Show Time!

It’s Showtime! well, actually, it’s time for the Brisbane Annual Agricultural Show (known as the `Ekka’) and for Americans, that’s our State Fair. Manufacturers and farmers come from all over Queensland to show off their wares, produce and animals, and there are the usual rides, sideshows and strange food (like Dagwood Dogs). These days I prefer to avoid the noise and the crowds, but my daughter and her family were there and she brought me back some showbags(which we used to call sample bags). It’s a family joke that the only reason I go to to these things at all is for the Better Homes and Gardens showbag. I love all the little samples and the free magazines. So she bought me back the BHG showbag as well as a `foodie’ bag with lots more samples, and a `luxury’ bag with shampoo and face cream samples. To think they only used to contain sweets and lollies!
I love these showbags because I get to try things I might not normally buy - I have some samples of rice bran oil, and local Australian Jingilli olive oil, which I’ve never tried (the latter because I haven’t actually seen it in the shops). There were samples of instant cappucino (very good too), savoury cafe biscuits, speciality teas and lots more.
These events do serve a very real function though, showing people where their food comes from and reminding us all of the importance of agriculture. The high piled displays of beautiful vegetables and fruit remind us how lucky we are to have an agricultural industry at all, with such a wealth of choice when it comes to fresh produce. Right now, the State Government is talking about the future of water supplies in Queensland and how much money they will be pouring into solving the crisis - but while they talk, our agricultural sector is dwindling, and country towns dying, through lack of water. It paints a frightening vision of the future, that while, on the coast, our immediate water worries might be solved over the next decade, the country areas will continue to become deserts without people or farms. I hope as much attention was being paid to the plight of farmers in this drought as there was to the contents of the showbags, excellent as they are.

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