A recent advertisement for a global food forum caught my
attention recently. The conference is
being organised by The Australian
newspaper with an impressive line-up of speakers including the Chief Executive
Officer of News Limited, Kim Williams and the former Governor-General Michael
Jeffery. The heads of a few food manufacturing
companies are on the speaker list together with the odd politician, journalists
and bankers.
The notable omission from the speaker list is of course
those involved directly in food production – a farmer or two. It is difficult to imagine any other industry
where those directly involved in the subject concerned are not involved in the
conference. Can you imagine a medical
conference without doctors on the speaking list or a legal conference without a
lawyer being involved? Perhaps a media
conference without a newspaper editor or executive on the speaker list, or a
mining conference without a miner?
Only a few of the speakers appear to have a background in
agricultural science or agricultural economics which is also surprising.
So why is it that farmers do not get a seat at the table for
a conference talking about food production and opportunities for Australian
food production? There are a host of
reasons for this including:
·
Farmers are not good at blowing their own trumpets
and telling their story to the wider community.
·
Farming is incorrectly perceived as a low
technology profession.
·
The lack of political clout that farmers wield
and thus attention paid to the sector by Governments.
·
That Australia has always produced a large
amount of primary produce relative to its population size and will continue to
do so.
It is good to see such a conference taking place in Australia and that it involves a number of high-profile individuals speaking about the food industry. It is just a shame that the integral role farmers play in food production is not considered to be that important.
FURTHER READING
Lyndsey Smith (2013) The Most Powerful People in Food: Not Farmers. http://www.realagriculture.com/2013/02/the-most-powerful-people-in-food-not-farmers/
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