The Wire

A convoy of tractors is slowly making its way around southern Australia at the moment, as part of the Fair Dinkum Food campaign, which is highlighting the plight of Australian farmers who are struggling to compete with cheap imports. They’ve spent the last ten days visiting towns in Victoria and are about to bring their message to New South Wales—with everything culminating on the 11th of August at a rally outside Parliament House in Canberra. Critics of the campaign argue it’s nothing more than protectionism, and say the farmers are just using emotianal blackmail to get consumers to buy their product. But campaign members argue this is about the very future of the Australian Food Industry. Tasmanian farmer Matthew Young talked about what it’s like out on the road, and Ruth Patterson from the Fair Dinkum Food Campaign explained how it all got started.