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That the drought is significantly impacting Australian farmers, so movements and activism for greater support are vital.
Over this most recent Christmas break, I had the opportunity to spend some time with my family in central Queensland. The Svensson family comes from a long line of graziers and farmers, with this past year being especially hard as my uncle has no choice but to spend his months on highways driving hundreds of head of cattle just to find food. There is no chance of water along the highway for the herd, which leaves no choice but to be sourced from elsewhere and trucked in daily. Some of these cattle have been on the road for almost 12 months, just to avoid the inevitable of either being sold or put down.
This story is only one of the tens of thousands of families such as my own throughout Australia, specifically in Queensland and New South Wales, who are in desperate need to prepare themselves for the seventh consecutive year of overwhelming drought this 2019.
Today I will contend that the drought is significantly impacting Australian farmers, therefore movements and activism for greater support are vital.
So, despite the greater public awareness being brought to the foreground through endless amounts of media attention, corporate support, and individual contributions in 2018, via campaigns such as the rural aid movements ‘Buy a bail’ and the ‘Hay Mate’ flight campaign in conjunction with Qantas, as well as the Woolworths and Coles drought milk subsidies, we see 2019 start with the plight of the farmers being seemingly put on the back burner with organizations abandoning the programs that kicked off and were rather successful in 2018, much like the 30-cent milk subsidy from Coles being deserted.
So how is the drought really affecting Australians? And what can we as a society do to help as the new year begins?
Drought has direct and substantial impacts on the Australian economy. As reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, drought reduces livestock numbers, destroys crops, and results in soil erosion and loss, leading to the contribution of agricultural production to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) falling from 2.9 to 2.4% between 2002 to 2009.
Australia is the driest and has one of the most variable rainfall patterns. Meaning that we are particularly vulnerable to the enormous economic and social effects of drought because it has a relatively large agricultural sector
One other economic aspect is the effect on productivity. Farms and farmers cannot be productive at their usual levels while they are focused on survival. Sound business decisions cannot be excepted whilst a business is running in survival mode.
However, there are substantial spillover effects on other groups as economic stress spreads across the local economy.
How do we sit here and expect the families who are, without a doubt, the fundamental backbone of Australia’s economy to survive on profits less than $13,000 in this next financial year, whilst major Australian businesses find themselves having record profits in the same period?
It is not unknown that droughts can and do have a range of effects on social fabric and health, including impacting significantly mental health, such as post-traumatic stress and suicidal behavior.
The impacts of suicide are extraordinarily destructive, not just on the immediate family, but on friends and the wider close-knit community too. And yet, we as a society appear not to be connected to the rising suicide rates of up to 15% for rural males as the severity of drought increases, as concluded by a study conducted in New South Wales by Ivan Hanigan.
The analysis also suggests that governments have a role in ensuring that adequate services are available to all residents of drought-affected areas. However, as 2019 is an election year – when was the last time that this minimum expectation was worthy of making it to the news?
In recent times, the “Big Dry” as it is called, has served as a reminder of the wide-reaching impacts that drought can have on water supplies, and …
Water scarcity too in our major cities has been aggravated by the drought and remains an ongoing challenge. This pressure on urban water supplies as the population only continues to grow is then also expected projected to intensify as droughts increase in both frequency and brutality
And whilst some of you will now be thinking that the environmental impacts of farming are already well proven. Can you honestly say that as a society we are prepared in this generation to adopt the thinking that underpins the sustainability of the human race while doing so, what is our obligation to support the farmers who provide the food that we will go home and eat tonight or the wool in the blankets that will keep us warm this next coming winter?
Overall, drought is undoubtedly tough for those in the agricultural sector, financially and mentally, but rural communities are resilient, at least in terms of social cohesion. In part, this is likely to be due to a high level of engagement in community organizations, whereby residents pull together in a time of crisis. However, it is important to ensure that basic services are not neglected or lost permanently during a prolonged, but temporary, climatic event.
I urge you all to consider the impact of the drought on our farmers when you have your next latte or steak, and for us not to be a passenger in this journey and hold big corporations ethically responsible and to ensure that the government legislates to ensure ongoing support for this very important sector of our economy and that this issue is not a political football
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