THE Sunraysia district is a food bowl, perhaps the largest in Australia if we include the NSW bank of the Murray River.
It is a powerhouse of initiative, innovation and risk-taking.
Of course, we are not unique in this respect, but we are certainly a lot more than sheep and wheat, the two main drivers of Australian agriculture.
In an ideal world, we could certainly do a lot more about value-adding in this vast and diverse area.
Markets are always amenable to new value added food products.
Take, for example, Sunraysia’s Australian Garlic Producers — any less-than-perfect garlic is used by the company to extract oil that is used to produce garlic oil pills.
These pills are the first to be Australian made and are stocked by Woolworths (and soon, Coles).
Not only has the company replaced significant quantities of Chinese garlic imports, it is now value-adding with the pills and other garlic products.
In a world of frequent pandemics, the excellent qualities of garlic can certainly help the respiratory system and enhance general wellbeing.
Tabletop Grapes has long been producing dried table grapes for domestic consumption and export.
I was excited seeing a similar development in Robinvale, where the last of the table-grape harvest, which is possibly not perfect for export, is being dried in massive dehydrators and turned into beautiful clusters.
What’s more, the evaporation is collected into tanks, filtered and bottled.
Platinum Potatoes has acquired machinery to peel, dice or slice potatoes, which are vacuum-packed without chemicals.
We need a lot more of these value-adding businesses to protect this region from the vagaries of international market fluctuations.
The current political dispute with China could spell big trouble for local growers.
At any rate, we remain massive producers, even during COVID-19.
The trucks from here kept delivering food to the capital cities while people there were in lockdown.
The question is: why are we not hailed as the most wonderful region in Victoria, with all this emphasis on food in all the media and on popular programs such as MasterChef?
And why, most importantly, are we struggling to be politically relevant?
From my perspective, this is not a discussion about political representation, it is not about one political colour against another.
It is about the effectiveness of our representation. In truth, all our representatives have struggled to get what we need.
Yes, there is the odd exception at election time, when a little pork-barrelling happens, but no one can say that generally our political reps have it easy at obtaining what we want and need.
Screaming at Spring Street or Canberra does not seem to help.
We have some of our local reps voicing their frustration in a strident fashion that in any case does not make friends, no matter how justified.
The single person “scream” is easily ignored.
It is regarded as an ego trip seeking the limelight and dismissed — and it is not very stylish.
