Peter-

That sucks. I feel for you. I grew up in the country, and i know that farming can be a pretty thankless ordeal sometimes, and that un-nuanced government regulation can make it a lot worse. You are obviously a pretty perceptive guy- you understand that your future livelihood depends on respecting your animals, the land and the environment, that those things go hand in hand. But let me ask you this- Do you think that that's true for the majority of farmers?

I don't. For a case study in farmer greed and environmental indifference check out the Victorian Alpine graziers, kicking up a stink because they'll no longer be getting a free ride to destroy the Alpine National Park. Unfortunately, in the national dialogue between farmers and environmentalists, jerks like that are too loud, while people like yourself are too loud. Governments can't legislate for the exception, and regulations that might be grossly unfair on you may well be perfectly justified for others.

I feel for you, but I'm not convinced that you're a representative Australian farmer.

Peter
No doubt KRS is a farmer and understands the land Ah?Peter I FEEL FOR YOU and good for you with all you have been through to mention the cruel intensive farming. Not only do i feel for you i would like to take you on board my Company. Its a pleasure to meet you.
Together we will get this country back on its feet. We NEED MEN like you. The farmers cared for the land and bush for many years. To be fair Peter its true they cut too many trees down. We BOTH know that. However they also controlled the bush fires and the weeds with their stock. please See re free range share farms and back to the old days
www.halakindmeats.com

The tale of troubles shared by Mr Spence is all too commonly heard Australia wide. I am aware of many similar stories where a series of decisions made by Governments have resulted, at best in sub optimal outcomes or at worst perverse outcomes.

Governments have responded to environmental issues in of two ways, stop all activity or heavily regulate the activity so the cost and time required to meet the regulations means it is very difficult to continue to undertake that activity.

But why has this happened? I believe there are a number of reasons why Governments action has created the situation Mr Spence described. First, the underlying science is not fully understood. Too often a piece of valuable scientific work is taken out of context or more usually the work is taken as being definitive and is declared as providing the final definitive answer. Policy makers ignore nuances and assumptions associated with the work. The whole situation is becomes further complicated because it is difficult to find funds to continue research in these areas once the science is declared by the policy makers to be definitive and final.

Second, there has been a failure in the development of other approaches, particularly the idea that landowners should be good land managers and would need little or regulation.

By and large, the Government’s attempts to support the good land managers have failed. That failure is then the basis for the argument that land managers need to be heavily regulated.

Third, Governments fail to appreciate that no matter what the land tenure, the land still has to be managed. It is naïve to believe that a parcel of land can be declared a reserve and all is well. In general, the more restrictive the land use, the more difficult the management.

In the final analysis, it is easier to regulate than to manage. It is easier to say no than to say yes. It is easy to say no and pass the cost and risk to someone else than to say yes and bear a share of the cost and risks.

To KRS. I take it your no longer in the counrty. Have you noticed the country abattoirs all closing? Ever wondered why?The jobs that goes with one sheep> involves the wool off its back and those jobs, then the hides and tanniers and those jobs .Trucking , meat ,bone rooms electrians plumbers to mention a few. Pluss animals need to be free range not locked up in the mostly appauling conditions out of the publics eye. What is more important? Free range animals and jobs for Australians with animals slaughtered as close as possible [or a few plants.?? Dont you know thats part of the Governments deals to encourage live exports. Why would they do that? You would have to ask Alaxanda Downer and Vaile that but i would say its something to do with the trade dollar and donations back to their party from the evil bastards taking Australian jobs and creating increditable suffering that is totally unnessary to Australian Animals . The Greens do not support live exports i know but the carry on about free range and running some cattle where they have run for hundreds of years is too much.You complain about a few plants in front of that. Get over it. Tourism and jobs for Ausies is what we need out there and plenty of it.Farmers are very trusting and totally naive of our cruel Goverments ways. Its time to form another party KRS one made up of you guys and us. Something tells me if we leave the Goverment out things will go a lot better. We work direct with overeas contacts There is no law against that>>> YET http://www.halakindmeats.com/aussiehero.html
please read about what farmers know.kRS peter is clearly one of those farmers.

Wendy-

The Alpine graziers were a convenient target, but perhaps not the best one. I'm still not convinced that I should feel any sympathy for them, but I agree with you that modern, so-called 'Green Revolution' intensive farming techniques are a greater threat, and that the type of operations you and Peter are running (free-range, environmentally friendly) are the way things need to go. But will operations like yourselves and Peters ever be anything more than a very minor slice of the Australian farming pie? It would be nice, but I doubt it.

For the record, I grew up on a small hobby farm, but am no longer there. All our beasts were free-range, fully organic and butchered humanely on site. Couldn't agree more about the live exports, but just out of interest, aren't most live exports for halal purposes? How do you guys get around that?

Where there is bleeting, there is another poor old farmer, down on his luck, overregulated, can't make any money, why stay, why not sell up and move to civilisation? Surely with 10 years of National Party in Government, all your "red tape" woes should be gone, unless......the red tape is needed after all. They reckon workers whinge, and we do with good reason, but try as we may, we will never come close to the poor old farmer, drought relief, flood relief, taxation relief, oh poor us, the farming community...