Farmers

A music video clip done by a friend of mine to highlight how dumb it would be for Chinese company Shenhua to build a giant coal mine on the Liverpool Plains. She wrote and sings the song herself.

I supplied a few of the photos, you might recognise some from my old farm threads, and it is also my video footage of the wheat harvest, taken on my farm just a month ago by a drone.



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Just a lot of nice photos of farming, kids, families, and whatnot for whoevers interested and share it around if you want.
Enjoy.


See ya's.

 

Interesting TC, the credits at the end mention paying respects to the traditional owners, Kamillaroi past and present.
Are they ok with farmers taking their land around 200 years ago?

Signing the dotted line means at least the present owners (mainly white farmers) will be compensated. Not like being murdered and run off their land & abused.

I guess we've all moved on from that now though ?

Just a thought.

I can see both sides and agree it's always going to be controversial, anything to do with mines and those in their path.

 

It's more to do with the Liverpool ranges being one of the major food bowls of Australia ... can't eat coal

 

Yeah. Dunno? It's just a music clip. Not wanting to get real heavy, Guns beat spears in the end I suppose? It all happened a long time ago eh? Any indigenous around here would have more white blood than black. I suppose they can have a foot in both camps, or else they wouldn't even exist would they? [What on earth has this got to do with the music clip anyway?]

Sign the dotted line refers to the coal mine being given the final go-ahead. Farmers who had land that would be dug up, as you'd know were bought out many years ago, for massive prices. 5 times the land values! And who'd knock that back? Not me.

I just lent some photos and a tiny bit of video. It was not ment by me as some big statement about what I thought of digging up the plains. But since you mentioned it, yep, I think it's ridiculous to let a Chinese government owned company buy up and dig up this land. There isn't even a single shareholder to hold them accountable. They don't even have to make a profit. They can quite merrily go ahead and dig up this land and coal at a loss to keep coal prices low to Australia's detriment and China's benefit. The BHP mine at Caroona won't go ahead. Nor will many others. It would be economic madness with current coal prices and a CEO who is accountable and able to be sacked by shareholders.

This is different. It's Government owned. Nothing to do with anti Chinese or anything. Shenhua should be paid back the 600 million or whatever they paid, plus interest, and be on their way back home.

See ya's.

 

Thanks TC. Love the farm shots, particularly the wheat harvest

 

It's magic driving just in the foothills between Pine Ridge and Bundella and looking out over the black soil plains. It's ironical that some past National Party leaders have got on the boards of mining companies.

 

Guns beat spears
Nice.
It did happen a long time ago.
200 years from now will be a long time ago too.


Can't eat coal.
True.
Can't cook without it either.
Liverpool plains hosts a few coal mines already so nothing to do with food bowl IMO, but that's a convenient and emotional tag for sympathy I guess.

I'm with the current half casts TC mentions, a foot in both camps.
Oh and TC, where did I mention you making a big statement about digging up the plains?
I thought I was just making a few points about some of the messages in the video. Nothing to do with your supply of photos to such.
Settle mate, everyone has an opinion.

 

It's an interesting one, I'd like to see farmers and miners rape and pillage the land in harmony together
They've both cleared virgin bush and do come with their risks, it's how they're managed and what's the more viable and financial option. Farming isn't innocent from environmental impacts either.
We obviously have something China (and Asia) wants so we as country should really take control and keep as much as possible in aussie hands.

Shenua is to close to Sydney,so there would be a lot of extra "noise" from the city slickers and ecoterrorists who go out there for wine and concert weekends.

 

Farming and mining are the two primary industries that supply every human on the planet with every bit of food, energy and manufactured good. Anyone who is against either should immediately show their displeasure, by doing something constructive about it. Commit suicide right away.

Anyway, seriously, we all know that farming and mining are going to have environmental impacts. Always have and always will. And with another 80 million extra humans coming into existence each and every year it's just going to continue. The aim should be to limit how bad the effects are from each.

It is my opinion that starting a brand new coal mine, in the middle of Australia's must productive farmland, farmland that is unique due to soil type and water aquifer type, A mine owned by a Chinese government with no shareholders, in the depths of a coal glut, at the start of possibly a permanent structural decline in coal, is a really really dumb thing to do.

There is plenty of coal about. Coal under land that will only run a billy goat to 100 acres. Dig that up instead, and make sure it's mined by a company that has to make a profit, not one that could easily mine it at a loss and not be accountable to anyone, which is Shenyua.


See ya's.

 

With respect, as always with you TC. I understand and mostly agree with you on Shenua.

These days I dont eat wheat, sorghum, sunflower, canola, fabia beans or any of the crops grown around us on the liverpool plains, I do wear cotton, I use electricity powered by coal, but I really, really love to eat goat !
Please dont dig up the goat farmers property !

Merry Xmas TC.

 

Well! I'm amazed mate. Didn't think you'd ever give up the booze? Beer made from barley. Whiskey too. Musta been tough? Don't think I could do it.

Yeah, you too.

See ya's.

 

Ah ya got me, Beer yes, but whiskey blahhh yuk!

While we are on grains, how do you see the current paleo/primal trend affecting grain demand in the future?
I know it's a big movement (pardon the pun) and people are finding out on masse they are in no need of the amounts of grain like conventional wisdom advises.

I guess 80m population growth will take care of any drop off from healthier eating but what if everyone reduces their grain demand dramatically?

 

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None at all. It would be a tiny percentage of the worlds population who have a choice what to eat. The fact that you choose not to eat grains is only because you are in a wealthy western nation with thousands of other food choices. It's also a luxury to eat grassfed meat as you do. Most chicken, beef, pork etc is grain fed. Not every country has such vast low value grazing areas that we do in Australia. Do you eat pork or chicken? Hard to believe it wouldn't be grain fed? What about dairy. All dairy cows are fed grain. Pure grass just doesn't do it, no matter how green or lush it is.

I suppose this is a whole new subject, however didn't pre-historic man eat grains? I'd reckon he'd eat whatever the hell he could find and in between the odd times when there was fresh meat from a hunting success. I'd picture the women would be gathering grass seeds to grind down to eat. Grass seeds from the ancient decendants that have since been bred into our current grains. Of which just 3, wheat, corn, and rice make up 60% of the human caloric intake when grain that is fed to animals is included. I've even found rounded out flat rocks out on the black soil plains where there are no rocks for many ks. I'd just assumed this would have been aboriginals grinding up grass seeds with other rocks?

Lastly, I gotta admit that you are the only bloke I've heard of on a paleo diet. Perhaps it's the circle of friends I keep? So, no, I don't see it effecting grain demand.


See ya's.

 

Might be time you guys had a bit better look into paleo and not simplify it as caveman only and fob it off because you don't know anyone doing it.
Like you said TC, I have a thousand choices for food intake.
I choose to eat not as much grains as most people.
I also choose to be not strict in this.
Why do you guys insist on pigeon holing paleo type diets as so strict to say things like coffee wouldn't be allowed?
That's pure ignorance and shooting from the hip on a subject you both admit to not really knowing anyone who participates in, therefore why try and discredit it ?
Sugar is the main dietary flaw for most people, along with too many carbs. Cut these back and take in more fruits and vegetables and don't be afraid of meat and that puts me more in the paleo or primal camp than conventional wisdom nutritionist advisory would have us.

Anyway, what I eat is not relevant in this discussion at all. It's the question I asked about, whether it may affect demand in grain which eventually we got to.
But since things got personal then May I suggest anyone with a weight problem may well benefit from looking into it. I know plenty of people who have and it's turned their lives around, even just being 70/30 and not 100%.
It's working for millions of people so I'm not the only one.

Give it a go, won't hurt.
Oh and you can still have a few seeds, only enough you can grind up with those rocks in the paddock though.

 

Great ideas here. But artichokes? You couldn't give them away 15 years ago. Has everyone now ripped out the artichoke vines up the back?

 

I'm not sure how or where you thought I got personal? And I know nothing about Paleo diets. I was just having a discussion, answering what you asked? Best leave it at that.


See ya's.

 

No oyster wine but Murrays Brewery made an Oyster Stout which was quite pleasant.