Chairperson of the Indonesian Peasant Union and the General Coordinator of the global small farmer and peasant movement La Via Campesina has had an opinion article published in the Canberra Times on Monday, 20th June 2011.
In the article, titled Indonesia needs our support to develop its beef industry, Mr Saragih argues that the key issue at stake in the row over the live cattle trade is the growing import dependency that the trade is creating for his country. He says that the principles of Food Sovereignty require that Australian farmers, its government and citizens work with Indonesian farmers to build up their capacity to meet more of domestic demand, rather than just looking at the issue from the self-interested perspective of how Australia – and especially the big corporations that dominate the industry – can earn more money from the trade.