We know that some of yesteryear’s farmers would roll in their drays if they knew, but many of their descendants may be tweeting next week, taking part in a first, a world-wide live Twitter discussion on issues and questions facing farmers who have to produce the Earth’s food in the years ahead.
The chat will mark World Food Day on Wednesday 16th October with the initial questions timed for after milking in Europe that evening. For Australia, the twitter session will happen on the morning of Thursday 17th October – right on milking time.
It is being organised by a world-wide collaboration of farming Twitter groups, including the Australian group @AgChatOZ, @AgChat in the US, @AgchatNZ in New Zealand and a collaboration of European groups.
Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association chief executive Jan Davis said she’d be part of the event. She encouraged Tasmanian farmers and anyone else interested in agriculture to join in.
“We are being asked to share our experiences and thoughts on the challenges we face, the future of the food system,” Ms Davis said. “Twitter is a great communications tool for farmers.”
Dutch farmer Josien Kapma explained:
“In a world with fewer farmers, growing populations and the need to feed the world rising, farmers have a lot in common.
“We share between us a large responsibility and World Food Day provides the perfect opportunity to celebrate and recognise that we are proud producers of the world’s food.
“We also want to raise awareness of the issues we face in producing sufficient food sustainably.”
The UK’s main farming Twitter discussion group, @AgrichatUK, will facilitate the live chat by releasing questions for discussion between 0600 and 0730 (AEST) on October 17. To take part, tweeters will need to use the hashtags #AgrichatWorld and #WFD2013.
The Australian host, AgChatOZ, claims to reach 275,000 people per week, including farmers and consumers, environmental and agricultural lobby groups, politicians and the media.
TFGA chief executive Jan Davis
