“THEY’RE doing it so tough out there.”
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It has become the stultifying catch-cry of coverage of this drought.
“We’re doing it for the farmers,” they say, doing whatever they can other than divine water from the sky.
“We’re helping,” they implore.
The drought is nothing new, the toughness and and resourcefulness it breeds is not uncommon.
However, as water is inexorably sucked from the earth, it seems memory, too, has evaporated.
Everyone is quite limber and able to give themselves a felicitous pat on the back after they’ve raised a few dollars for a fabled farmer.
The pangs of generosity bite hard when times are tough.
While it is visibly tougher, it makes you wonder where this adoration for the farmer was when they were arguing for fairer prices for their produce.
If you can support a farmer now because virtue is in vogue, you can do it when rivers are flowing and grass is abundant and green.
Find out where your food comes from, buy local where you can and demand better from the supermarkets.
Support a farmer, when it rains and when it doesn’t.
We do it tough all the time in regional Australia. We have to demand basic services and our health is always poorer than metropolitan people.
That’s why it’s important to support local businesses, including farmers.
The more support you give them, the more they can provide for us.
Retail is Tamworth’s second-largest industry and in these dry times it will get tougher for those businesses.
Many businesses spoke ahead of the chamber awards, this weekend, about the hit they’ve felt from a farming sector reluctant to spend cash.
While it was great to the see some local leaders in business lauded, it’s important to keep the generosity flowing now and into the future when times aren’t as harsh.
If you’re looking for a way to help out, look local, now and always.