The Position of Farming in the Public Consciousness

The position that farming holds in the public consciousness can have the power to make or break a sector. Rarely is the whole of agriculture under threat at once but most of us have seen the industry suffer body blows when it comes to the rise and fall of public opinion. 

One response to this might be that fluctuations in popularity should be disregarded. Farmers need to hold their nerve and remain committed to doing the work they do in the way they choose to do it. The level of ignorance about agriculture amongst the public is renowned. Media outlets broadcast news of the school children who believe potatoes grow on trees, cows lay eggs, or that fish fingers are made from chicken. This evidence alone confirms the folly of paying too much heed to the general public. If children think that, imagine what their parents might believe. Farmers and specialists working in the field are the ones who understand the sector; what they think is what matters. The opinion of the public should be taken with a generous pinch of salt, or better still totally ignored. 

Another conclusion could be that given ‘the consumer is king’, their views should lead the way and be the primary consideration when it comes to farming and food production. Highly successful businesses are built on that premise. If agriculture wants to thrive it must be too. Countless expert reviews and industry debates have agreed that agriculture is not sufficiently market focused. This is where the sector is going wrong. Clearly the public may not understand the minutia of crop rotation or slurry management, but when it comes to the food sitting on supermarket shelves and ending up on dinner plates, consumers ought to be in the driving seat. Their voice should be the one that counts. 

When deciding which side of the fence to come down upon, it is worth considering the degree to which Millennials and Generation Z are interested in food. These active consumers will remain important for the foreseeable future with their spending power and influence set to grow over the next ten to fifteen years. It seems important to engage meaningfully with the public for this reason alone. These two groups have a desire to educate themselves out of ignorance and to know more about where their food comes from. Yet that wish has had mixed results. One reason for this has been the ability of certain players with vested interests to educate selectively and effectively. Another has been a lack of preparedness by those within farming to tell their story. In 1989 Wendell Berry proposed that ‘Eating is an Agricultural Act’. Segments of the public have displayed an appreciation and understanding of that viewpoint. Thirty-six years on, at a time when food production is ever more removed from its source, Berry’s perspective offers an ambition for our food system that both farmers and the public could try to align with and share.