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.