The Public really do not know!!

[serf]

Good job they don't know , if they ever find out food grows in them fields they will be out there filling their boots .......

Then again they prob couldn't be arsed

 

[Hilly]

Who cares , I buy a car but I don’t want educated ins outs of car manufacturing or motoring trade , even if I did it won’t make me want to pay more for it , probably see mr dealer living in his countryside abode and receiving subsidy and I want to pay less ...

 

[honeyend]

To be fair how many people know how their car works, they expect to have roads and stuff in the shops, and then moan when the roads are full of HGV's. They have little idea how their body works either, it's like every function of their lives has been delegated as someone else's responsibility, they want the end product with none of the bother of how it functions or how it gets there.
I hate to bring up Brexit, but a lot of people who didn't want foreigners 'taking jobs' refused to acknowledge that they helped the country function, and now they are surprised there are staff shortages, in some areas.
Some supermarkets label fruit and veg with the farmer that produced it, I think this should be encouraged, because let's face it there some meat is finished well away from where it was produced. I not sure you need a scheme to add value, but simple labelling and the farms own web site, where you promote your self, if you want, and your products. A bit like Booking.com, you can be a one bed rent or a large hotel, but you have a platform to promote your product, and perhaps give a list of your outlets and who you sell to.
People are very self centred, I listened to a discussion on the radio about promotion and charity giving, and virtue signalling is often not followed up by a donation, so somehow there has to be some sort of feel good/ support feeling but at the same time extracting the money out of them, to fund quality products.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Presumably you get paid for it ?

We did it through CS/HLS educational access but I did some unpaid too, including 1st 4 years of Open Farm Sunday. I feel I've done my bit, over the last 20 years. Still do some bits - eg East of England Agri Society have a great big kids event in the summer that I help out at and I've never been paid for the magazine article which I've done for 16 years now. I think Defra/NE made a bad mistake when they changed ed access eligibility back to school kids /disabled groups only, not the other adult groups. A lot of my visits were from bunny hugging groups who learned a few home truths but were also bowled over by the wildlife we have here.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Probably the wrong PR, I mentioned no-till to a group of people on Thursday and they had not got a clue what I was talking about!! do we promote Groundswell to the public or JUST farmers??

Why on Earth would you expect the public to have heard of no till? It's very much a subject for farmers only. We keep hearing that the public love and look for RT products and yet here you are saying they've no clue what RT is. That's not a shock btw.

 

[Mouser]

Nobody else think ignorance is bliss? Especially where meat is concerned the more they know, the more the vegan fad will take hold. My wife and kids love meat but mention a cow becoming burgers or sausages coming from pigs I get told to be quiet as they dont like to think about it.

 

[Wolds Beef]

Richard, one of your agronomy colleagues is not even interested in Groundswell!! and my 'Young Gun' nieghbour has a very traditional father who dismisses anything to do with regenerative agriculture. I am looking at it and my other contractor and basis trained godson has at least got a weaving direct drill. I used to host the first year forms from QEGS Horncastle around the farm at Wood Enderby and Ruth did join us sometimes to explain the crops and goings on. But she dismisses any thing a large farming set up is doing just north of us here. I and yourself also have a large Biodynamic Organic farm on our doorstep to see what they do but they have standing stones and crystals all over there farm! They would not let some of there livestock be slaughtered and there previous manager, Kate had to make them disappear sometimes!!
WB

 

[The Seeker]

the great unwashed along with many people taking from our pockets have little to no idea what farmers do. if you stop the farmers many will get buy on assets but those involves in the supple chines will be gone overnight, they all should be making as much noise bout being needed as farmers try, most of them have big business behind them most of us are one man bands - not by choice either

 

[DrWazzock]

To me the abiding memory of Christmas was the smell of Turkey guts and burning methylated spirits singeing the down off and the back kitchen full of buckets of entrails, heads and legs with mother neatly snipping round every arsehoke and adeptly drawing the innards out, then reaching in for the lungs. We were used to it and were satisfied when the dining room table was laden with clean plump birds for sale to callers. I often wonder though what the public would make of it. Some things are maybe best left unknown.
What the public imagine, and the way we live rurally are so disconnected that I’m not sure they will ever be reconciled or if there is much point in even trying to reconcile it.
I am sure the same disconnect occurs in hospitals and in other industries and in some ways there is no bad thing about living your life slightly apart from the general throng under a veil of mystery. Secret knowledge is power.

 

[Jimdog1]

I am not about to have an open farm Sunday anytime soon however kids have a small egg stand at the end of the lane and I make a point of speaking to anyone I see buying eggs. It has been a bit of an eye opener as these people are genuinely interested and I am delighted to educate. Not much but my small contribution. I feel good about that. Interesting item on radio 4 yesterday about leaf teaching medical students about food production. Making butter in a bottle and comparing non dairy milk to gold top on a blind taste test. Students were really engaged. This is where levy money should go

 

[Hilly]

To be fair how many people know how their car works, they expect to have roads and stuff in the shops, and then moan when the roads are full of HGV's. They have little idea how their body works either, it's like every function of their lives has been delegated as someone else's responsibility, they want the end product with none of the bother of how it functions or how it gets there.
I hate to bring up Brexit, but a lot of people who didn't want foreigners 'taking jobs' refused to acknowledge that they helped the country function, and now they are surprised there are staff shortages, in some areas.
Some supermarkets label fruit and veg with the farmer that produced it, I think this should be encouraged, because let's face it there some meat is finished well away from where it was produced. I not sure you need a scheme to add value, but simple labelling and the farms own web site, where you promote your self, if you want, and your products. A bit like Booking.com, you can be a one bed rent or a large hotel, but you have a platform to promote your product, and perhaps give a list of your outlets and who you sell to.
People are very self centred, I listened to a discussion on the radio about promotion and charity giving, and virtue signalling is often not followed up by a donation, so somehow there has to be some sort of feel good/ support feeling but at the same time extracting the money out of them, to fund quality products.

In the 60s car manual showed you how to set tappets , today it warns you not to drink the battery acid . We take two steps forward 3 back .

 

[snarling bee]

Many including myself do our bit for promotion, but I have never spoken to a meeting of more than 30. Even the local ER (XR?) group only has 15 on the 'zoom' call and 3 of us were the speakers. With the best will in the world we are never going to reach 60million.

 

[Martin Holden]

I'd have thought we have reached Farming PR saturation point by now, in fact it's difficult to avoid it. But like most things that there is plenty off, it's soon forgotten about and we all move on.

Never reached saturation point as such. The issue is that the general public really don’t care where food comes from so it’s like grain falling on stony ground - it won’t grow! Until there are real food shortages the public don’t think about these things. The latest mobile phone or holiday is far more important.