Family farmers fight back

 Farmers on a daily basis are the providers of welfare for the animals under their care. Their ability to provide this care and provide food for people worldwide is under constant scrutiny of radical animal rights activists with unrealistic expectations, ignorant of animal production systems and a worldview that gives animals human emotion and reasoning.

This last week there was a significant skirmish between the farming community and Animals Australia (AA) and the supermarket giant, Coles. Farmers rightly took umbrage at Coles aligning itself with AA by contributing funding for this animals rights group that has a record of attacking family farmers.

Farmers are notorious for not working together not only between the different agricultural sectors but even within. This lack of unity has often made the farming community easy pickings by those who wish to attack them. This last week has been a lesson of what can be achieved when the farming community pulls together. It also clearly demonstrates the power of social media. It was not only those directly under attack in AA's latest campaign, the pork and poultry industries, but farmers right across all farming production system rose up and said enough is enough.

Below is a snapshot of the last week from four different sources.

 

Animals Australia - The Wolf Amongst the Sheep by Bess Gairns

Animals Australia has waged open and unrelenting campaigns against Australia’s agricultural sector as well as the culture and history of our rural communities.
Currently 10 of the 16 campaigns that Animals Australia are engaged in are directly aimed at Rural Australia. From the banning of culls and controls of feral animals such as foxes, cats and pigs, to the use of kangaroos for meat and hide, the use of sheep for wool, right through to their greatest conquest to date, Live Export.

So what’s the big deal? Why do farmers cry ‘wolf’ every time Animals Australia appears on 4 corners?

Most farmers would agree that Animals Australia gets up their nose for two big, undeniable reasons…

Firstly, they are a lobby group. All the funds raised by animals Australia are poured directly back into more marketing, advertising and political lobbying. Animals Australia DO NOT have a single animal shelter or refuge. They DO NOT promote education within our community or abroad, instead their funds are utilised to carry out ‘undercover’ investigations and to spread propaganda through the community. Animals Australia make no effort to work with industries or communities in advocating better animal welfare practices instead they advocate for blanket bans and legislation changes directly to government, whilst louering the wider community along with them.

Secondly, their vegetarian/vegan agenda. Farmers, like all Australians, believe in a person’s right to choose vegetarianism, but they are trying to fight a battle against a group that wants Australian’s to lose their right to CHOOSE to be omnivorous. Animals Australia is admittedly one of the biggest proponents of veganism in this country. They have their own vegetarian website www.whyveg.com that asks all of us to ‘Pledge to go Veg’ and this is where the real agenda behind the vendetta becomes blaringly obvious. Animals Australia don’t lobby for change in agriculture because they aim for better welfare, they do it because their long term goal is to force the hand of government to phase out animal farming for the uses of meat, dairy and bi-products. They are every bit the wolf that farmers see them for, despite wearing grannies nightgown.

Coles retreats at bush boycott     by: SUE NEALES, Rural reporter  From: The Australian 

COLES is expected today to deliver farmers their first victory in their battle with the supermarket giants, pulling from sale shopping bags supporting Animals Australia.   

Angry beef and fat lamb producers yesterday called for a mass boycott of Coles supermarkets because of their partnership with the animal rights group, saying the retail giant was deeply "anti-farming". 

Sheep producers who supply Coles with thousands of lambs a year yesterday announced a blackban on sales to the chain. The moves follow outrage within farming circles at the decision to sell the Animals Australia bags at 500 of its stores this month.

 

Queensland cattleman Stuart Ogg said he was appalled at Coles's misjudgment and would make sure none of his Brahman-cross cattle ended up as prime beef steaks in its stores.  "Coles always seem to be looking for a point of difference or a cheap publicity stunt and don't care who they hurt in the process," the Carnarvon Gorge grazier said. "We have a very solid and sustainable industry; Coles siding with Animals Australia is a slap in the face for industry -- it's like them saying they don't think we are producing our meat properly."

 

One of NSW's biggest prime-lamb producers, Andrew Freshwater, announced he would be halting the supply of thousands of lambs a year to Coles until it reversed its stance.

 

Mr Freshwater said five other suppliers -- all the major producers in the eastern states -- were backing his stance, while other farmers intended to stop buying fertiliser and insurance from Wesfarmers. "I've had a gutful; (it's time) to make Coles sit up and take notice," he said.

 

NFF chief executive Matt Linnegar said Coles could not have it both ways -- it could not claim to be the best friend of farmers and a strong supporter of homegrown produce while supporting Animals Australia and its extremist anti-farming campaigns.

The truth about Australian animal welfare by Fiona Lake
This a good article that answers well the reaction of Lyn White of AA after Coles were forced to back down . Fiona has her blog article copyright protected which means that it can't be copied and pasted to here. I encourage you to follow the link and read Fiona's article.

 

If farmers fold  by Glenda Grey

Meat Free Misinformation

Photo Tegan Kristine, sourced from the youtube 'Where does my meat come from?

 

First of all there has been the Meat Free Monday’s campaign with its sweeping statements of helping to stop climate change, saving the environment, health improvements and even helping world hunger. Fiona Lake answered very well these promoted benefits of abstaining from meat once a week in her blog article, Meat Free Monday Propaganda.

Now thanks to Voiceless this very week, March 18^thto 24^th, has been promoted as the designated week to go without meat in their Meat Free Week campaign. The same sweeping misinformed statements about saving the environment and also reducing perceived animal cruelty from what is an emotionalised  manufactured term, ‘factory farming’.

If we were taking notice there was a warning of this event back on the 1^st of March in his Choice Cuts opinion blog on farmonline Brad Cooper wrote in Voiceless campaign gains traction:

A CAMPAIGN urging Australians to eat less meat proves that some people truly do have more dollars than sense with a reported $60,000 already pledged to the cause. 

…The majority of the funds raised go to my old friends Voiceless, who wasted no time in climbing into me last week after I called them a “pro-vegan organisation opposed to producing food from animals”.

Well, given that Voiceless is prepared to pursue its own profit from a campaign aimed at discouraging people from eating meat – peddling misinformation, sucking in the gullible and misinformed, and undermining free enterprise – it’s not difficult to see which lifestyle it prefers 

The Beef Central article, Farm leaders question Meat Free campaign, gives quotes from NSW Farmers president Fiona Simson and VFF Egg president Brian Ahmed. From Fiona Simpson:

Ms Simson said the campaign seem like a good way to raise the profile of groups such as Voiceless campaigns like these organised by animal activist group Voiceless, but failed to take into account the people it was affecting the most.

She said there were 44,000 farming families in NSW whose livelihoods depended upon consumers eating the produce they worked hard to grow and this campaign lacked compassion for farmers - many of whom had recently experienced multiple natural disasters from bush fires to floods.

Ms Simson said farmers were committed to high animal welfare standards and many had been extremely distressed witnessing the deaths of their own livestock during recent natural disasters.

"I find the timing of such a campaign ill thought out and I encourage consumers to ignore the pleas of such groups and get behind our farmers who work extremely hard every day at growing the best for us to eat," she said. 

But the best response so far to the Meat Free Week misinformation comes from Tegan Kristine, a NSW beef producer in a youtube clip, Where does my meat come from? Tegan writes in the introduction to the youtube clip:

This Meat Free Week, Voiceless asks consumers to learn more about where our meat comes from. Come for a tour of Yandilla Beef Farm to find out more about beef production, animal welfare and the environment!

So let’s do just that and play the youtube, available at the link immediately above.

Cold heart response to Gulf fires

“I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

It may be unfair to say that animal rights activists love animals as a whole but could not love a single animal however from observation I do believe that animal rights organisations have no love for the people who actually do care for animals. Rather than just talk about animal welfare, those that walk the walk placing time, finance and emotional commitment into the direct care of animals are the farmers of this country; not only domestic animals raised for food for all Australians but also by cohabitation, native wildlife found on farms and especially through active rangeland management of larger cattle & sheep stations.

A measure of the love for another person, ideal or in this case animals can be the response to a single event especially one of some urgency. There is unfolding now an event of much urgency that has a high probability of a dire outcome. In the gulf area of north Queensland there have been fires of an epic scale. In the image below developed from the NAFI website compare the size of the shaded areas of fire events to the 100km scale on the lower left hand corner.

 

The Townsville Bulletin reported in its 22^nd December issue, Hope fades for Gulf Country miracle

CATTLE are dying slow deaths in the Gulf Country after bushfires of unprecedented ferocity reduced more than two million hectares of grazing land to scorched earth.

With no grass left, cattle are surviving on leaves and ash. On Kutchera Station 90 kilometres north-west of Georgetown at least 500 head have died, most of them from starvation. Weak cattle are bogging at the edges of waterholes where they become easy prey for the dingoes and pigs which have been quick to take advantage of this on-going calamity.

Rural Press reporter, Troy Rowling has written a comprehensive report complete with photos, Hard work up in smoke.

Seasonal rain, at least 2-4 inches (50-100mm), is needed to extinguish the last of the fires and begin the healing process.

However, the heavens are yet to respond.

At time of print, the seven day forecast saw no rain, the 28 day forecast saw no rain and the latest Bureau of Meteorology modelling does not indicate when the monsoon will move down.

If there is no seasonal rain, it is predicted the Etheridge Shire will require at least $500,000 every fortnight until there is rain to provide enough fodder to keep cattle on affected properties alive.

Queensland Country Life accompanied State Agriculture Minister John McVeigh as he took to a helicopter to visit affected properties last Thursday.

While in Georgetown he announced the Newman Government would immediately donate $100,000 to the Bendigo Bank Far North Queensland Bushfire Appeal to help affected Gulf Producers, which was also launched at Georgetown on Thursday.

Try putting yourself in the shoes of the owners and managers of stations burnt out in these areas; a fire that has left a bare blackened landscape horizon to horizon; of surviving cattle weak, staving and bogging at waterholes; of the despair of the situation and no short term outlook for rain. Then have a kick in the guts while you are down when yesterday PETA issued a media release of such jaw dropping ignorance and heartlessness that was published very widely including the Courier Mail and The Australian; this from the Townsville Bulletin, Prosecute farmers for cattle deaths: PETA.

Others have said it better than I could such as in this blog post, Ethical treatment of animals = unethical treatment of people

PETA’s response to this urgent circumstance is just so, so wrong. PETA’s action is that devoid of any humanity or love that it leaves in its wake a soul destroying carcass of cold empty despair.  

The human race is better than that, both in our treatment of each other and for animals under our care. To give credit where credit is due individual animal rights activists are raising awareness of the disaster in north Queensland on Animal Australia’s facebook page. These individuals are showing that even though they have a fundamental disagreement with the principle market for cattle from this area, live export, they are prepared to do what they can for the livestock in these areas.

 However to date the organisation Animals Australia has shown its alignment with PETA’s position by its stony silence to the unfolding events. Any funds spent by Animals Australia directly on animals for their welfare is very nominal as revealed by their own campaign material. Another organisation that professes love for animals in general but cannot transfer that to practical aid to an animal in need especially if it may indirectly help the real caregivers, farmers.  

If you are able to help here are the links to BendigoBank Far North Queensland Bushfire Appeal and to Aussie Helpers