Farming in a fish bowl

DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle says the public are taking a greater interest in what’s happening on farms, bringing farmers new challenges.

“We certainly have a job to educate the public about what the practical realities are of food production. There’s work we have to do and it’s no different from a lot of other industries. We know we have an urban population in New Zealand and so we have to work hard at making sure they understand what we do.”

Mackle says a big risk of social media is things being taken out of context, misrepresented and often picked up by key overseas customers. “We must ensure we are farming using good practices and all following good standards that we agree on. But we also need some strategies we agree on to counter misrepresented stories.”

Mackle warns farmers they “might have to do more environmentally than is in their milk supply contracts”. For example, water is a big issue and over the last five years the awareness of water quality issues by farmers has increased dramatically.

“For some more than others, but the awareness at least of farmers is certainly there now.  As an industry we are relative newbies to the whole sustainability agenda so we have been playing catch-up for a while. But we are getting ourselves well organised now and farmers are getting into things they need to be doing and we are trying to work through what has to be done.”

Mackle says the new water accord sets out base level across the country, and what is regarded as good practice. Catchments in some regions will require more attention and work by farmers who must band together and see how collectively they can improve. Mackle points to efforts of farmers in the Lake Rotorua catchment as an example.

The solution lies in a “community approach being taken whereby farmers can be a part of the solution. So long as they are making a profit they are happy to chip in and help,” he says.