by Tom Strachan, Managing Director
Tuesday 31st January 2012
2012 has been officially recognised as The Australian Year of the Farmer to celebrate our connections between rural and urban Australia.
The Year of the Farmer is timely, considering that our population continues to grow and with that, so does the increasing importance of food security.
We are all connected to farming in one way or another – the food we eat and the clothes we wear are a result from farming.
The resilience of the bush is inspiring – in the recent years, our farmers have battled natural disasters, economic turmoil, climate change and a host of other things, but it hasn’t changed the fact that they have adapted to these adversities and produced 220% more food on the same amount of land, compared to back in the 1950s.
Last year when AWX was celebrating our 10th year in business I was asked about the key to our success. Put simply, our culture is built on an ingrained Australian bush ethos and strong core values. In fact many of our internal staff hail from country origins.
Our AWX Agribusiness team works with some of Australia’s largest food producers to drive food production capacity to feed our growing population and expanding world.
The task of feeding and clothing a growing population is no small feat and we should acknowledge the agriculture and farming industry for not only sustaining our economy but for also the Australian way of life.
As a business, we should take a leaf from their book.
The Australian Year of the Farmer is set to educate and inspire everyone to get on board and support the people who feed us and the world.
Even though many of us are made up of beach-loving urbanites, it’s a fair argument to say that the strength and character so often seen amongst Australian businessmen, soldiers and people in general, comes from the bush.
Our resilience as a nation comes from our bush and pioneer heritage.
While our high profile resource industry (believe it or not, mining and energy makes up 8.4% of the economy while farming and agriculture makes up 12% of our GDP) often draws the attention away from our farming and agricultural sector in rural and regional Australia, we mustn’t forget the significance that this sector has for the country as a whole – culturally and economically.
Don’t let farming be our forgotten brother. Let’s get behind them.