Farmers need our help

With the Listeria outbreak earlier this year and now the whole problem of tampered strawberries, on top of a drought affecting much of the country, Australian farmers and their respective industries are suffering badly.

Being a farmer isn’t just a job , it is who they are. Most were raised on that farm and have being doing it since they could walk and they are raising their children in it as well.

It is no wonder that many farming families are not only struggling on their properties but are considering chucking it in altogether.

But if they do chuck it all in, what do they do next and just as importantly what do we do as a nation when that business isn’t around anymore contributing food into our economy and supermarkets, and money into it’s local town.

We can buy foods from overseas, but is that really the best for us all?

They and their communities need our help.

Buy Australian produce whenever you have the choice, especially when there are things like this strawberry tampering, where  we can buy the products and cut them up to ensure they are safe.

Go on a long weekend out in the country and stay at a country hotel, have some meals at the café and check out the tourist haunts.Your money is helping keep locals employed, which puts more money into the community and keeps businesses like the servo, hotel, café, chemist and Doctor open.

We have to put our money where our mouths and Facebook posts are – support our farmers and their local communities.

This tampering is serious and it is a police matter. The person / people who did this originally will eventually be found and punished as required. The very sad thing is that there are people out there now who think it is all just funny and are doing hoaxes, and not only with strawberries but other fruit. Not funny, it’s just stupid. It is just making a bad situation for our farmers and their communities much much worse – stop it, no one is laughing.