Bridging the Gap

Introducing the Young Farming Champions...

2012 has been the Australian Year of the Farmer with the aim of helping to educate the broader community about the importance of agriculture and enlighten them about the dedicated, hard-working people that provide that quality food for your table (and lots of other's as well) everyday.

Some of our city cousins have lost that connection with the rural communities and no longer understand where their food & fibre comes from, let alone what goes into growing it! The increasing curiosity about where their food comes from and the new platform of social media, I believe gives us a great opportunity for rural people to engage and tell our own story about what we do everyday to help put that food on your table.  

During my travels I have run across a program that has been started in several schools as a way of educating children about agriculture called Art4Agriculture. 

Part of the program for schools is the Archibull Prize - (yes ArchiBULL not Archibalds....!) in which students get to meet a young farmer, and then explore and showcase a particular food/fibre industry as the subject of an artwork.

Sounds like fun?! The other twist is the blank canvas each school is provided for their artwork is not actually canvas - but a life-size fibre glass cow!

A team of young farmers, aka "Young Farming Champions" travel to a few schools each and tell their story about what they do as a farmer. They have all put together some great videos to share with the classes during their visits so I hope to share some of these with you.

Thanks to Young Farming Champion Richie Quigley & Art4Ag for this one.

The 2012 The Land Sydney Showgirl Runner-up, Jess Monteith is also one of this year's Young Farming Champions!

You can read about Jess's story here, courtesy of Art4Ag.

The Art4Ag program is a great initiative and provides a little inspiration on just how easy it is for an everyday person to share their story about agriculture.

Art4Agriculture also have a great blog that you can follow: Art4Ag blog or go to their website www.art4agriculture.com.au

Marketing & Media

Day 5 at the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship

Today's theme was around Marketing & Media. Great topic as alot of this week's discussions with the other Ag Scholars have centred around the concept that we need to get out and help tell the story of Australian agriculture.

I think today's society with platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, the speed of technology and accessibility of information, provides a huge advantage to assist in helping to tell the story of agriculture. You don't need a degree in journalism or work as a news anchor - the social media tools available today mean that the everyday person (yes - you and I) that works within agriculture as part of their everyday, has the opportunity to share their story.

So how can a normal everyday person like me, make a difference?

The following clip hopefully will give you an idea on the power of social media in today's society.



 

 

It is all about getting involved in the conversation. Today there are alot of people that do not have that direct connection with agriculture so they lack understanding on who and what happens to produce that food for their table.

By getting more involved in social media and participating in the conversation, you are providing the broader community with a direct link to agriculture - they can talk to someone that actually works in the industry everyday and understand how Australian farmers get such high quality produce to the table with all that mother nature can throw at us. Year in, year out.

 

There are several ways to get involved and one platform we discussed today was Twitter. After a crash course in @handles and #hashtags (I did not come up with these terms!) I think we started to get the idea.

 

On today's agenda for the Woolies #agscholars is marketing & media. First up is the National Farmers Federation #NFF
— Jasmine Nixon (@Jasminejnixon) August 30, 2012

 

The great part about this platform is that it is short and to-the-point and enables you to keep instantly up-to-date on breaking news and what issues and discussions are taking place within both the agricultural industry and the broader community. It also makes influential people such as politicians more accessible, in that you can begin some interaction and they can become more aware of the real issues within our rural communities.

 

So now I am stepping up to the challenge and actively participating in the conversation - please feel free to follow me on Twitter - look for me: @Jasminejnixon

 

(Also, for all you keen Twitter enthusiasts #hashtag #agscholars to follow what the 2012 Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholars have to say as they continue their busy program.)