On being appointed as chair of Agri Aware last year, Cork dairy farmer Alan Jagoe said: “Farmers we have a good story to tell. Now, more than ever, we need to tell that story.” A year into the role, does he feel that the challenge is being met by Agri Aware?

“Over the last couple of years, external bodies have been using Irish farming as a scapegoat. In terms of emissions, how we care for our animals, the ethics of animal farming in the first place, veganism, you name it.

“It’s incumbent on us, collectively as an industry, to tell our story outward. Agri Aware is a good voice to do that, but the work we do is often in the background with primary schools, secondary schools and general campaigns targeting the general public, so farmers might be unaware of it,” says Jagoe.

“For instance,1,300 primary schools took part in the Incredible Edibles programme last year. That’s somewhere between 45,000 and 60,000 students. Encouraging kids to sow, grow and cook their own fruit and vegetables. A new initiative, Pasture to Plate, saw primary school kids develop their own recipes sourcing local food ingredients. Six schools had a chef come out and prepare their recipe. That brings people back to the basics, showing the value of fresh, local wholesome food.

“Everybody needs food to eat three times a day. We need farmers to produce that food, and it’s going to have a carbon footprint. No one else worldwide is producing the quality of food that we are in Ireland, with as low a carbon footprint.

“The AgCredible Academy will equip farmers to better communicate a positive message to the public,” he continues.

“What is Agri-Aware’s role in all this? We have completed a strategic review, and we are clear that our role is to communicate with the non-farming audience. It means that farmers mightn’t see all that we are doing. Three key areas are animal health and welfare, the environment, and changing diets and food habits.

“We now have over 80 patrons from all across the sector, everyone from co-ops, processors, fruit and vegetable producers. The more support we get, the more we can do. We are aware that the likes of Go Vegan World has a huge budget for advertising against farming, so the need has probably never been greater for a voice promoting the sector. Our total budget is under €1m a year,”the Cork farmer outlines.

“We are currently submitting a CAP campaign bid, communicating the benefits of the CAP to the public. While the Commission contributes 60%, we have to raise the other 40% ourselves. Last May, 10,500 people visited three farms across the country on Open Farm Day. We take for granted that people understand farming, but I overheard a visitor that day say he never knew that cows ate grass.

“It’s a small team – we have four staff plus interns. While we are sorry to lose our excellent executive director, Deirdre O’Shea, we are confident her successor Marcus O’Halloran is well equipped to lead us forward to meet these new challenges.”