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Thursday, 16 February 2012
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Evolution - a brief synopsis!
As with most things in my life, evolution seems to be an integral part of being.
My Nuffield Study topic was no exception.
My Nuffield Study topic started out as "Championing British Agriculture".
Once I had researched key aspects to this area of study, my topic title changed to "Improving the Public Perception of Agriculture".
As my travels progressed, I grew to understand that agriculture is but a small part of the food chain. I also developed an understanding that public trust is more important than public perception (see previous posts for details).
Thus the results of my study are best reflected by the title "Improving Public Trust in the Food Chain".
However, that title is a result of my study and as such is a part of the findings rather than a title that sets the scene.
My Nuffield Study topic was no exception.
My Nuffield Study topic started out as "Championing British Agriculture".
Once I had researched key aspects to this area of study, my topic title changed to "Improving the Public Perception of Agriculture".
As my travels progressed, I grew to understand that agriculture is but a small part of the food chain. I also developed an understanding that public trust is more important than public perception (see previous posts for details).
Thus the results of my study are best reflected by the title "Improving Public Trust in the Food Chain".
However, that title is a result of my study and as such is a part of the findings rather than a title that sets the scene.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Sunday, 15 May 2011
A short (very short) lesson in philosophy
[In the style of Melvyn Bragg]
- Good Morning and welcome to 'In Our Time'.
It was Socrates who, just prior to his suicide in 399BC, said "Nobody trusts me, I've had enough".
As an international playboy of his time, Socrates image was up there with the best of them, so the question of trust played a significant role in his demise, rather than an image problem getting him down, or the terminal spread of the nasty rash that he contracted on the Athenian coast the Summer of 400BC (a bit like the summer of '69, with togas).
This morning I'm joined by Adam West, Nuffield Scholar and "professor inabsentia" at The University of Life.
Adam, please define the difference between trust and image for us.
- Morning Melvyn.Socrates mistake was not the fact that he should have taken precautions with his love-life in order to prevent that minor rash. His mistake was that he paid more attention to his public image and did not monitor how much the public trusted him.
Of course there are significant linkages between trust and image, however the findings of my recent study are that trust is causal and objective and image is purely a symptom of actions and thus subjective. As such, there are many circumstances such as in agriculture where need to deal with public trust issues rather than seeking to improve our image by whatever means.
By the way, you sound a bit blocked up Melvyn. Do you want some Sinex?!
- Good Morning and welcome to 'In Our Time'.
It was Socrates who, just prior to his suicide in 399BC, said "Nobody trusts me, I've had enough".
As an international playboy of his time, Socrates image was up there with the best of them, so the question of trust played a significant role in his demise, rather than an image problem getting him down, or the terminal spread of the nasty rash that he contracted on the Athenian coast the Summer of 400BC (a bit like the summer of '69, with togas).
This morning I'm joined by Adam West, Nuffield Scholar and "professor inabsentia" at The University of Life.
Adam, please define the difference between trust and image for us.
- Morning Melvyn.Socrates mistake was not the fact that he should have taken precautions with his love-life in order to prevent that minor rash. His mistake was that he paid more attention to his public image and did not monitor how much the public trusted him.
Of course there are significant linkages between trust and image, however the findings of my recent study are that trust is causal and objective and image is purely a symptom of actions and thus subjective. As such, there are many circumstances such as in agriculture where need to deal with public trust issues rather than seeking to improve our image by whatever means.
By the way, you sound a bit blocked up Melvyn. Do you want some Sinex?!
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Hold on tight - Eureka moment happening!!
My chance email to Roma Britnell (Australian 2011 Nuffield Scholar) to find her blog details resulted in an introduction to Charlie Arnot of the Centre for Food Integrity in the USA. Pretty tenuous in the first instance, but I'm so glad it worked that way. (The spirit of Nuffield in action!)
Charlie was inspirational. There's no other way to describe how I felt. The 2 hour meeting (very generous anyway) went on for 2 hrs 30 mins, late on a Friday afternoon, showing Charlie's generosity and dedication to the subject. During that time we mulled over a wide variety of works relating to food chain trust, agricultural image, key players, interactions between them, leadership, innovation, overcoming obstacles to win - it's all beginning to sound like our Gettysburg visit last year. Thankfully Charlie wasn't dressed as Abraham Lincoln!!
It appears at this point that Charlie, Roma and I seem to be heading in similar directions on the subject of demonstrating the value of agriculture and improving the trust/public perception of agriculture/food chain.
I'm indebted to Charlie for his time and effort in seeing me, and to Roma for being open and sharing her contact with me.
Having had such a positive experience (and it's Friday evening and I'm lucky enough to be in the centre of Kansas City) I'm going for a beer and half a cow (a light snack now I'm used to USA food portions)!
Charlie was inspirational. There's no other way to describe how I felt. The 2 hour meeting (very generous anyway) went on for 2 hrs 30 mins, late on a Friday afternoon, showing Charlie's generosity and dedication to the subject. During that time we mulled over a wide variety of works relating to food chain trust, agricultural image, key players, interactions between them, leadership, innovation, overcoming obstacles to win - it's all beginning to sound like our Gettysburg visit last year. Thankfully Charlie wasn't dressed as Abraham Lincoln!!
It appears at this point that Charlie, Roma and I seem to be heading in similar directions on the subject of demonstrating the value of agriculture and improving the trust/public perception of agriculture/food chain.
I'm indebted to Charlie for his time and effort in seeing me, and to Roma for being open and sharing her contact with me.
Having had such a positive experience (and it's Friday evening and I'm lucky enough to be in the centre of Kansas City) I'm going for a beer and half a cow (a light snack now I'm used to USA food portions)!
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Uploading and downloading...
It's not everyday you meet someone like Bart Ruth.
At first sight, Bart's an easy-going, unassuming Nebraska farmer who obviously loves farming. Speak with him for 5 minutes and you begin to see the professional agriculturalist who has done so much for the industry in the US, through promotion of soybeans overseas and globally through his involvement in the Eisenhower Fellowship amongst other groups.
In the 24 hours I've been here, we've planted soybean (no-till), sprayed fertiliser and pre-emergence herbicide and discussed public image issues at length, not all of these at the same time I hasten to add!
Bart's open mind and vision for the future is key to his effectiveness as an industry advocate. This, coupled with his voracious appetite for information (the blackberry didn't stop beeping while we were planting!) keep him informed, so he speaks with authority.
Frustratingly, I find myself struggling to communicate home (a combination of poor Skype connection and lack of mobile coverage), while Bart's constantly soaking up farm and industry information via the blackberry, his son (Geoff) and his agronomist.
Using technology has to-date had it's challenges for many of us, not least adoption of new methods of communication (e.g. Twitter, blogging) and associated costs of mobile access to this information.
Bart proves that you can farm and make use of technology without having to blog (I'm going to teach him the basics later - poor sod!) or tweet. Bart's a great communicator and has spoken at numerous events, but you won't find his stuff on Youtube. LinkedIn is about the only social media that he currently subscribes to.
I guess the lesson is listening (technically known as downloading) is as important as talking (uploading).
So now I'm going to download some more information from Bart while I'm here and stop uploading this blog!!
At first sight, Bart's an easy-going, unassuming Nebraska farmer who obviously loves farming. Speak with him for 5 minutes and you begin to see the professional agriculturalist who has done so much for the industry in the US, through promotion of soybeans overseas and globally through his involvement in the Eisenhower Fellowship amongst other groups.
In the 24 hours I've been here, we've planted soybean (no-till), sprayed fertiliser and pre-emergence herbicide and discussed public image issues at length, not all of these at the same time I hasten to add!
Bart's open mind and vision for the future is key to his effectiveness as an industry advocate. This, coupled with his voracious appetite for information (the blackberry didn't stop beeping while we were planting!) keep him informed, so he speaks with authority.
Frustratingly, I find myself struggling to communicate home (a combination of poor Skype connection and lack of mobile coverage), while Bart's constantly soaking up farm and industry information via the blackberry, his son (Geoff) and his agronomist.
Using technology has to-date had it's challenges for many of us, not least adoption of new methods of communication (e.g. Twitter, blogging) and associated costs of mobile access to this information.
Bart proves that you can farm and make use of technology without having to blog (I'm going to teach him the basics later - poor sod!) or tweet. Bart's a great communicator and has spoken at numerous events, but you won't find his stuff on Youtube. LinkedIn is about the only social media that he currently subscribes to.
I guess the lesson is listening (technically known as downloading) is as important as talking (uploading).
So now I'm going to download some more information from Bart while I'm here and stop uploading this blog!!
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Joe Bloggs does internet research on farming systems
It wasn't surprising to find that US farmers running scared of single interest lobby groups.
The farmers I visited have all been really generous with their time and hospitality, allowing me to look at their farm enterprises and sometimes even drive the tractors myself - all making the trip a great experience.
Now, I like to think I'm a relatively easy guest, after all I'm a farmer myself so have much in common with my hosts.
My point is this; if we as farmers are going to allay the public fears over farming methods we're going to have to (on some farms) show mainstream farming practices to the public in ways that they can access easily and quickly.
I say this on the back of an hour of youtube searching, during which time I found a plethora of clips showing abbatoirs, and various "normal" farming systems. As you'll be aware, these clips are publicly available, so "Joe Bloggs" can read an article in the paper/on the web and within seconds research the subject using tools such as youtube.
There are some great clips of good practice already on youtube, but littering the lists are many clips which have been produced by single interest groups or individuals trying to make a point (usually negative from a farming perspective).
So Joe Bloggs' research is now tainted by the fact that much of his time and effort is resulting in inflammatory material further skewing his opinion.
There are two main ways of showing Joe Bloggs how it's done. The first is for him to have ready access to a farm near him where he can see this first hand. A big ask and unlikely to happen across the board simply because farmers didn't join the profession to be tour-guides.
It's a concept that is reaping rewards in some places. FairOaks Dairy Farm for example are famous for their tours, which allow the public to view the processes on a dairy farm without it being a major hassle for the farm - in fact in the case of FairOaks, it's a subsidiary income. (and not insubstantial at that!)
http://fofarms.com/en/home
I very much doubt my hosts would have shown Joe Bloggs what they showed me, because they're not set up for visits and neither should they have to encourage people to visit.
Many farms have websites now and farmers should be encouraged to record and upload their own clips, over which they have full control. They should then put them on their websites and add them to youtube while they're at it.
That way there would be far more realistic clips for "Joe" to research when he next looks into how a farming system works.
The farmers I visited have all been really generous with their time and hospitality, allowing me to look at their farm enterprises and sometimes even drive the tractors myself - all making the trip a great experience.
Now, I like to think I'm a relatively easy guest, after all I'm a farmer myself so have much in common with my hosts.
My point is this; if we as farmers are going to allay the public fears over farming methods we're going to have to (on some farms) show mainstream farming practices to the public in ways that they can access easily and quickly.
I say this on the back of an hour of youtube searching, during which time I found a plethora of clips showing abbatoirs, and various "normal" farming systems. As you'll be aware, these clips are publicly available, so "Joe Bloggs" can read an article in the paper/on the web and within seconds research the subject using tools such as youtube.
There are some great clips of good practice already on youtube, but littering the lists are many clips which have been produced by single interest groups or individuals trying to make a point (usually negative from a farming perspective).
So Joe Bloggs' research is now tainted by the fact that much of his time and effort is resulting in inflammatory material further skewing his opinion.
There are two main ways of showing Joe Bloggs how it's done. The first is for him to have ready access to a farm near him where he can see this first hand. A big ask and unlikely to happen across the board simply because farmers didn't join the profession to be tour-guides.
It's a concept that is reaping rewards in some places. FairOaks Dairy Farm for example are famous for their tours, which allow the public to view the processes on a dairy farm without it being a major hassle for the farm - in fact in the case of FairOaks, it's a subsidiary income. (and not insubstantial at that!)
http://fofarms.com/en/home
I very much doubt my hosts would have shown Joe Bloggs what they showed me, because they're not set up for visits and neither should they have to encourage people to visit.
Many farms have websites now and farmers should be encouraged to record and upload their own clips, over which they have full control. They should then put them on their websites and add them to youtube while they're at it.
That way there would be far more realistic clips for "Joe" to research when he next looks into how a farming system works.
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