A LOWDEN farmer says he will take his business out of Donnybrook because there is not enough support for small producers in the town.
Louie Scibilia, who stood as an independent in the 2013 state election and is an outspoken advocate for small, sustainable farms, has spoken out against the damage caused to the environment and the local economy by large-scale farming.
He said he was dealing with salinity in the river running through his land and was throwing away food that he could not sell.
“The environment is dying, and the only people that’s good for are the chemical companies. I’ve got dead trees and salt at 640 parts per million in my creek coming from drains that lead into the river,” Mr Scibilia said.
“The government and politicians aren’t consulting. People don’t want change, but we’re killing the environment for our kids. Why aren’t we having a debate about this? This is not hard to fix. I can demonstrate what I did to this land; it was terrible when I started, but now it’s beautiful. We need to put aside our differences and have a discussion,” he said.
He said support for small producers was also lacking, and plans to begin demonstrating a reciprocal business model that he hopes will be taken up by more individuals and businesses locally to help support small businesses and small farmers.
“The damage starts from big farmers,” Mr Scibilia said. “Big farmers are trying to make more money; if they can’t they’ll expand.
“We’ve got two tiers. It costs $12 to produce a tray of peaches, but big supermarkets get it for $4 – so why would you grow more? The small farmer should grow for the local market and the big farmer should sell to Coles and Woolies. Instead big producers flood the markets, prices plummet and the recipients are the big end.”
Mr Scibilia said there needed to be restrictions on how much big farmers were producing, and how much produce entered the state.
“Marketing is governed by big players,” he said.
“We need to have government stores buying from locals for schools and hospitals. Nothing should come in from the Eastern states until we’ve sold our produce.
“Reduce farm sizes and make it a policy that you buy local – so the farmer has to be recognised as producing local.
Mr Scibilia said the connection started with business.
“They have no consideration for the farmers,” he said.
He said his reciprocal business model meant that if another business was not supporting him, he would take his business elsewhere.
“I am going to be taking my business out of Donnybrook,” he said. “We need a total change, starting from our council.
“Our market is only on every four weeks, you can’t hold food that long. This is a fruit-growing region, why is it we haven’t explored this? You need to have markets all the time.
“You can mass produce and throw away a lot, or you can go back to basics. Do I need to grow that much next year? Who misses out from me not growing more? The locals do, because I then don’t buy as much.
“We can’t afford to go backward,” he said.