It shouldn’t be this hard

With Queensland in the throes of yet another natural disaster we thought we’d do something a little different this week. What more can we say that hasn’t already been said? But if you take away just one message please know – Queensland horticulture growers – we see you, we support you, and we are here for you.

An Ode to Queensland growers.

Through flood and fire, through storm and hail,
You rise again, though bodies frail.
The land you work, the seeds you sow,
A fragile fate we fail to know.

The rains, they drown, the sun, it burns,
Yet still you toil—yet still you yearn.
For harvest fair, for fruit so sweet,
For crops to stand, for ends to meet.

Hailstones cut through leaves like knives,
Bushfires steal, yet hope survives.
The rivers swell, the fields are lost,
And no one counts the hidden cost.

Through shifting laws and hands unkind,
Through wages fought and ties unlined,
Through hands unseen in offices tall,
Who've never touched the soil at all.

Yet here you stand, unseen, unheard,
As policies twist with careless words.
They call you unskilled—blind to the craft,
The knowledge deep, the hands so fast.

For food security’s a game, it seems,
A study late, lost in red-tape dreams.
And while they think, debate, and stall,
The growers bleed—who feeds them all?

It shouldn’t be this hard to thrive,
To keep our farms, to keep alive.
But still, you wake before the dawn,
To work the fields, to soldier on.

So here’s to you—Queensland’s best,
You fight, you feed, you never rest.
And though the world may look away,
We see you standing, come what may.