Changing the narrative on farming and the environment

As a leading farming and environment PR agency, Pinstone consistently monitors shifting agricultural communications trends. In this piece, Catherine Linch explores how industry narratives are evolving and draws on insights from the Low Carbon Agriculture Show that posed the question, Can Farming Save the Planet?

The evolving relationship between farming and environment

At the time of doing my degree in Agriculture and the Environment at Wye College in the late 90s, there was a very clear distinction between farming – with its commercial focus, and the countryside that was seen as sitting elsewhere in the landscape.

For those of us in agricultural communications, it’s clear there has been a sea change in attitudes, innovation, government incentives and farming practices that has led to today where farming and the environment are intrinsically linked.

But, what does the average consumer hear? Red meat bad – plant-based diets good / factory farming bad – farming emissions, additives, pollution and negative connotations around animal welfare and wildlife, the lists goes on. It’s an unjustifiably doom-laden picture that requires strategic and considered environmental messaging to counteract.

Expert insights from the Low Carbon Agriculture Show

These were some of the themes explored at the Low Carbon Agriculture Show, where Pinstone‘s team gathered key insights for our farming PR work. Industry experts presented diverse perspectives on sustainable agriculture and the implications for communications:

• Alison Morgan advocated an entirely pasture-reared red meat diet, highlighting the necessity to cut animal fat waste and the benefits of reintroducing offal back into the national diet.
• NFU’s Jonathan Scurlock pointed to the radical shift in where people go for information, that’s switched from ‘mass communication’ via the BBC or ITV and newspapers, to today’s ‘massive communication’ where anyone can broadcast opinions through social and digital channels
• Farming Guardian’s editor Olivia Midgely saw a silver lining in the national media having its eyes on farming like never before in response to government’s controversial inheritance tax policy. “It’s the opportunity to broaden the conversation,” she said, noting that the farming industry’s Pancake Day protest in London demonstrated effective UK farming narrative with a simple but powerful message: ‘no pancakes without British farmers.’

Challenges in communicating British farming’s environmental benefits

The conference revealed several barriers to effective agricultural communications about sustainability:

• Imperial’s David Hughes noted that while awareness around food and health is higher than ever, other priorities take over when it comes to purchasing behaviours: “they largely do nothing,” he said, explaining that “it’s not easy to shop sustainably.”
• Hughes presented data showing how poorly the UK ranks in prioritising home-grown produce, exceeding only Singapore and Hong Kong in the tables – nations that produce minimal food. Italy topped the polls, demonstrating more effective agricultural messaging.
• Cefetra‘s Uwe Schroder pointed out that choosing British often amounts to paying just one or two pence more – or even as little as one hundredth of a pence in some instances.
• William Butler of Whitworth Bros agreed but said that any price increase, however small, is considered unacceptable by many, believing that all actors in the supply chain need aligned goals to instigate change.
• Alexia Robinson of Love British Food identified enormous opportunity for ‘buying British’ in the food service sector, with food fraud proving a huge problem. She also highlighted that public procurement datasets categorise food that’s only packaged in the UK as “British” – another challenge for transparent food messaging.

Opportunities for positive agricultural PR messaging

In one of the events final sessions, farmer Andrew Lofus emphasised that the UK’s livestock sector has a lower carbon footprint per kilo than anywhere else in the world. He argued that the sustainable agriculture debate has been skewed by considering methane from ruminants in the same context as other emissions causing warming impacts.

There was also consensus among experts that environmentally friendly farming extends far beyond viewing agriculture through a carbon-only focused lens:

• Elizabeth Magowan of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute encouraged farmers to be proud and not beat themselves up about environmental impacts.
• She highlighted opportunities in integrating grassland and arable enterprises and introducing legumes to improve soil fertility, with factors such as livestock genetics and improving animal health leading to improved efficiency.
• Additional technologies and approaches, including feed additives for appropriate systems, all contribute to a stronger environmental footprint for UK farming.

The future of farming, food and environmental PR

The question posed at the start of the day was ‘can farming save the planet?’ It received a resounding ‘yes’ from the Low Carbon Agriculture delegates. This powerful message must be heard beyond the confines of the industry to defend the many benefits of our food and farming sector.

As a specialist farming and environment PR agency, Pinstone works with agricultural and food supply chain businesses to develop compelling narratives that accurately represent farming’s positive environmental contributions. Our experienced team creates strategic communications that bridge the gap between industry realities and public perception.