Last week the relatively new president, Emma Germano, and the much newer chief executive officer, Jane Lovell, met members in Wangaratta, Benalla, Numurkah, Kyabram and Rochester who made complaints about the VFF and directed the leadership to take up issues of concern.
And they were interested to hear that not only the diminishing numbers of members are unhappy with some aspects of the VFF, so is the new president.
Ms Germano, a vegetable and livestock farmer from Mirboo North who was elected last December, sees the organisation as having too many ‘silos’ — separate commodity groups that don't always work together and is frustrated by the dissipation of members’ fees across so many peak groups.
The process for changing policies is too slow, she says.
She doesn't want to see membership fees increased, but wants to see the dollars raised spent more effectively.
“We are not financially sustainable the way we are operating at the moment,” Ms Germano said.
“More importantly, it's not just about looking at the figures at the end of the year, it's also about the outcomes we are getting.
“The resources flowing through the organisation are not reflective of the fact that 80 per cent of the people want cross-commodity representation.”
Ms Germano also expressed her dissatisfaction with current polarising politics, which is not helping move agriculture forward.
She argues the status of the agriculture ministry in Victoria needs lifting and a name change to ‘food security’ from ‘agriculture’, reflecting the role of agriculture in Australia.
She is critical of the government for not doing sufficient consultation and is on the record as criticising the seasonal worker program which was implemented after the peak harvest season was over.
Ms Germano wants to see a change in the water policy division of the VFF, to take some load off the volunteer members and to mobilise expert, trained staff in a complex area.
She acknowledges the VFF is losing membership and says the organisation represents about one quarter of all farmers in Victoria and wants to build numbers and confidence in the organisation.
Her strategy includes asking non-members why they haven't joined up to find out "what's the problem?".
“We need to tap into the innovative, positive leaders in agriculture.
“If the organisation is not relevant to them, we have to ask ourselves some hard questions.”
Asked what motivated her, Ms Germano said she liked to "fix things".
“I also feel passionate about my farm and the fact that the environment I am farming in can make a difference whether I am viable or not, and those factors could be external to the farm.”
She said the VFF was getting back to key issues and values.
Issues raised during the tour of northern Victoria included public access to river frontages, changing definitions of waste by the EPA, animal husbandry, power line towers on agricultural land, saleyard closures, policy council transparency and dissatisfaction with the Australian Dairy Plan.
Region No. 3 UDV-VFF branch secretary Bridget Goulding attended the Numurkah meeting and said she was impressed by the new president.
“She has won the election and deserves respect for achieving the position,” Ms Goulding said.
“Everyone is quite positive about her. It was good to hear her talk about the importance of family farms and knowing she comes from that background is reassuring.”
20°C