Thematic Group on Valuing Farmers' Wider Contributions to Society
This Thematic Group (TG) will reflect on the broader societal value produced by farmers, giving the opportunity to share insights, experiences, good practice examples, and innovative ideas on how to raise awareness about the multiple roles of farmers in rural communities.
EU farmers play a crucial role in our society. Beyond their agricultural and food production role, farmers can be specifically involved in providing healthy food for local markets and shortening the food supply chain. They can also play an important role in maintaining vibrant and thriving rural areas through their community involvement, delivering valued public goods, and stewardship of the rural environment.
However, these wider contributions of farmers to society are often not recognised or not communicated clearly enough. The public discourse is often centred around rather negative headlines and sometimes even an unfair criticism – so-called ‘agri-bashing’ – which leaves farmers demotivated and could even result in mental and physical problems. Furthermore, the negative narrative about farming could be among the factors that discourage young people from entering the sector. As outlined by the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, the repositioning of ‘farming as an attractive and rewarding career choice’ should be fostered to support generational renewal in farming.
How to change the prevailing narrative, recognise farmers’ societal contributions and make farming a more attractive and rewarding profession? What role can relevant stakeholders, such as farmers, rural networks, educational institutions, and media play in recognising the broader societal contributions of farmers?
This Thematic Group (TG) will reflect on the broader societal value produced by farmers. These can include individual, family, or community-based farmers, with diverse sizes of farms, and conventional or organic farming practices.
After establishing a common starting point by looking into the drivers of the existing narrative about farming, the key focus of the TG discussions will be on the multiple roles of farmers in society and how to raise awareness about them, taking into account the possibilities of different stakeholders and diversity of farmers across Europe. This would help valorise farmers and give greater importance to the farming profession.
Objectives
The objectives of this TG are to:
- Examine the drivers of the existing narrative surrounding farming, particularly those leading to the negative image of farming and related misconceptions.
- Discuss the multiple roles of farmers and their wider contributions to society, considering concrete examples and case studies.
- Collect insights, experiences, good practice examples and innovative ideas from TG members on how the role of farmers is, and could be, recognised in their own country and/or Europe-wide.
- Explore existing and innovative ways to raise awareness and recognise the wider societal contributions of farmers, as well as how to attach greater importance to the profile of the farming profession and attract new people into farming.
The meetings will be held in English without interpretation.
If you have any questions, please contact us at thematicgroup4@eucapnetwork.eu.
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