BIOSECURITY, advocacy and education dominated conversation at the Victorian Farmer’s Federation (VFF) farmer gathering held in Cohuna recently.
Presented by VFF vice president Danyel Cucinotta and VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy, the farmer meeting, held at the Bower Tavern in Cohuna, was attended by around 20 local farmers and community members.
The floor was thrown open to whatever the attendees wished to discuss, with the conversation initially lending itself to the prevalent issue of foot and mouth disease (FMD).
“It’s so important that from a farmers level, we all understand our responsibilities when it comes to protecting our industry from the potentially devastating impacts of a biosecurity incursion,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“Our role at the VFF is act as a link between farmers and key decisions makers to ensure our needs and concerns as an industry are listened to.”
Ms Cucinotta explained that the VFF was doing a lot of advocacy at the moment in regards to national and statewide FMD policies, such as getting foot mats and biosecurity zones in airports, messaging and checks on planes coming in from countries of concern, and successfully getting every single package coming in from Indonesia and China checked for FMD fragments.
“When viral fragments of FMD were detected Victoria, what that told me was, yes it was very concerning, but it actually told me the system worked, because the fact that they found it tells me that they are doing the checks they are meant to be doing,” Ms Cucinotta said.
But FMD wasn’t the only biosecurity threat for Australia, with lumpy skin disease (LSD) also a major concern despite the somewhat lack of media attention it has gotten in comparison to FMD.
“I want to highlight that as scary as FMD is at this current moment, it is 11.8 percent chance of coming into Australia in 10 years. LSD is closer to 29 percent, which is of obvious concern,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“So whilst FMD is the hot topic, LSD, I would say, is actually a more of an imminent concern.”
Ms Cucinotta added that all farmers should have a biosecurity plan to help not only protect themselves, but also the wider industry.
“If you do not have a biosecurity plan, you’re essentially operating without a safety net. If you don’t have a biosecurity plan you won’t be eligible for a permit,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“Should the worst occur, you will not move milk, grain or livestock – you won’t do anything.”
According to the AUSVET Plan, which is signed off by the Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) of every state, if there is a biosecurity incursion, there will be a complete stock standstill for a minimum of 72 hours from when the incursion in discovered. Once all the tracing has taken place, then a permit system would be enacted.
Ms Cucinotta said that while they need to be getting the facts to farmers and the wider public, the VFF also has responsibility not to cause unnecessary worry about FMD and LSD.
“The VFF has a responsibility to balance the act of making the general public aware of the concerns around a potential biosecurity incursion and assuring there is no panic within the community that may reduce consumption of our quality product,” she said.
Another major concern of the attendees at the meeting was the ongoing issue of educating their metropolitan counterparts about agriculture. But Ms Cucinotta believes they are in a good position at the moment in terms of this, with recent food shortage scares due to COVID and natural disasters making people more conscious of where their food is actually coming from.
“People in Melbourne have become better aware of where their food comes from, because the moment we strip the shelves, we as consumers realise very quickly how vulnerable we actually are,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“What this has done is helped us communicate to metro Melbourne why food prices have been so low for so long and why consumers are experiencing price rises at their local supermarket.”
