Listening in Echuca and sipping latte in Melbourne

On Monday last week, I listened in Echuca as farmers complained of city based latte-sipping people giving them advice; on Tuesday, the following day, I was doing just that, sipping a latte in Melbourne (below right).

And what follows will undoubtedly be interpreted by some as just that, advice. However, rather than advice this is simply an observation.

I was just one of more than about 1200 at Monday’s Murray Darling Basin Authority’s community consultation to discuss its guide to its plan for the basin.
I was not alone at Echuca’s Frontera Basketball Centre, obviously, but that sense settled on me when it quickly became obvious that my sentiments were decidedly different from most others at the meeting.
Many who took the floor during question/comment time often said “All in the room would agree” with this or that lumping me in with the great ruck of thought at the meeting.
Immediately I considered a personal protest declaring my independence, but sensing a lynching – mine – would soon follow, I swallowed my objection and so, through my acquiescence, joined those protesting.
However, most farmers I know love what they do and wouldn’t swap their way of life what I witnessed on Tuesday – latte-sipping people in business attire taking a break in sunny Collins St from the rigours of their world.
That being true, there seems to be an inexplicable anger directed at city people by those from the country, who assume, wrongly, that their city cousins enjoy the good life at the expense of country folk and in doing that, have the audacity to tell them how to manage their farm.
Such a view is unwarranted and although it might bring those who hold them some momentary comfort, it is poorly thought through as farmers without consumers is about as effective as a ship without the sea.
The Collins St latte-sipper and the true country farmer, as opposed to the Collins St farmer, are obviously different in every sense, from their way of life to their skills, but they mysteriously need each other and have an unfathomably equality that allows for, and ensures, the flourishing of society.
That would be something, I’m sure, each would think, in quiet moments, about the other.