The Telling Our Story initiative was launched by the NFF in 2019. Telling Our Story aims to better connect Australians with their food and fibre and secure agriculture’s social licence to operate.
The NFF has a. goal for agriculture to be Australia’s most trusted industry by 2030.
Telling Our Story is led by the NFF and supported by Meat and Livestock Australia, Nutrien Ag Solutions and Woolworths.
Sentiment towards farmers and agriculture is already high within the Australian community. IN December 2020, following the Telling Our Story #GotYourBack and #BackOnTrack campaigns, NFF research showed an increase in this positive sentiment, up 9 points to 72%.
Trust in farming and agriculture was at 68%. Knowledge of agriculture also increase 7 points with 34% of those surveyed purporting to know a lot or a fair amount about farming.
Despite the high regard Australians hold for our industry, the research identified aspects of agriculture that Australians require more information about. For example, only 23% said they strongly believed farmers were improving their environmental performance or were committed to sustainable land management. Only 20% said they strongly agreed farmers prioritised consumer safety in their use of chemicals and only 17% strongly agreed farmers treated their workers fairy.
Through Telling Our Story, NFF on behalf of all agriculture and with our partners, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Meat and Livestock Australia and Woolworths, is committed to continuing a discussion with The Australian community about what we do and how we do it.
On Friday 19 November the NFF hosted the fifth annual National Agriculture Day.
The theme of this year’s #AgDayAU was ‘Choose Your #AgVenture’ showcasing all the fabulous and fulfilling careers on offer in ag.
From riding the boundary fences of a Top End cattle station to the breeding the next breakthrough wheat variety, there’s a role for every interest, skill and passion in agriculture. These were captured by farmers across Australia in the 2021 photography competition.
Australians across the country turned out to celebrate our farmers, food and fibre. As in all previous year’s #AgDayAU was trending on social media throughout the day.
During August 2021, the Telling Our Story ‘Australian Farmers: Where #RealClimateAction Happens’ campaign was launched. Research by the NFF shows Australians are unconvinced about farmers credentials when it comes to climate change.
Those surveyed recognised agriculture was on the frontline of climate through droughts, floods and bushfires but wanted to know more about what farmers were doing to reduce emissions.
Through the story of real farmers, the #RealClimateAction tells the positive story of what farmers are doing everyday to combat climate.
The campaign features the stories of dairy farmer, Tess Butler; grain grower Dan Fox and beef producer Stuart Austin and the #RealClimateAction they are embarking on every day. The professionally produced videos were complemented by DIY videos from farmers across Australian also sharing their #RealClimateAction.
So far, the campaign has been seen by 5 million people. The #RealClimateAction videos were shown at the recent Glasow Climate Change Conference and until February 2022, are featured on Qantas’ inflight entertainment.
By October 2020, supermarket shelves were re-stocked but Australians were concerned about the economic fall out from the pandemic. The #BackOnTrack campaign told the story of the ‘everyday extraordinary’ efforts of farmers from Katherine to Coolac, who were fuelling Australia’s economic recovery.
Farmers like Sam Heagney, a grain and cattle producer from Mungindi, NSW who was employing grounded pilots to drive headers and Sydney Basin organic vegetable grower, Christina Kelman and her mum Rita, who when COVID hit, pivoted their farmers market business to contactless home delivery.
The messaging of farmers Emma, Henry, Sam, Nat, Christina and Kay were featured on billboards across the country, a significant digital and social media campaign; breakfast television countless radio programs. The media was particularly interested in the role of farmers providing jobs to unemployed Australians.
#BackOnTrack reached about 15 millions Australians!
At beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the #GotYourback campaign reassured all Australians that farmers were experts at working from home. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, farmers across the country were in the dairy, the tractor, and the paddock, getting on with the job of feeding Australians and the world!
The #GotYourBack campaign promoted Australia’s food security credentials and reassured Aussies that one thing they didn’t need to worry about was the country running out of food – thanks to the hard work of our farmers. #GotYourBack also had a message of thanks. Australians had given generously to help farmers during drought and now it was our turn to support our Aussies in need!
The campaign featured newspaper ads, billboards in capital cities and social media videos from farmers ‘getting on with the job’. The Prime Minister even posted a tribute to our farmers from his Facebook account – featuring the farmers featured in our campaign.
The #GotYourBack campaign reached about 6 million Australians
Launched in October 2019, the We Are Australian Farmers short film demonstrated the shared values between farmers and all Australians – highlighting that regardless of where we live and what we do, we are all motivated by the same values: to leave the planet in better shape than we found it and to provide a brighter future for the next generation.
AgDay, on the third Friday in November, is a day when the nation, from Bourke to Brunswick, Bunbury to Bundaberg turns out to celebrate our farmers.
In 2020, the fourth annual AgDay, was celebrated in a COVID safe manner with
socially distanced Long Table Lunches, an AgDay Bake Off (tapping into the COVID home
baking phenomena) and celebrations in schools across the country.
There were also messages of support from the Prime Minister and other high profiles Australians, including Mia Freedman, Matt Moran, the Wallabies, Giaan Rooney.
Australian Farmers, farmer.org.au, is the home of Telling Our Story. The platform features profiles of farmers from across the country; recipes using quality Aussie produce; farm facts; classroom resources and more!
Every Wednesday, the AustralianFarmers enews goes to an audience of more than 40,000 Australians who are interested to learn more about where their food and fibre comes!
Copyright © 2018 · Created by the National Farmers' Federation
