donate to Rural Aid, because it really does support everybody whether you’re a farmer or not, and anyone who donates reaps the benefit of it,” she said.

To support Rural Aid’s Mates Day campaign or to make a donation, visit matesday.ruralaid.org.au All donations received will contribute to the important work Rural Aid is undertaking in rural and regional communities and supporting Australian farmers.

Click here to watch Brendan and Janne’s story and learn more about some of the challenges facing them as farmers.

Media enquiries:
Kate Scott
0438 389 092
kate.scott@bluehillpr.com.au

Stacey Wordsworth
0438 394 371
stacey.wordsworth@bluehillpr.com.au

Source: Channel 7

Climate change – no one has more at stake than farmers

Posted on 5 March 20245 March 2024

The majority of farmers are investing their own time and money to make their farms more sustainable, a new Rural Aid report has found.

Australia’s most trusted rural charity recently surveyed its registered farmers, with 62% of the survey respondents confirming they were currently undertaking sustainability and resilience practices.

Fifth-generation farmer, and Rural Aid board member, Erica Halliday, said it’s a figure that might challenge a few stereotypes.

“Sometimes as farmers we feel we’re being blamed for climate change, when no one has more at stake than farmers,” she said.

“I don’t know a single farmer that isn’t trying to do the best by the land. We’re living and learning, but if anyone’s going to make a real difference, it’s actually going to be us farmers,” the Walcha farmer said.

It’s a sentiment backed up by Rural Aid CEO John Warlters, who said no one feels the impact of a variable climate more than farmers.

“Our farmers are the building blocks of what happens for us every single day because their efforts and their energies translate to food on the plate.

“We’ve seen a real change in the nature of requests for help from Rural Aid, and a lot of it is driven from what has been occurring with our seasons as disaster events become more frequent and severe.

Erica and her husband Stuart are renowned as some of Australia’s top Angus seedstock breeders.

The environment, and leaving the land in a better state for future generations, is something Erica said all farmers strongly believe in.

“We’re working on cattle for the future that have less methane emissions both genetically and through management, as well as meat quality, and efficiency, and making sure they’ve got a kind temperament,” Erica said.

With Rural Aid’s Mates Day approaching on 20 March, John said they were encouraging people from across the country to understand the fundamental role agriculture plays in sustaining our communities and give, where they can, to help farmers when conditions move beyond their control.

“With every meal, we’re typically dining on amazing food grown by an Aussie farmer. And when we go into the supermarket, it’s the same story – just about everything on shelves is the output of what’s occurred on a farm,” John said.

Erica said Mates Day was a great opportunity to donate to the work Rural Aid is doing to support farmers through challenging times.

“Sometimes, particularly in those stressful periods, it can get very lonely and very isolating being a farmer,” she said.

“Mates Day is a really important time for people to acknowledge and appreciate farmers and what they do. Because when you get that steak on your plate, you don’t realise it’s taken five years and the trials and tribulations, to get it there.”

Click here to watch Stuart and Erica’s story and learn more about some of the other practices they are undertaking on their farm to help mitigate climate risks.

Media enquiries:

Kate Scott
0438 389 092
kate.scott@bluehillpr.com.au

Stacey Wordsworth
0438 394 371
stacey.wordsworth@bluehillpr.com.au

Farmers recall power of a Christmas card during disaster

Posted on 1 March 202411 March 2024

Rural Aid’s 2024 Mates Day campaign is all about recognising the hard work of Aussie farmers, and sometimes all that takes is a Christmas card.

Not your traditional multi-generational beef farmers, Bianca Tarrant and Dave McGiveron saved up to purchase their 519-hectare beef cattle property in Baryulgil, Northern New South Wales, and were battling one of the worst droughts in Australian history, when a delivery coordinated by Rural Aid gave them a much-needed boost.

“We got a Christmas card in the mail from a group of schoolkids in the city saying how thankful they were for everything we do to produce their food,” Bianca said.

“It doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re in the thick of drought and fires and everything else, to receive those messages from kids we’d never met before just blew us away. When times are tough it’s easy to think you’re alone and that no one else understands what you’re going through.

“Often people want to support farmers but they don’t know how, so it’s really important that organisations like Rural Aid are bringing awareness of farming and regional Australia to those in the city, and giving them ways to help out.”

After almost 10 years of operation, Australia’s most trusted rural charity has launched its major annual fundraiser, Mates Day, for 2024, highlighting that ‘Every plate tells a story’.

All donations from the campaign will ensure the ongoing provision of critical economic and empathetic assistance to farmers, including the Rural Aid national mental health and wellbeing program.

Rural Aid Chief Executive Officer, John Warlters, said it was an important time to celebrate Australian farmers.

“Every plate tells a story because the food on it speaks to us about the freshness, the trust and confidence we can have that the food on our plates is nutritious and healthy – it’s the world’s best,” John said.

“Rural Aid really provides farmers and their families a hand up. We don’t provide them a handout as such, but rather a hand up at a moment in time when they really need it.

“It makes a life changing difference for them and gives them the encouragement to continue to do what they do – and we’re all beneficiaries of this amazing work.”

Bianca said understanding where food comes from was one of the most impactful ways the wider public could help support farmers.

“Everything that people eat every day has come from a farm somewhere,” she said.

“From the meat to the fruit and the veggies, everything we put on our plate every night is there thanks to a lot of work behind the scenes.

“It’s pretty rewarding being a farmer, but it is very challenging to know that the whole food system relies on us at the end of the day to be able to continue to produce food.”

While recovering from losing more than 70 per cent of their farmland during 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires, Bianca and Dave decided to start selling their produce over Facebook, which led to the creation of Our Cow – a subscription service which delivers beef, pork, lamb, chicken and seafood direct to households, helping to connect local farms directly with consumers.

Dave said they now have more than 100 farmers from across Australia supplying produce to Our Cow.

“Farmers are really good at banding together. Whether it’s during droughts, floods or fires, or just battling the everyday stressors of the job, I’m proud to be part of a community of producers who have each other’s backs to get through the challenges,” Dave said.

“Our whole livelihoods depend on the weather, a lot of which is out of our control. You’re always watching the forecasts and making businesses decisions based on that. It’s like playing the stock market but with a force of nature you just can’t predict.”

Dave said Mates Day was a timely reminder for consumers to stop and think about where their food comes from.

“Sometimes it can take three years before we make an income out of one animal on our farm,” he said.

“Crop farmers will plant something in the ground and not get any money from it for another 12 months. This campaign is about just taking the time to think about the endless dedication and effort that has gone into what’s on your plate.

“There’s so much fluctuation in a farmer’s life, from natural disasters to economic pressures, so we’d love for people to dig deep and get behind Rural Aid because farmers all around Australia need all the support we can get.”

To support Rural Aid’s Mates Day Campaign or to make a donation, visit matesday.ruralaid.org.au All donations received will contribute to the important work Rural Aid is undertaking in rural and regional communities and supporting Australian farmers.

Media enquiries:

Kate Scott
0438 389 092
kate.scott@bluehillpr.com.au

Stacey Wordsworth
0438 394 371
stacey.wordsworth@bluehillpr.com.au

Source: Warwick Today

Australian champion netballer, Laura Geitz, urges consumers to think about the Aussie farmers behind the food on our dinner plates

Posted on 27 February 20244 March 2024

Former Australian netball captain and Commonwealth Games medallist, Laura Geitz, is trading sport shoes for farm boots, urging Australians to stop and think about where the food on their dinner plates come from, as Rural Aid launches its major annual fundraising campaign – Mates Day.

In the lead up to Mates Day celebrations on Wednesday 20 March, farmers will share the often challenging and unseen journey behind their produce before it makes its way to consumer’s dinner plates under this year’s campaign theme ‘Every plate tells a story’.

After spending what Laura describes as an ‘incredible childhood’ on her family’s 607-hectare cattle and grain property at Allora on Queensland’s Darling Downs, the retired sports star and mum of four said she was very grateful to come on board as official Ambassador for Rural Aid’s Mates Day 2024 Campaign.

“I’ve had a connection with Rural Aid in the past and love what they stand for and what they do,” Laura said.

“Supporting farmers in crisis, whether it be through droughts, floods, bushfires or anything else that happens in the world of agriculture is wonderful and wholesome work to be involved in.

“There are extremes that farmers are constantly battling with, and we speak so much about raising awareness of what our farmers do for us. And for me, this is a perfect way of raising that awareness.”

Each evening Laura, her husband Mark and their four children sit down for the family meal where they each take turns around the table to share the best thing that happened to them during the day. Laura describes it as wonderful family time, however said she recently thought about changing the format to question the story behind their food on the dinner plate.

“I was thinking the other day, wouldn’t it be amazing to actually sit down and look at your food on your plate and ask where do you think that came from? Wonder what the farmer had to go through to get that steak or sausage or broccoli on the plate,” she said.

“Let’s start having the conversation around that because none of us do that. We take it completely for granted that we can zip down to the shops, grab what we want, get home, dish it out, or we call Uber Eats, it arrives and we eat these beautiful meals, but let’s strip it back a bit.

“We really need to be asking where does that food come from? It comes from these farmers that are absolutely bending over backwards, battling with market prices, battling with the elements to actually dish that up on our plates.

“The majority of us have absolutely no concept of what they’re going through to allow us to sit down and eat a meal.”

Celebrating Australian farmers and recognising the challenges

As part of the Mates Day Campaign, Rural Aid’s Chief Executive Officer, John Warlters, said it was also an important time to celebrate Australian farmers.

“We should celebrate Australian farmers for many reasons,” John said.

“Firstly, because they’re the best in the world, secondly because they feed us and thirdly because of the amazing food and produce that comes through their energies and efforts.

However, Mr Warlters said the story about what’s not on the plate also needs to be considered.

“Lettuce suddenly becomes a $12 lettuce, or we can’t get those potato chips on our plate because our potato crops have been wiped out, or the cost of a lamb chop goes up through the cost-of-living crisis,” he said.

“We then see another story told on our plate.

“But at the end of the day, food is our lifeline. It’s what nourishes us. And it’s our farmers who do that incredible work for us.”

Support Australian farmers by supporting Mates Day

With many farmers across Australia now facing impacts from multiple natural disaster events, the nature and frequency of requests for support from Rural Aid is changing rapidly.

John Warlters said the mental health issue is one of the big challenges confronting rural and regional Australia, which Rural Aid helps to provide support a range of ways.

“When we deliver fodder to families to help them feed their livestock, it’s also the mental wellbeing piece that gets addressed through that process as well. People understand that someone else cares for them and wants to make a difference,” John said.

“When it becomes a more acute conversation, we’re also there to play that role to have an ongoing relationship with people to help them through their challenges. And where we can’t provide the support that people need, we have some clearly defined referral paths to connect them with another organisation that might have a greater skill set in that particular area.”

Growing up on the farm at Allora, Laura is acutely aware of the challenges farmers face every day and recognises the lifeline Rural Aid offers to farmers and rural communities wasn’t always there.

“Rural Aid is just about helping the farmer, and that’s what I love most about them – they’re there for a farmer when they need them,” she said.

“I feel like there’s an opportunity to put your hand up and say we need some help, and they’re more than happy to be there to help, whether that’s through drought, bushfires, flooding or just having someone to talk to.

“Rural Aid’s Mates Day is a great opportunity to support Aussie farmers and to stop and realise exactly what they do for us.

“If you’ve got ties to agriculture, that’s great. But if you don’t, I think it’s just this opportunity to be able to donate and help our mates in the bush and thank them for what they do for us.

“Because they do something for us every single day by putting food on the table.”

Media enquiries:

Kate Scott
0438 389 092
kate.scott@bluehillpr.com.au

Stacey Wordsworth
0438 394 371
stacey.wordsworth@bluehillpr.com.au

Sources:
The Land
Farming Ahead
Queensland Country Life