Friday, March 29, 2024

Farmers finding a social voice

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Dairy farmers across the country took to social media in their droves following SAFE’s release of video footage of bobby calf mistreatment.
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They joined other farmers and industry bodies condemning the appalling practices shown but also loudly and proudly set about showing the world the lengths they go to in caring for their animals.
Facebook pages appeared as did twitter hashtags, some even before the video footage release, and farmers responded en masse to defend the majority.
Unlike previous campaigns in the early 2000s targeting the industry over environmental issues, farmers themselves were able to have a direct line of communication with the wider public and importantly each other.
Marlborough farmer and proponent of resilience and mental health in the rural sector Doug Avery was one of the people behind the launch of the facebook page Proud to be NZ Farmers shortly after the SAFE video release.
He said the importance of farmers coming together and connecting with each other cannot be underestimated.
“We brought the launch of the page forward because we realised this (SAFE campaign) could be so destructive to the welfare of our people.”
Farmers could feel isolated and put upon by such attacks but social media had given them a way to join with their fellow farmers and have a voice – a loud one.
In just 48 hours the Proud to be NZ Farmers site had 2000 likes with farmers also posting photographs and stories to the page showing what they did on farm.
“In the end some good has come out of this because it galvanised us to act and amalgamate so we could sing and celebrate our excellence,” Avery said.
There had been a sense of apathy about the rural-urban divide but in the aftermath of the bobby calf issue it had become apparent there was little understanding about even the fundamentals of farming among many in non-farming communities.
“The fact so many didn’t understand a cow has to have sex (and then a calf) to produce milk was astounding,” he says.
Social media platforms could help change that and he urged farmers to get on the internet and get involved in a positive way to reignite the connection between the farm and city.
“This (bobby calf video footage) was the worst thing to happen in recent times but we knew we had to turn it around, turn it into a positive and it’s actually presented us with a massive opportunity to take the front foot,” he says.
“We can’t leave groups like this unchecked, we have to put our message out there and put it above theirs.”
On twitter the hashtag #wecare4calves was used to link tweets that also pushed the positive messages about dairying and, more specifically, about calf welfare.
Farmers were supported by non-farmers with likes and retweets pushing their messages out to not only New Zealand users of the social media platform but international users.
The pictures and video clips from twitter and facebook were picked up by conventional media outlets giving them reach beyond the internet.
Federated Farmers dairy section chairman Andrew Hoggard said the power of social media was evident almost immediately after the SAFE video aired on television in late November.
Television personality Jaquie Brown tweeted that her heart was breaking over what she’d seen on the SAFE footage and that she was seriously considering going vegetarian.
She was alerted to the hastag #wecare4calves and then tweeted “Feeling better after checking out #wecare4calves” although she also noted she was still sad about what she’d seen.
Brown has 19,700 followers on the social media platform.
Hoggard said social media gave an immediate and far-reaching platform to show the actions shown in the video footage weren’t those of the majority and that farmers themselves abhorred the cruelty shown.
“As an industry we didn’t deny the cruelty had happened but we were able to get the message out clearly that it was a minority,” he said.
He believed of all the crises and issues the dairy industry had faced over the last few years this one had been handled the best.
At an industry level the main players quickly came together and identified where the problem was and that more needed to be done in the pet food industry.
However, there are negatives to social media too and just as we educate our children around safe use of the internet and internet behaviours adults must remember the rules apply to them too.
Both Federated Farmers and DairyNZ issued reminders that it was important to keep the posts and conversations positive.
Hoggard is a Twitter user and says keeping the message positive on social media platforms is a must because negative conversations and posts can spiral the whole issue up and out of control so that it becomes a war of words.
Some of those words and suggestions aren’t nice and wouldn’t be how people would conduct themselves in a face-to-face conversation.
“We suggested that our members should make sure they’re not anti or against something but that their message is in support of or for something.
The facebook page “Farmers Against SAFE – We love our animals” had 8236 likes within three weeks of the bobby calf footage being shown.
It was started by a young woman working on a dairy farm before the programme had aired on television showing the SAFE footage.
Advance promotional material for the television programme had alerted farmers that it would be airing.
The young woman, Jen, doesn’t want her full name used in fear of reprisals from animal welfare activists but said she was so upset that all dairy farmers would be tarnished by the actions of a few that she wanted to do something to get the stories of the majority of farmers out.
“As it was, most of what they showed wasn’t even carried out by farmers,” she said.
She’d created the page herself and wasn’t backed by any group.
She’d also been working in the dairy industry for only two years so was relatively new to it.
She certainly didn’t see cruel practices going on and her partner had been working in the industry for many years.
“I just wanted to stand up to SAFE and find a way to give farmers their own voice as well as a support system, given the abuse they were getting.”
She moderated the page as best she could by not allowing abusive posts.
“But when you get hundreds of comments on one post it’s hard to read them all so some comments might get through.”
From December 8 to 14 there were 1500 posts to the page – most accompanied by comments. She’d banned a number of people from the page but they were mostly pro-SAFE people who had not used the site responsibly or were abusive.
Some of the abuse had been extremely threatening and in some cases she’d asked those who had received abuse via comments to take the matter to the police.

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