This day last week a debate regarding the ethics of animal agriculture was televised on our national broadcaster.

I use the term debate very loosely as, to be honest, it was extremely one-sided and any farmer looking at it could not help but feel angry at how our industry was depicted and under-represented.

I felt as a farmer that my industry, my family's livelihood and my way of life was attacked and a quick scroll through my Twitter timeline afterwards reassured me I was not alone.

Ensuring the highest standards

Seven days a week 24 hours a day Irish farmers' number one priority is to ensure that the highest standards of animal welfare and environmental protection are at the very forefront of their businesses.

We should take great pride in the job that we do and the contribution we make to both our communities and our national economy.

Of course there will be times when individuals will let our industry down, but using these isolated incidences of animal welfare and environmental regulation breaches as an example of industry norms is wrong and is a massive personal insult to the vast majority of farmers.

So what do we do?

Farmers are our industry's best spokespeople. We are readily identifiable with, we are visible every day in our communities and we are trustworthy and, believe it or not, farmers proactively sharing their story and engaging in a conversation with the public is the absolute best way to ensure that balance remains in the debate regarding food production and farming’s impact on the environment and the economy.

There will be times when you might be tempted (I know I have!) in engaging with a misinformed person who already has their mind made up. My advice here is to step back, take a deep breath, move on and instead use that time to engage with someone who genuinely wants to have a conversation about farming.

If you are lucky enough to have a member of the public ask you a question, take the time to listen and then answer it without judgement and with humility. Remember you might be the first farmer they have ever spoken to and you are not only speaking for yourself, you are also representing a whole industry.

Brian’s Nuffield Scholarship report “Speaking Up For Agriculture – Protecting Farming’s Social Licence” can be read by clicking here.

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We cannot afford to take public perception for granted