Agriculture journalism is important to build bridges between farmers and consumers. That was the message from Ana-Lucía Camacho, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development of Jalisco when IFAJ’s Executive Committee met her during the mid-season meeting in Mexico. When fewer and fewer people know how their food is produced, the work of agriculture journalists is crucial.
But at the same time, few news media allocate resources to reporters who are specialized in agriculture. The newspaper where I work conducted a survey earlier this year with leading Swedish media on their reporting about agriculture, food production and forestry. None of the media in the survey had reporters with special knowledge in agriculture. Many answered that they hadn’t enough resources to have anyone dedicated to agriculture issues. One of the editors in the survey said that agriculture was a too narrow subject to have special reporting on. Too narrow? Everybody eats at least three times a day and, in these days, it is important for countries to secure their food supply. And to be able to feed its people, farmers are essential.
It is sad that so many politicians and opinion leaders seem to think that agriculture is only important for farmers. In my part of the world one can notice a small change and higher awareness after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but there are still a lot of people who don’t seem to realize where their food comes from.
Right now, there is a big discussion about rising food prices all over the world. Some journalists blame farmers for the high food prices. In this situation agriculture journalists have an important task to explain the complexities in the food system.
Farmers and consumers can be strong together and change things to their advantage. The new Farmer-Citizen movement (BBB) in the Netherlands is a telling example of that. BBB was a result of the farmer’s protest actions in 2019 but won a shock victory in the election recently and became the biggest party in the parliament. The big challenge for the party is to stop the government’s plan to dramatically reduce livestock numbers and buy out farmers. In this fight lots of consumers have joined the farmers.
So, as Ana-Lucía Camacho said, agriculture journalists are important. That is obvious to many. But without journalists who can underline and explain how important agriculture is for all our survival, many things can go completely wrong.