It Only Takes a Minute

It Only Takes a Minute by Gavin Kedar 

How many times have you heard that phrase?. And to what was it applied to?. Maybe someone popping into a shop, “It will only take a minute”. Or to fix something up, “I’ll have that done in a minute”. Whatever the context, the implication is something that will be quick, convenient, and of little effort on behalf of the one to whom the phrase is spoken to. Is it always the case?. Twenty minutes later , “Oh, I saw some things on special, I just had to have a better look and try one on”. Or, “I’m sorry, but we found a few more problems, so come back in 3 hours and it will be fixed, as long as we have the parts on hand”.
And so starts Lee Rhiannon's support of the campaign by Animals Australia to ‘fight factory farming’.

It is all very polished, and promises the reader that if they email their photo, it will go in the national newspaper ad. This is what they say. “ We want YOU to star in our history-making Make it Possible newspaper ad — an ad that will unite thousands of Aussies in a unique and powerful statement against factory farming. To join in, simply upload your photo by March 31st and we'll show Australia that together we have the power to free millions of animals from needless cruelty and suffering.”


And so you will star. Wow. Images of Hollywood?. A reward for your support to ‘fight’. Becoming a star?. And, it will only take a MINUTE…..according to Lee.

The very sad thing about such campaigns is that there is little effort put into the action. Something quick and simple, just take a minute, and you will do your part in ‘saving the world’, and will have a sound sleep, knowing you did your ‘bit’….and all in just 60 short seconds too!..

It seems in our ‘age of social media’, that the urban dweller can take part in so many ‘causes’, with little thought of the real outcome of their actions. Yes, it ‘only takes a minute‘ to become part of a newspaper ad campaign, then emailing off the picture from the future ‘star’s’ computer to the Animals Australia office is processed in a few seconds or less, and the ad emailed to the newspaper in similar time. Such is our modern technology.

The trouble is, that people do not consider the consequences of their actions. A few taps on the keyboard does not allow the brain to have time enough to process and think through what the outcomes are from the results of the message just send from the computer.

Do they consider, in ‘just one minute’ why many of us have to ‘factory farm’, not just some animals, but also many crops?. Do they consider that as a consumer, their demand for cheap, convenient and consistent food and clothing, has driven the development of ‘specialist farms’?. Do they take the time to question what would happen if we returned to a more ‘traditional’ style of farming?. Experience tells us that most do not. They tend to live for ‘the minute’, and not the decade.

Yes, our communications technology has gone from taking a week or more for a letter to arrive with a developed photo in it from my Uncles and Aunts back in the UK in 1980, to 2013, when the latest photos and news from my cousins, arrive in a few seconds.

However, Agriculture has not been privileged with the same speed. Even with the mass of science behind us farmers, we still take several months to grow a crop, stock breeding still takes the same time frame………….Sorry, just daydreaming……imagine if we could have the same proportional timeframe change as communications in the past 33 years. A crop of wheat, from planting to harvest in 25 minutes. A heifer, bearing it’s 1st calf at 3 days old!!........ Back to reality. Cane is being planted in the Burdekin at the moment. It will be ready to harvest about July/August 2014, and the grower will receive final payment for the crop about August 2015. Not winging, just stating facts. We do not have the luxury of ‘just one minute’.

As with all things in Agriculture, much time and thought and re thinking and planning and backup planning has to take place, with the rewards coming in ‘just one season, or one year, or even, one decade’, but never, ‘one minute’.

*****************************

Gavin Kedar  Grew up on a mixed farm in the UK. Emigrated to Australia in 1979. He has been involved in a variety of farming enterprises, including farm worker, farm managing, share farming, and owning a farm. Areas include dairying, beef production, pig farming, dryland and irrigated crops, including cotton, cereals, pulses, hay, seed production and cane.

Learn and construct to cope with future natural disasters

As the flood waters started to ease and a stocktake started on the damage caused by ex-cyclone Oswell that travelled down near the entire length of the Queensland coastline and well into New South Wales, two regular print columnists published articles on the 31^st January calling a visionary and practical approach of looking to how we can reduce the impact of natural disasters in the future.

Andrew Bolt wrote an article, Nation must learn from natural disasters, where he concentrates on towns and cities that flood regularly, where a lot of money is spent of repairing after a flood and helping people to get back on their feet but little spend on prevention measures such as levy banks.

Personally I don’t believe that all can be solved by levies or dykes as in Bolts nation of origin, Holland. Historically towns had to build down close to a major source of water; these days we have the means of moving the water to the houses. I don’t believe that in locations of high flood risk that sometimes the cost of constructing a big enough levies for the worst of floods would be far greater than shifting the people out of the worst impacted streets.

Senator Barnaby Joyce wrote in his weekly column in The Canberra Times, Acts ofGod, but not much remedial action in Parliament, where he made some very good points about Australia’s transport and communication networks and their current inability to cope with natural disasters.

 

Cartoon thanks to Broelmann

 

"The major infrastructure corridors along the coast are again under pressure or cut. The Telstra fibre providing the communication link for north Queensland was cut because of flooding.

The justifiable focus on the current problem of flooding should be accompanied by a long-term solution to alleviate some of the problem. 

The course of innovation is not lineal, it is more chaotic, but in the period of this government there has been no plan that has dealt with the year-in, year-out problems of floods, congestion and safety of moving goods along the same corridor as people, along the coast. It should not be a surprise any more that somewhere between Cairns and Melbourne at some point in summer there will be a flood, and generally at many points along the coast.

We need an educational system that does not leave Australia falling behind our Asian neighbours. More than two sealed roads from east to west across our nation would be very 21st century if we could manage it. We should plan to develop our nation's north so we evolve from the southern crescent economy of Lachlan Macquarie's day to one that can make the most of Asian middle class opportunities. The capacity to move product on long haul rail from our second biggest city, Melbourne, direct to our nation's third biggest, Brisbane, should have happened years ago"