Still Dry...

Hangind out for rain again. Some is forecast for tomorrow (friday), but I'll believe it when I see it (or at least can measure it in the gauge.)

I've been contemplating takeover and change. Why do people buy up something good, then alter it? (Or why don't people recognise success when they see it?) I was reading about Hummers (you know, the big military vehicles), and how the rights to a civilian version were sold to a US car company (GM?) They had the H1 - very similar to the original, totally impractical but with the appeal of the original. Then there was the H2 - toned down, a bit easier, but still like the original. Now there is the H3 - which is really not a Hummer. But you can't buy a proper Hummer now, because the car company has the rights and doesn't make one. The fact that the original was not a big seller is obivously why they brought out the subsequent models - but they have now cut off the niche market that wanted them in the first place. (OK, they are also an awful gas guzzler, I don't really want one and I am in Australia - but I am attracted by the original, and not the later versions. I'll never buy an H3, but I might have bought an H1.)

I'm also worried by the cavalier attitude toward farming and food production in Australia. We can't all be niche sellers and the market is not made up from niche buyers. However, the average beef farm seems no longer able to support itself without the farmer having outside income. Corporate farms seem to do OK, but that is a scaled up, margin-oriented exercise, and seems to be targetted at either a) niche markets (eg Wagyu) or b) mass market, undifferentiated meat (McDonalds, Supermarkets, frozen hamburgers, meat pies etc.)

I had a friend who tried to do small volume quality beef - but transport costs killed the business. He couldn't charge enough for the beef to cover his transport costs, and he couldn't grow the business enough to get the economies of scale.

Where does this leave us? Facing a future with far too little quality produce - because the bulk of Australia will not (cannot?) pay for the cost of producing quality.