WESFARMERS – the former farmers’ co-operative and now one of Australia’s most successful industrial companies – won control of supermarket chain Coles in 2007 in a multi-billion dollar takeover. If you care about the future of food and farming in Australia – and you do nothing else – read this: an address to the National Press Club in March 2008 by National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia president and independent grocer John Cummings.

Woolworths and Coles: bad news for consumers, disastrous for business