get real -

farming is a punt just like on the horses.

if the punt is too big, the crop punters should take out insurance or partners

-  no cause for looting the treasury - if you start a little there is no end to it - where do you draw the line. people should take responsibility for their own lives - not rely on an incompetent nanny state.

because the treasury is looted to prop up forestry & a big stinker is no reason to subsidise some or all agriculture or will bleeding hearts draw a line somewhere.

nor is there a case to compulsorily wack industry levies on production to cover some misfortunes by some punters.

these occasions is what farm tax averaging & income equalisation bonds & other taxation arrangements etc. are for - the politicians could if they wished make them more attractive.

and in the end all public assistance , including land tax, rate concessions etc.is compounded into land values & gives buyers & sellers of farm land an unrealistic view of land prices

& encourages farming on marginal land, increases in production & the additional supply stuffs up the prices other farmers can get from farming on better more reliable land (which is effectively devalued).

In Launceston this week, a Climate Change conference was told there are great opportunities, and it is not too difficult, to adapt to the effets of climate change.  The conference, which is touring a carefully selected group of speakers around the country, is sponsored by Shell Petroleum. 

News items like the above, and in a thousand large and small instances - the Pakistan floods, the loss of the Russian wheat crop last summer, the soaring food prices that for better or worse have destabilized Africa and Western Asia in the last year, all point to something that is far beyond our ability to “adapt”.

150 million people will need to relocate in the next 30 years, due to rising seas.  Billlions will die if temperatures rise to four degrees, they are currently approaching 2 degrees, the damage now is caused by carbon releases of 20 years ago. 

The fossil fuel industry, along with deforestation, are now the enemies of human survival.  They need to be closely watched and vigorously challenged, and their propaganda confronted at every turn.

Having waited for and worried about a second event following the January flood and to hear a lifelong farmer friend talk of selling up, I have some inkling. 

Still, the TFGA stood strongly on private property rights when they could have joined in the attempt to conserve forests and included some of their forests with high conservation values, adequately compensated for of course.

I am not sure what the position on the climate and paying a price for pollution but if as a body they wish to limit these sort of impacts they should speak out for comprehensive, effctive nd timely reductions in CO2 from fossil fuel burning and forest degradation and destruction.

Simply putting out the begging bowl with some social responsibility by the TFGA is unacceptable Ms Davis.

A little bit off topic I know but if I hear any mention of ‘severe weather EVENTS’ or ‘heavy rain EVENTS’ I think that I will scream!!!!!!!

I’m all for helping out our farmers with handouts during a tough year.  That is, if they help the rest of us by paying a `sponging farmer’ levy during the good years.  50% of profits would be fair - after all, many of our rural folk earn upwards of $1 million each year from poppies alone.

Will Tasmanian potatoe farmers be getting more for their potatoes from processors, Coles and Woolies similarly to the banana farmers after the cyclone where we are now seeing prices like $12-$15kg?

Somehow, I doubt it.

Fluctuating currency prices affect my business, so when the dollar plummets, may I have some compo too?

Let private enterprises structure themselves to survive whatever obstacles they face.

As soon as government gets involved, the innefficiency, waste and corruption starts.