NFF's farmgate flattery
While farmers struggle, Canberra is toasting to their success.
We have a saying in rural Australia: "We'll keep our cow shit in the country, if you keep your bullshit in the city". Canberra is no metropolis, yet can be a strong producer of the latter. Last month, I was blown away by our national peak farming body, the National Farmers' Federation looking very at home in the Canberra bubble it so regularly criticises, and generating some high-quality BS of its own.
The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) hosted a celebration on August 17 in the Great Hall in Parliament House with more than 300 leaders from across government, agriculture and other business, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor. The revelry was in honour of the sector's signature achievement of hitting $100 billion in farmgate output, and doing so four years earlier than planned.
The NFF created this target back in 2015. The industry was sitting at $53.6 billion of farm-gate output at the time and the $100 billion figure was conceived as an aspirational rallying cry. "The NFF has a vision to double the farmgate value of agriculture to $100 billion by 2030," it said.
At $100 billion, farmers would presumably have earned their seat at the adults' table, alongside nationally significant industries like coal and iron ore whose exports at that time were worth roughly $100 billion combined.
