The Country 24/06/25: Claire Taylor talks to Jamie Mackay

We catch up with a Scottish Nuffield Scholar and keynote speaker at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit. Her topic is "How do we change the narrative around farming?". 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are at the Primary Industry's summit the awards tonight.
Keynote speaker this afternoon or one of them will be
Clear Taylor Scottish Nuffield Scholar. Got a lovely accent, but
she's on Assie now and hello Clear, good afternoon. Good
to catch you for dinner last night as well. We
kind of bumped into each other. There's a whole whole

(00:20):
crew of a c FMG Farmers Weekly ourselves. But anyhow,
your address this afternoon is how do we change the
narrative around farming. You've got five minutes to talk me
through it, Jammie.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's lovely to be back on the country. I must
look like I'm always trying to get on your program.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, no, you're really good because you tick the age, ethnicity, gender,
You do a lot of things for the show. You've
certainly loved the Air for Change.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I'm getting that one step closer to living in
New Zealand now I've managed to get over the ditch.
I'm in Australia now, but you're delighted to be here
in kre Sure it's for the conference. I'm speaking this
afternoon on a topic which I think a lot of
cones are really zeroing in on, and that is about
how do we start positioning more positive farming narratives. This
is all my new field research. It has been for
the last couple of years, but I've got to that

(01:10):
stage where I've actually collated, I've got my findings down
and it's really lovely to be able to share some
of my insights and I'm going to be talking the audience.
There's some pretty tough conversations too, about where's agriculture maybe
not performing well when it comes to scrutiny, how are
we maybe being more reactive in that space. I'm going
to be talking about where narratives are breaking down around

(01:30):
the world, what's the problem where it's happening. But then
the big thing, like anything, it's where we can actually
develop some tools to be more positive.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, where are we letting ourselves down? Let me guess
the environment?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, elements within that, but if we actually strip it
right back. One of my opening messages is around mudslinging.
There's big issues in agriculture that we're sort of polarizing
ourselves into the binary position of what's right and what's wrong,
and that happens within the environment and if we look
at a sector regenerative farming versus conventional farming. That is
a big conversation that's happening where we've become a lot

(02:03):
more hesitant to accept difference in agriculture and we're not
often listening. That's a big problem that we have top
oppy syndrome, big issue here in New Zealand, big issue
in Australia. So you've got people that are trying to innovate,
who are trying to be you know, pursuing different routes
of leadership, and people are really tearing them down. I
remember speaking to lots of farming advocates when I was
in here in New Zealand, and they just said, you know,

(02:23):
we're being told to tone down success. But then that
stems into leadership for the future, and it's that idea.
If we don't have people that are really paving the
way for more progressive modernization, we're just really maintaining legacy
systems in agriculture.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
So here in New Zealand, clear this is my theory,
and I've been around for long enough to create a theory.
I reckon COVID or post COVID has almost been good
for New Zealand. Farming because I think urban people have
a renewed appreciation for what the farmers are doing to
fight us, but more importantly, what they're doing here in
New Zealand to save us going bankrupt as a nation.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I think that's not just here in New Zealand.
I think COVID Unfortunately, one of the positives from what
that was that reconnection piece that was happening. We saw
empty shelves, everyone panics, Everybody started remembering that, actually, the
food producers are so important. But part of the problem
over the years is we've been so quiet as farmers
the people. We've allowed that disconnect to really spread. So

(03:21):
now we do have this whole generation of curious consumers.
But I guess what my talk says today is that
what we're often doing is we're mistaking curiosity for criticism.
People want to know what farming is doing. You asked
me about the environment. They want to know what are
we doing around our natural environment, what are we doing
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It's a gift to farming
because we can actually start engaging and telling them what

(03:41):
we're doing. And it's a really good story.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Now, as we said, your domicile in Australia. You've found
love very clear. We're very very happy for you. But
you've just come back from a period in Scotland. Has
the Scottish government fallen in behind farmers around livestock numbers.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
It's a really interesting question because over the last decade
we've seen about twelve percent decline in our and our
livestock heard in Scotland and it's been going down for
a long time. And there's been a big campaign that's
just been launched really in the last month by Quality
Meat Scotland, our Red Meat body there and that has
been to increase the national beef herd and the Scottis
government I've just got behind that. The figures are pretty small,

(04:20):
the economic modeling behind it's fascinating. They've said, if we
could get every heard in Scotland, let's say that's around
eight thousand herds of cattle, if we can get them
to increase by two animals per year for the next
four years, we're going to meet the shortage it's expected.
So it's a really in terms of accessibility understanding is
putting that groundwork in and the government have got behind
that and it's just been our national show you've had

(04:41):
field days. We've just had the Highland Show. The government
has come out and supported that because we've got to
get those figures in the right direction again.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Clay Tayler, I could talk to you all day, but
I'm out of tom and I've got feder ridded farmers chomping, champing,
chomping at the bit over there. Tyby Williams the Meat
and Wool chair to come on, lovely to catch up
with you last night. Look forward to spending some time
with you, and I'm really looking forward to your address
this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Thanks so much. Greet you back in the program.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
There we go, Clear Taylor Nuffield, Scholar,