Farmers take fight to green activists with 10-year plan

Farmers launch a counter-attack against animal activists and green extremists.

National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson says the organisation had resolved to run a five- to 10-year campaign costing $10m to promote agriculture and its benefits to Australia. Picture: Simon Santi

The peak farm lobby group has launched a counter-attack against animal activists and green extremists in a bid to win back public sentiment and secure support for a massive expansion of the agriculture industry.

National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson told The Australian the organisation had resolved to run a five-to 10-year campaign costing $10m to promote agriculture and its benefits to Australia.

• MORE: Farmers turning ploughshares into swords

The move comes amid fears among farm leaders that public sentiment is moving against the farming sector, which could undermine the government’s stated resolve to support the NFF’s plan to build agriculture into a $100bn industry.

The farm lobby group has called on the government to assist it in achieving this objective, including an agricultural visa to deal with chronic labour shortages, a national energy policy to reduce energy costs, federal government leadership for improved digital internet connectivity on all farms, and new water infrastructure to open up large-scale-irrigation agriculture in the Top End.

Addressing the NFF gathering at Parliament House last night at its 40th anniversary leaders summit, Scott Morrison said his government shared the organ­isation’s vision for Australia to exceed $100bn in farmgate output by 2030, compared with about $60bn today.

“This is a bold vision, but it’s an achievable one,” the Prime Minister said. “While the drought is biting, and floods have decimated herds, the sector remains strong and has a strong future.”

City or country. We’re all pushing in the same direction. Part of the same cycle. #WeAreAusFarmers #AusAg pic.twitter.com/3EZ7vzTNz5

— National Farmers' Federation (@NationalFarmers) October 14, 2019

But the NFF has assessed that without continued public support for farming in the face of activist agitation, the government’s resolve could waver, and it has initiated a campaign of marketing, advertising, public relations and other measures to be rolled out in the coming months and years.

Ms Simson said while research commissioned by the NFF had found Australians have a generally favourable impression of farmers and farming, the activism of animal rights campaigners and radical environmentalists had raised questions in their minds about farm practices.

“We are one of the most trusted professions,” Ms Simson said. “But they do have some questions about looking after animals, our environmental practices, and how we look after land.”

Ms Simson said what she described as leftist “minority groups” had succeeded in raising these doubts.

“I think we farmers have allowed them to control the space,” she said. “That is the story that they are putting out there, and we have been remiss in not telling our own stories.”

The survey by JWS Research found urban Australians mostly felt disconnected from the farming community.

Ms Simson said the Telling Our Story campaign would seek to win back territory in the arena of public opinion with a message focused on common values and reconnecting farm and city.

The initiative has initial funding from Meat and Livestock Australia, and the NFF is inviting other agricultural groups and ­agribusinesses to join in.

The NFF launched its campaign on Monday with a short film designed to convey a common sense of purpose between farmers and those in cities.

The Telling Our Story campaign would also seek to develop resources for teachers in schools to educate students about agriculture and food and fibre.

The president of NSW Farmers, James Jackson, said “the curriculum had been green-washed for some years” with children taught that “farmers are environmental and economic vandals”.

Mr Jackson, a veterinarian and grazier who operates a property at Guyra in northeast NSW, claimed anti-agriculture propaganda is disseminated by urban journalists and particularly the ABC which, he says, “has just been relentless in putting our guys under pressure and out of business”.

Every natural event, from fish kills to dust storms, was spun as being the fault of farmers, and it was time to counter that narrative, he said.