City-country divide magnified on global scene

Obviously, in my job, I'm living agriculture daily so might be a little biased, but - as much as we talk about the city-country divide in Australia - it seems much more pronounced elsewhere.

A colleague was recently in the United States and spoke with farmers about their hopes for the upcoming election.

It showed a country deeply divided and an agricultural industry that felt ignored.

Grains Producers SA chair John Gladigau has shared his thoughts on this as well, after a trip to the United Kingdom and Europe.

This is not to say there are not farmers in Australia who feel sidelined - the debate about live export is certainly an indicator we are not there completely either.

But I can also access mainstream media sources and see stories about agriculture. I can talk to politicians who appear to be genuinely trying to find solutions for farmers.

I suspect part of this comes from the central role agriculture plays in the Australian economy.

Considering how many people work in this industry, we are certainly kicking well and truly above our weight.

But the importance of agriculture goes beyond the money. Agriculture is literally how you feed a population.

If you can't get that right, it leads to a a lot of things going wrong.