I start this post by declaring I truly hope I have an open mind and wake up everyday ready to have my opinions challenged and a will to move where my values take me
This week saw the launch of “Fair Food Farmers United” a platform to connect, support and provide a united voice for farmers feeding Australia fairly. Read the press release here
This of course opens the door for many conversations about what is ‘fair’.
I for one am very happy to have that conversation.
What is fair?
Many define it as treating everyone the same, but everyone including farmers are not the same. They have different motivations for their choices, different needs, different causes for their behaviours and different goals.
According to UK Prime Minister David Cameron ‘fairness’ is about
“giving people what they deserve – and what people deserve depends on how they behave”.
For me ‘Fair’ is about ethics and values and ‘Equal’ is a term you can put numbers against
Last weekend I attended the Northside Forum to hear Young Farming Champion Jasmine Nixon speak as part of a panel that also included Philip Wright from the St James Ethics Centre.
The panel mix was superb and each panellist resonated with the audience in their own unique way and I was heartened by the way audience listened and absorbed and celebrated all the speakers.
We had a speaker who spoke with considerable expertise on the science of Genetic Modification, a 6th generation 25 year old beef farmer and a speaker who reminded us all that ethics is hard
In the end ultimately it was how each panellist answered the audience’s questions that determined the take home messages and each speaker gave their answers according to their values not the science ( though it always never hurts to be able to back up your values with some solid science)
For me ‘Fair’ for farmers means everyone in the value chain gets a fair return on investment.
So it all comes back to the individual and what each and everyone of us has invested to bring ethically produced, high quality affordable food and fibre from the farm to you
Ethics is hard and like it or not it is about accepting the cost
