When is Drought Relief a Cynical Ploy?
Wed 17 Jan 2007
A letter sent to someone who thought shopping at ww on the 23rd was a good
idea...
Thank you sending on the 'buy at WW for drought relief' campaign email. The drought is indeed a serious thing that requires all of us to rethink our habits and comfort needs and to get speedily and practically active.
Yes you are right when you say that you know that I have strong thoughts about WW in Maleny, but that you think the drought relief campaign by WW is a good thing to support. I understand your sentiment behind your support of farmers and wanting to do something. I share that with you. However I have strong thoughts about big corporations and how they kill small towns and how they destroy farmers. It's not a spirit of 'Malenyism' and 'oh how dare they come into our SO co-operative community'. It's far deeper. The drought problem is a far more complex one. I hope you will read on.
It was amazing the support I got from my sticker of 'Woolworths I won't shop there' when I drove through farming communities and small towns including petrol stations!!! when I went on my 2 month Tassie and back trip last year travelling through outback QLD, VIC, SA, TASSIE and NSW.
I guess I was also quite a phenomenon in my little Mazda metro 121 'mini-and-pseudo-motorhome' (my personal conversion with passenger seat and back seat flat to sleep in and all my boxes and eskie, cooker, pots and pans stashed behind the drivers seat!) a stark contrast to the grey nomad rigs of disproportionate size, equipped with
satellite dishes, DVD's flatscreen TV's, generators to run all the appliances with in the wilderness....etc etc... a nightmare really sharing pristine natural spaces with noise producing people like that...but that's another story!
Even the wharfie who guided me to my parking bay on the ferry asked me if I had more stickers!!!! and gave me a rave about Tassie farmers having driven their tractors across to the mainland to Canberra to protest against the practices of big corporations, WW and Coles-Myer. Many said, 'I wish there were more conscious and aware people in Australia like you'.
I was stunned. I had not expected such awareness and support for the sticker and the issues it raised!
The BIG problem to our farmers is that Woolworths and Coles (and big canneries) do not have a policy of buying from local farmers. They are profit driven. They have viscious undercutting powers and profits to hold out 10 year losses in small towns they infiltrate until they have monopoly on the market and all small local businesses have gone broke. The offer cheaper prices to local consumers until that happens and then the prices go up. There have been price comparisons done that prove this over and over again. Ghost towns are the result with a loss of diversity of product and fruit and vege species marketed.
With the centralisation of the food industry, shelf life rather quality 'fresh' produce is the deciding factor. Most fresh food cannot stay 'fresh' when it is transported from all corners of Australia let alone the globe. Did you know that garlic comes from CHina, Sugar, Pineapple, Bananas (just to mention a few) all come from overseas! That's why our farmers are selling up land along the coast where ever they can to developers! Good fertile, rained upon coastal strips are being covered with concrete! because the farmers cannot sell their produce!!!!! How insane is that! And when they have signed contracts with the big companies, they cannot even sell on their rejected produce to others.
This is a world wide phenomenon. TESCO is the WW equivalent in GB and Malmart in US.
In contrast our local IGA (and others around the country I noticed) donates to local clubs and charities weekly and buys local fruit, vege, etc and cottage industry products with good prices to the producers. I know because some of my friends are primary producers and were stunned at the high prices they were offered by the IGA manager for their figs, mangoes, jams and preserves as opposed to the co-ops they sell to normally (that sell on to Coles and Woolworths -with all their demands for sizing, quotas, packaging etc and very low prices to the producer).
Anyway I have attached the Maleny Voice website at the bottom with some interesting articles....scroll down and there is an article on WW's tactics. I think a lot of people are not informed. WW have bad press recently for their intimidation practices of other liquor outlets as well and have been to court and fined. Of course they will do anything to lift their profile. If you look at the profits of WW, one day's profit donation is absolutely nothing but more of a PR exercise.
It's unfortunate I tossed all the stats that came through months ago. Otherwise I would forward them on to you, so that you can see for yourself. Coles-Myers, Aldi etc are not a positive alternative either. They all buy overseas from poorer economies and so our local farmers cannot compete with Asian etc prices of pineapple, oranges etc etc.....the consequence is that they bulldoze in their crops! That is outrageous AND CRIMINAL when half the world is starving and our farmers are suicidal. It is hypocritical of WW to have a 'donate to the drought crisis' appeal by shopping at their stores on a particular day! If every consumer read labels and enquired where the fruit and vege (contents) came from before they bought 'fresh', packaged or tinned, that would be an interesting exercise and many people would be in for a shock.
The drought is only part of a total mismanagement of our resources and greedy practices forced on farmers by the impossible contracts that these big corporations slap on them and don't honour when they can source food from other countries at lower prices still. And of course we see the consequences of that to those countries and their already exploited workers on our news and current affairs programs. Unfortunately most of us don't make the link of poverty and starvation around the globe to our consumer practices in affluent Western cultures.
As an aside did you also know that the mining/coal industries use billions of litres of piped fresh drinking water to wash their machinery and water the roads daily to reduce the dust!!!! One asks where government priorities lie really! Water for farmers and food production or for the mining industry boom and the buying power that creates for food and other cheap imports! that exploit workers overseas for our consumption needs!!!?!
If WW were really sincere about the drought and wanting to help farmers, they would offer our farmers decent money for their produce and then make do with less profit and pass on decent prices to the consumers. They would buy locally where ever they build a new store in country towns. That would set up a win-win situation for all. And then consumers would really have 'fresh' food. And then we would not have depression and suicide rates climbing in our farming communities. Cos it's not only the drought that is the problem for our farmers!!!!
So, when WW (and Coles-Myers) change their priorities from profit at all cost to supporting small businesses (and farmers) in 'real terms' I will participate in a shop at Woolies day. But that is a looooong way off unfortunately. I wish it were different. So in the meantime I source my living needs from local businesses, markets, primary producers and the IGA. I also grow my own fruit and vege wherever possible. When I travel I do the same and have for done so for the past 40 years of my adult life.
My dream is that when everybody starts doing that, making conscious consumer choices consistently then our farmers will start to smile again as they will be able to come back to more sustainable practices! That would bring the big corporations down to their knees to more responsible and sustainable practices. I would rather be surrounded by small farmers than blocks of trimmed lawns and concrete. I would rather forgo my out of season craving for bananas or apples for other seasonal and local produce. And maybe then there will enough food to eat for the whole world as exploitation of land and people stops. I believe in the power of 'from little things big things grow' you know that song. And it never ceases to amaze me how little steps make huge waves and ripples and repercussions for good and for not so good of course too.
There is a great film too, called "the Corporation". You may be able to get it at a video store. Very interesting.
So I will not support this campaign. Instead I will make the effort to adopt a farmer by buying their produce from a locally owned business rather than from a CEO owned business with luxurious salaries and offices in a big city, focused on profit and creating market monopolies.
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