When the term ‘social licence to operate’ first came on the radar for agriculture in this country about six or seven year ago everyone looked wise and then rushed to the nearest bathroom to ask Dr Google what it meant
It’s one of those terms like sustainability that has a mind blowing number of definitions. 90% of them in a lingo nobody understands and far too many people used that excuse to put it in the too hard basket
For me as a farmer having a social licence means the community trusts that I care as much as they do about the environment, producing safe food, my employees and my animals that they don’t feel that it is necessary to ask the government to create an ad infinitum list of red and green tape regulations to make sure I do the right thing
The NSW Government has pulled social licence well and truly out of the too hard basket and put it very visibly on the table as part of their AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY ACTION PLAN DISCUSSION See here
I was very honoured and excited to be part of the discussion on the four social licence policy items proposed in the Industry Action Plan at the SOCIAL LICENCE TO OPERATE – CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITY workshop yesterday
I was also so proud to have one of the Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champions as a speaker at the event. Josh Gibert’s topic was ‘Social Licence the Narrative’ and wow did Josh do a fantastic job. I will blog Josh’s presentation on Art4Agriculture Chat
Pip Courtney facilitated the event brilliantly and a number of actions were put forward at the end of the day.
I personally have no concept of why many of our farmers are tip toeing around social licence. After we all want the same thing as the community and our consumers.
Safe, affordable, nutritious food and quality fibre produced by people who care
Find me a farmer who doesn’t care because if you can that person doesn’t belong in agriculture and they need to be told that. I am confident that will be a very short list.
Agriculture has not told its story well and as a result we are often seen as a sunset industry in this state, Minister Katrina Hodgkinson MP, Director General Scott Hansen and their team are determined to shine the light on agriculture again.
Our farmers have a very important role to help them do that. Let’s start by making our journey a partnership with the community
After all we do want the same thing
Safe, affordable, nutritious food and quality fibre produced by people who care
Lets tell our story, take community on the journey with us and the narrative must be underpinned by why we do it.
Why am I feeding our calves?. Marian MacDonald tells you why here
You can find the AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY ACTION PLAN here
