Landcorp chief executive Steven Carden
LANDCORP CHIEF executive Steven Carden is right on the money in pointing out that the farming sector has effectively lost the confidence of the public. The ‘man in the street’ is now more inclined to believe ‘dirty dairying’ slander than the more balanced messages from NZ’s farmer lobby groups. He is also right in saying the ag sector is ineffective in telling its good news, making it unevenly matched against the few shoddy farmers who give ‘catch and kill’ – aka Fish & Game – the ammunition to create the ‘dirty dairying’ messaging. What Fish & Game, the Greens and other environmental groups – obsessed with their negative perceptions of farming – have done is insidious. They have painted a picture showing farming as a dirty, harmful activity and by implication not a good career choice. Thus it gets even harder to encourage young people to make a career in farming and the wider agribusiness sector. Plenty is going on nationwide to promote agriculture to youngsters as a career of first choice. Sadly, city folk see little of this in the mainstream media. Carden is right: farming needs to smarten up its image fast. At the same time, the perpetual knockers of farming need to reflect on the consequences of their short-sighted self-interest campaigns seemingly designed to drive up membership. The future of agriculture is too important to NZ to be manipulated by lopsided lobby groups for their own petty political interests. Is it asking too much that farmers clean up their act and that environmentalists stop whingeing every time they see a cow? Kiwi common sense must prevail where farming is shabby, then generosity might be expected from the knockers.