Feeding Australians with Australian Food at a Fair Price … but most of all …

Today I sit here in my office typing this …

11 years ago today I was doing the exact same thing.

Sitting in this same office doing some work on the computer at about 6.30 pm my son asked to go out to the paddock to help his Pop and was going to pick up some small rocks.

He had taken the 4 Wheeler out to the paddock so he could put his little rocks on and he loved the thought that he was helping us.

We are farmers and times were not that easy. I was in the office working on a new project to hopefully bring some much needed money into the farm….

We’d had a bad year with the spuds and the pack-outs on the swedes were pitiful.

And when times get tough and finances dry up you have to do everything yourself you cannot afford to pay people.

My Son was 6; it was 2002 and it was 27th of November He loved the farm as do I … It’s in your bones.

My son never came home that night … he died in our paddock picking up rocks so we could plant more crops. He died doing something for us that we could not afford to pay anyone to do …

Farming is still in my bones … as my son is and always will be in my heart.

He is not the only child to have lost his life on a farm and there have been many more children since.

As a farmer it is your life; this is not a 9-to-5 job but it is a job I love and a job that has cost me my son’s life.

I believe there is a future in this industry and it all comes down to our government and our supermarkets to DO the right thing.

I hope that one day companies can pay farmers a decent price for their produce.

I hope that one day politicians really will give a damn.

I hope that one day farmers can again be the backbone of our great country and make a living from doing what we love; and make our farms a safer place for our kids.

Feeding Australians with Australian Food at a Fair Price.

But most of all I wish I still had my Son …

Kathy Dudley, earlier on Tasmanian Times: It’s time for Aussie Aisles