DRAFT LETTER -Coles/Woolworths Price wars on fresh produce

Rowan Barber

ACCC

Dear Manager

Re: Coles/Woolworths Price wars on fresh produce

Coles supermarkets launched a marketing campaign http://www.coles.com.au/Stores-Services/Freshness-Super-Specials.aspx slashing the retail price of selected fresh produce.

As the State Manager of the Australian Sustainable Business Group, I have concerns about the impacts on the ecological and economic sustainability of food processing industries, if these short term behaviours by Coles (and/or Woolworths) affect the supply chain in the long term.

I fear the upstream impacts on Australian farmers and the viability of their businesses. I also fear the downstream impacts on consumers of a restriction of variety. i fear smaller retailers may be adversely impacted. My over arching concern is a cost driven impact on ecological sustainability of agriculture.

I would like Coles (and/or Woolworths) to pay fair and reasonable prices to Australian farmers.

i am interested to know what step the ACCC will take to regulate the behaviour of Coles and/or Woolworths to protect the long term interests of consumers, suppliers, competitors and processors in the fresh produce industry.

.

Yours sincerely

Rowan Barber

Look what they've done to Tenthill Creek

Like many others, I am trying to raise awareness of what is happening in SEQ to the riparian zones since the January flood.

I received this information and photos from a concerned resident in the Lockyer Valley who has been trying to prevent the Lockyer Valley Regional Council from clearing the whole of Tenthill Creek.

Much of the Lockyer Valley catchment has been cleared for farming purposes in the last 30 years, leaving very little natural vegetation in creeks.

Since the January flood the green light has been given to clear Black Fellows Creek (20 klms already cleared) and parts of Tenthill Creek,

I understand significant parts of Murphy's and Flagstone Creeks are also being cleared.

The Council appears to have very little understanding of how creek flood mitigation works. There is some hysteria, I suspect as an excuse and no real guidance has been provided by hydrologists.

The Lockyer Valley Regional Council (LVRC) and other Govt agencies have acted like environmental vandals.

Some Lockyer Valley residents have demanded creeks be cleared of vegetation in their submissions to the Flood Inquiry.

The Council and some farmers seem to have little or no interest in the protection or maintenance of creek riparian zones in this region. It has been reported that local farmers say all vegetation in creeks is rubbish and they want creeks maintained like drains.

This creates barren wastelands where creek eco systems should be. This week, Mayor Steve Jones said the Flood Inquiry Commission has requested a plan be produced to ensure all flood debris be removed from creeks in the Lockyer Valley before the next wet season. He also said he thought this was the most important recommendation to come out of the Inquiry (Gatton Star 3 August 2011).

I think this means bulldozers will be entering all the creeks in the Lockyer Valley/SEQ and clearing them wholesale. With the Flood Commission apparently providing no provisions for the protection of the riparian zones or common sense, creeks in the Lockyer Valley are likely to all turn into long, dusty drains. Fast running creeks during flooding can cause serious erosion, flash flooding further downstream and significant silting of weirs.

I can't believe this is happening in 2011, when there is so much knowledge about the effects of land clearing on stream quality and of the need to maintain natural creek beds to slow down heavy creeks flows, particularly in upper and middle catchments. Are you interested in doing something, to counter the push to turn SEQ creeks into dirt drains?

I'm interested in raising the issue more publically.

It breaks my heart to see what bulldozers have already done.

I can't imagine what is coming if LVRC have Govt sanction to 'clean up the creeks of debris' before the next wet season.

There is good sensible legislation in place to protect riparian zones in Qld which is not being explained or enforced.

This is what it used to look like:

Meet your meat

Meet Julie, Judy & Julia.

They are family pets.

They have food: grain & grass (most days). They have shelter (a little chook tractor). They have access to clean water.

They even have designated places to poo.

My chooks are better off than 2.5 billion people, who lack these basic human needs.

My chooks are loved. They get cuddled. They get pats. They are treated relatively well.

Tonight, we are eating some of their relatives.

I am cooking rustic simmered chicken from:

Hay, Donna (2008) No time to cook

.....and it makes me wonder.

Where did the chooks that we are about to eat, come from?

I bought them from the local Chop Shop. Did they live happy lives? Did they die humanely?

Probably not.

For all the controversy over live exports of cows to Indonesia, I have to wonder if the animals that I eat, are any better or worse off than the cows in Indonesia shown on 4corners??!!!

John Safran demonstrates some this in his cooking video.

Michael Pollan is an author (& a Journalist) who wrote the Omnivore's Dilemna, using his investigative journalist's skills to trace his industrial food chains back to the farms where his food is grown.

My journey might be a little easier, since a lot of my food is sourced from Food Connect. I make an attempt to grow some our food in the back yard with mixed success. I am successfully cultivating possums.

I am conscious that different foods have higher carbon footprints and water footprints then others. Obviously anything that is refrigerated or transported vast distances is going to have higher embodied energy & water.

I try to buy local food, that is in season.

.....However, when I see folks vehemently opposed to live exports of cattle from Northern Australia to Indonesia, I wonder if they have thought through the alternatives.

If Australians ban live cattle exports, other countries may fill the gap in the market.

Selling chilled meat to a country where refrigeration is both limited & expensive may not be viable.

There is quite a lot of folks in Indo. Around 240 million, I believe. Growing food locally may not be all that practical. Relying on ever depleting fish stock presents another problem.

As I ponder these things, I am raising more questions than I am answering concerning social justice, animal welfare, food security, vegetable rights & peace.

Sam Neill were we meant to eat him?

We are what we eat.

Have you met your meat?