Small farmers in the firing line if draft laws passed

The past decade has seen the rapid rise of small Victorian farmers producing outstanding and award-winning free-range poultry and meat.

At the same time, there has been an increasing number of city dwellers moving to the country expecting fresh air and green fields.

When the two come head to head the farmers can find themselves ordered to stop operation by the authorities, robbing them of a livelihood and depriving chefs and home cooks of incredibly high quality, delicious and ethical meat.

One case in 2016 saw farmer Jo Stritch of the small-scale free-range pig farm, Happy Valley, in the Yarra Ranges ordered by authorities to remove its pigs. Neighbours had complained about the odour.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that because more than 50 per cent of the feed for the free-range farm had to be sourced from somewhere else they were considered an intensive farm, the same as a factory pig or chicken farm, and this was not allowed in land zoned green wedge. The fact that Stritch had raised her animals outdoors on grass did not carry weight in the tribunal.

The ruling caused panic across the state as many farmers, even sheep and cattle farmers, bring in hay and grain to feed stock, particularly in drought and when it is cold and the grass isn't growing.

I have shed a lot of tears over this issue.

Pig farmer Jo Wheaton

To clarify the situation, the Victorian government's agriculture department, Agriculture Victoria, drew up new rules and regulations. They were advised by peak bodies, such as Victoria Farmers Federation (VFF), Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australia Pork Limited (APL). These are lobby groups that also represent factory pig farms and cattle feed lots.

The new draft planning laws, instead of protecting the right of small scale farmers to farm, will impose a new system of planning regulations that would require them to get a permit to farm regardless if farms are on the outskirts of an urban area or on the edge of a desert.

If adopted, the regulations could be implemented in about 12 months and would see small scale pasture chicken producers under the same strict rules as factory farms with tens of thousands of birds in a shed. If a farmer has more than 450 chickens then he needs a buffer of 100 metres from a neighbour's dwellings, something that can be difficult on long and narrow blocks. At the same time, a cattle feedlot with 1000 animals could be set up without a permit.

The draft planning regulation would also see a farmer with more than eight breeding sows grazing on grass needing to meet the same planning requirements as a large scale pig farm.

The new planning laws could see factory pig and chook farms permitted in green wedge, rural living and rural conservation zones where they haven't been before.

Small farmers, some of whom are members of the VFF and pay levies to APL, feel betrayed by the industry bodies and uncertain of their future.

Chefs are also extremely concerned. The normally softly spoken Dan Hunter from the Good Food Guide three-hat winning restaurant Brae at Birregurra says: "To think that changes to planning provisions might put some of the local producers who we rely on heavily – like Ravens Creek Farm, Wongarra Farm or Great Ocean Ducks – at risk of closure or unable to produce is devastating. It would definitely affect what we're able to offer diners."

Another Good Food Guide hat-winning chef deeply troubled by the proposed changes is Sonia Anthony from Masons of Bendigo. She has been instrumental in the booming local food scene in the central Victorian city that has seen it change into a dining destination over the past decade.

"Many of our farmers are at breaking point financially and emotionally already," Anthony says. "We want more people to go onto the land (to farm). To farm in a way that actually restores soil health. Our customers want the ethical meat and the flavour. The alternative is factory farmed pork and chicken grown with antibiotics. We want to ensure we have a choice about what we eat in the future."

Out in Broughton, a settlement on the edge of the Big Desert north-west of Nhill, pig farmer Jo Wheaton and her family have been able to eke a living out of the dry country normally reserved for dry cropping. She and her husband received drought assistance funding to develop a new farming business. Today, Wheatons' Store provides fresh pork to families and business in the far west of Victoria.

"I have shed a lot of tears over this issue," Wheaton says. Their back paddock is adjacent to the Big Desert, their nearest neighbour is a kilometre away. They raise pigs outdoors on pasture and rotate the pigs though different paddocks.

"If we don't change what we are doing, we won't need planning regulations under the new rules," she says.

"But if we change, if we get more sows, we will need planning and that takes time and money. That's something small farmers like us just don't have. We are stretched to the limit to make a living and the government throws something like this at us. We have paid our membership to the VFF and they have lobbied against us. It is definitely betrayal."