To create her book, she made the huge effort of travelling thousands of kilometres to visit hundreds of farms in one year. To launch it, she dialled it in.
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Author-photographer Alice Mabin and some of the region’s farmers met up again – in cyberspace – as deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack launched The Grower from the Nationals’ party room in Canberra this morning.
Four farmers whose stories and photos are in it took part in the videoconference from Tamworth’s council chambers: Jack and Ben Hewitt of Kelvin, and Adrian Spencer and Howard Carter of Barraba.
Those at the Canberra end included NSW Nationals chairman Bede Burke and New England branch chairman Russell Webb, also producers who appear in The Grower.
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Ms Mabin said she produced the book because she “wanted to capture the voice and essence of our farmers” and remind people “supermarkets don’t magically create the fruit, vegetables and meat that we buy and eat every day”.
Mr McCormack praised Ms Mabin for her work and for her pledge to donate $3 from every book sale to Buy A Bale.
“So not only are you a talented and inspirational person, but you’re also a very generous person,” he said.
He said The Grower should be on the table of every boardroom so that people would “know the value of agriculture and know the value of agricultural regions”.
‘What we really want’
Mr Hewitt told Mr McCormack the book had been “really needed … to showcase the farmers and the growers”.
Mr Spencer said it was “a wonderful book, great for agriculture” and a “bright light” in the tough conditions.
He took the opportunity to tell the deputy PM that while “we certainly appreciate what the Nationals are doing” to support farmers, “what we want is fodder”.
“We want to be able to feed our livestock – a lot of us have got flocks and herds that have been built up over generations, and the main thing we want is access to fodder, because that’s the future of a lot of operations.”
Mr McCormack acknowledged “you don’t want to destock”.
“I know a lot of farmers have had to, but that’s then three years to build up your herd again, so that’s obviously critical,” he said.
However, his only reference to drought assistance was: “There’s more that we can and must do, and we certainly will.”
“There’s never a day goes by that it doesn’t get discussed in the party room, in this parliament, and the new Prime Minister Scott Morrison made it front and centre of his agenda and he’s living that agenda through as well.”