The emotional connection to Irish farming is being lost and Tom Cronin is the man who has been charged with reconnecting consumers with where their food comes from and busting misinformation from unreliable sources.
Cronin took up the role as executive director of Our Food Roots – the industry-funded body focused on deepening public engagement to shape national conversations about food and farming – last September.
“It’s targeted at the disconnected consumer. Irish people’s relationship with food and farming is shifting and what we see is that knowledge and awareness of the sector is in decline.
“People are taking information about their food and where their food comes from often from unreliable sources. Yet concerns about the price of food and food provenance are growing. We’re certainly seeing that more recently,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Our Food Roots has been set up to address that disconnect and tell the story of Irish food and farming and help reconnect consumers to where that’s come from, he said.
“An interesting statistic is that six in 10 people now would say they don’t know enough about what Irish food and farming does for the environment, for the economy, for society. So, there’s that growing base of what we call the ‘undecided group’.
“There are about 25% of the population, and they’re not against farming, they’re just undecided. And they don’t know enough. They’ve no emotional connection to farming. Only one in 10 people now are connected to an Irish farm and that’s declining so that emotional connection to the sector is being lost,” he said.
Trust
“And I would say that for us, that’s important because, you know, trust in the sector has never been more important.
“Food and farming sustains our rural communities, it’s vital for our food security, it’s vital for stewardship of the land but also, most importantly, it’s the food on our plate where it’s come from, for everybody in the country. That’s the most important factor of all. So that’s why trust in the sector is critical,” he said.
Our Food Roots is chaired by former Department of Agriculture secretary general Tom Moran and has a raft of board members, all of whom are industry backers. Members include the ICMSA, the National Dairy Council, Dairy Industry Ireland and a cross-section of food producers and processors including ABP, Dawn Meats, Tirlán and the UCD School of Agriculture.
Tom Cronin. \ Claire Nash
Two other big players on that board are the IFA and Bord Bia.
When asked if the current disconnect between the IFA and Bord Bia would impact Our Food Roots, he reiterated that having trust in the sector is really important.
“I think the sooner that gets resolved, the better so that we’re all presenting a united front and people see a sector that’s working to address its challenges together.”
Our Food Roots is funded by its industry members, this is set out broadly by company size, with each individual entity contributing an amount as agreed to the fund.
Challenge
When asked why he took on the role, he said he was excited about the challenge that Project Connect, as it was known last year, had set out.
“I do think the story of Irish food and farming is much better understood abroad and we do a much better job of it amongst international markets, but it can be taken for granted at home here.
“I think food production and farming are changing, it’s a very dynamic sector, a dynamic industry, it will change more in the future.
“I think it’s a really interesting story to tell, about where it’s going. Irish people need to understand that better and where their food comes from and the challenges that are faced in doing that.”
Cronin himself is not going to be wheeled out to bat for the sector on the national airwaves to reconnect with consumers. Instead, Our Food Roots will play two roles; one in supporting industry to speak about the sector and the other will be communicating directly with consumers.
The body will identify the right experts and spokespeople that can represent the sector on either national airwaves, local, radio or whatever medium is most appropriate, he said.
“We can help identify those people, help give them the support and content that they need to represent the sector, help give them media training or help them bring the right voice to the matter where it needs to be. Often we hear that when a particular topic breaks, it’s not always the right organisation represented the sector so part of our role is to help do that,” he said.
Our Food Roots will also communicate in its own right.
“We will run campaigns, and they will be a mixture of advertising digital and social and PR-led campaigns, and you’re seeing that a little bit at the moment,” he said, pointing to the body’s first campaign called Our Water Matters, which has its own website with facts, figures and information about water quality in Ireland.
Name change
Project Connect and Our Food Connects were holding names just to get the entity off the ground and to get the company registered.
The project is rebranding to Our Food Roots and Cronin said the name “helps explain that journey from fields to plate and it works to, I suppose, tell the unseen story of the quality that goes into Irish food, how it’s produced and the pride that all of the sector all through that journey takes in it”.
Tom Cronin’s background
Cronin was appointed last September. Prior to his role in Our Food Roots, he worked in a number of different marketing and commercial roles within the food industry, also within the business and agri-lending team in Bank of Ireland and most recently for a sustainability services firm.
This firm helped food companies, amongst others, to get their sustainability plans in place.
“Food companies I worked for included Green Isle Foods out in Naas, GlaxoSmithKline and Kellogg’s.”
The emotional connection to Irish farming is being lost and Tom Cronin is the man who has been charged with reconnecting consumers with where their food comes from and busting misinformation from unreliable sources.
Cronin took up the role as executive director of Our Food Roots – the industry-funded body focused on deepening public engagement to shape national conversations about food and farming – last September.
“It’s targeted at the disconnected consumer. Irish people’s relationship with food and farming is shifting and what we see is that knowledge and awareness of the sector is in decline.
“People are taking information about their food and where their food comes from often from unreliable sources. Yet concerns about the price of food and food provenance are growing. We’re certainly seeing that more recently,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Our Food Roots has been set up to address that disconnect and tell the story of Irish food and farming and help reconnect consumers to where that’s come from, he said.
“An interesting statistic is that six in 10 people now would say they don’t know enough about what Irish food and farming does for the environment, for the economy, for society. So, there’s that growing base of what we call the ‘undecided group’.
“There are about 25% of the population, and they’re not against farming, they’re just undecided. And they don’t know enough. They’ve no emotional connection to farming. Only one in 10 people now are connected to an Irish farm and that’s declining so that emotional connection to the sector is being lost,” he said.
Trust
“And I would say that for us, that’s important because, you know, trust in the sector has never been more important.
“Food and farming sustains our rural communities, it’s vital for our food security, it’s vital for stewardship of the land but also, most importantly, it’s the food on our plate where it’s come from, for everybody in the country. That’s the most important factor of all. So that’s why trust in the sector is critical,” he said.
Our Food Roots is chaired by former Department of Agriculture secretary general Tom Moran and has a raft of board members, all of whom are industry backers. Members include the ICMSA, the National Dairy Council, Dairy Industry Ireland and a cross-section of food producers and processors including ABP, Dawn Meats, Tirlán and the UCD School of Agriculture.
Tom Cronin. \ Claire Nash
Two other big players on that board are the IFA and Bord Bia.
When asked if the current disconnect between the IFA and Bord Bia would impact Our Food Roots, he reiterated that having trust in the sector is really important.
“I think the sooner that gets resolved, the better so that we’re all presenting a united front and people see a sector that’s working to address its challenges together.”
Our Food Roots is funded by its industry members, this is set out broadly by company size, with each individual entity contributing an amount as agreed to the fund.
Challenge
When asked why he took on the role, he said he was excited about the challenge that Project Connect, as it was known last year, had set out.
“I do think the story of Irish food and farming is much better understood abroad and we do a much better job of it amongst international markets, but it can be taken for granted at home here.
“I think food production and farming are changing, it’s a very dynamic sector, a dynamic industry, it will change more in the future.
“I think it’s a really interesting story to tell, about where it’s going. Irish people need to understand that better and where their food comes from and the challenges that are faced in doing that.”
Cronin himself is not going to be wheeled out to bat for the sector on the national airwaves to reconnect with consumers. Instead, Our Food Roots will play two roles; one in supporting industry to speak about the sector and the other will be communicating directly with consumers.
The body will identify the right experts and spokespeople that can represent the sector on either national airwaves, local, radio or whatever medium is most appropriate, he said.
“We can help identify those people, help give them the support and content that they need to represent the sector, help give them media training or help them bring the right voice to the matter where it needs to be. Often we hear that when a particular topic breaks, it’s not always the right organisation represented the sector so part of our role is to help do that,” he said.
Our Food Roots will also communicate in its own right.
“We will run campaigns, and they will be a mixture of advertising digital and social and PR-led campaigns, and you’re seeing that a little bit at the moment,” he said, pointing to the body’s first campaign called Our Water Matters, which has its own website with facts, figures and information about water quality in Ireland.
Name change
Project Connect and Our Food Connects were holding names just to get the entity off the ground and to get the company registered.
The project is rebranding to Our Food Roots and Cronin said the name “helps explain that journey from fields to plate and it works to, I suppose, tell the unseen story of the quality that goes into Irish food, how it’s produced and the pride that all of the sector all through that journey takes in it”.
Tom Cronin’s background
Cronin was appointed last September. Prior to his role in Our Food Roots, he worked in a number of different marketing and commercial roles within the food industry, also within the business and agri-lending team in Bank of Ireland and most recently for a sustainability services firm.
This firm helped food companies, amongst others, to get their sustainability plans in place.
“Food companies I worked for included Green Isle Foods out in Naas, GlaxoSmithKline and Kellogg’s.”
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