The response from the farming community over the past few weeks to attacks by various members of the vegan and animal rights communities has been defensive and at times frustrated.
That’s natural enough, of course. When strangers attack your job, your livelihood and your increasingly fragile income, everyone is going to get a little hot under the collar.
But are our reactionary comments and defence modes missing the point?
P for promotion
It’s all well and good patting each other on the back. Irish farmers know ourselves that the vast majority of us produce high-welfare and high-quality produce. Lord knows the regulations are in place to ensure that.
There was a question on one of my Green Cert exams the other week – what are the three Ps in Irish agriculture? Producer, processor and purchaser. Basic stuff.
But should there not be another P, as in promotion? And is this promotion, in the wider scheme of things, out of the producers’ hands?
Suburban Sorcha is probably not reading the Irish Farmers Journal and waiting to be convinced by us farmers as to why she should serve that leg of lamb and not a tofu alternative shipped in from South America.
Suburban Sorcha who heads off to purchase her weekly roast in her local supermarket is, in reality, never going to meet many farmers, not least the farmer who produced the food that she will serve up on a Sunday.
Suburban Sorcha is also probably not reading the Irish Farmers Journal and waiting to be convinced by us farmers as to why she should serve that leg of lamb and not a tofu alternative shipped in from South America.
Suburban Sorcha certainly isn’t burying her head in the sand when she sees harrowing footage of live exports and hears unbalanced arguments in the media. Suburban Sorcha is purchasing based on that information. And I’m not sure you can blame her.
Consumer education, marketing and promotion is where we need to focus – and fast – if we want to curb the growing dairy-free, meat-free, everything-free trend.
Bord Bia’s role
While it has many detractors among farmers, especially organic producers, Bord Bia has a vital role to play in providing engaging marketing schemes within Ireland and indeed abroad that represent us as farmers. It needs to translate our story to the consumer so that they see Irish farmers producing a safe, reliable product that offers the highest animal welfare standards. Bord Bia needs to tell our story.
IOFGA is soon to launch a three-year promotional campaign to represent the organic sector, in conjunction with the Organic Trade Board and Organic Denmark. It will be interesting to see the direction and effectiveness of that campaign.
And what of other bodies that represent us as producers, like the IFA?
Has it done anything to counteract the attack on farming from consumers who are increasingly looking towards produce that is not to be found grazing our green pastures?
Either way, I find it worrying. Keyboard warriors are all well and good but Irish agriculture and how it is marketed towards the purchaser might need a rethink.