Friday, March 29, 2024

BLOG: Don’t give critics any ammunition

Neal Wallace
Farmers are under greater public scrutiny than ever before. While most accusations pushed by those with environmental or animal welfare agendas are baseless, they resonate with an urban public that has little or no knowledge about farm practices and are increasingly sceptical given the constant flow of criticism being leveled at farming. For a sector under the glare of critical public scrutiny, why then do farmers make it easy for the critics?
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It was public knowledge activists were scouring Southland and Otago this winter looking for examples of what they consider sloppy management of stock on crops to then brazenly release to mainstream and social media. But that is not the worst part. As we reported last week an aerial inspection by Environment Southland left it less than impressed with winter management practices. So why are calves left lying in the mud? Why aren’t stock back-fenced? Why isn’t portable freshwater provided? Why aren’t stock taken off crops in extreme weather?

Farmers might view these as impractical but they are rules and failure to follow them adds to the perception farmers are uncaring and willing to snub their nose at authority. Photography angles and lack of context make it easy to portray a situation as worse than it actually is but the public don’t see that.

We rightfully claim farmers are making great strides and efforts to improve their environmental and animal welfare standards but a minority continue to let the industry down. They need to be held to account. We can defend ourselves, create context or try to explain why we do what we do but usually that is in reaction to an event and of no consequence to a millennial in Auckland who only sees farmers abusing animals or the environment for financial gain. We can also question the ethics and motives of activists sneaking around looking for incriminating evidence but, as they have shown previously, these individuals will go to extreme lengths in pursuit of their agenda. We simply can’t give them oxygen.

Neal Wallace

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