… story by Russ Grayson, December 2013

A Tasmanian journey…

HERE’s a good idea — farm life benefiting wildlife.

In shops in Tasmania, including the IGA independent chain of supermarkets, are cartons of Tasmanian eggs that contribute by raising funds for the survival of that endearing, fluffy little black and white creature with the huge mouth — the Tasmanian devil.

Devils have in recent years been beset with a species-threatening disease, producing something of a calamity for wildlife lovers and a challenge for scientists working on a cure. It could be something of a calamity for Tasmania’s tourism industry too. Were worse to come to worse, how could the industry make use of an extinct species to promote the state?

The egg sales fundraising demonstrates how small to medium business, farmers and eaters, and even supermarkets, can contribute to solving problems and, perhaps, make additional sales while doing so.

I haven’t been into a duopoly supermarket (Coles and Woolworths or, as they are collectively known, Colesworth) in the state but if anyone does could you reply in the comments to this article and let us know if the duopoly is also selling these eggs? Doing so, I think, could only benefit all, including the devil, given the market penetration (the duopoly has around 80 percent of the grocery market in Australia, which I believe makes it the most concentrated grocery market in the world) of the duo.