Wellington
My contention is, by branding our method (pasture Harmonies) and taking that through on productsto the consumer, NZ Inc would become the global custodians for responsible pastoralism.
What would that mean?
In one word, ‘glue’.
I argue that as nation of rugged individualists, the thing that has been missing for our farmers,our agritech, our marketers and our publics is a common sense of purpose.
Sure, there’s a sense that agriculture’s the backbone of the country’s economy and aworthy, if dull, image we take when we’re offshore. It’s hardly riveting though.
And across a plethora of ag industry reports and plans and initiatives of the past 40 years, theconstant message is that ‘we’ need a shared strategy.
The obvious point, the obvious underpinning where we share a story and method, has never been putforward as a strategic platform.
But why would this act as‘glue’.
Firstly, in a world in which knowledge is seen as having value, it would clearly indicate thatthere’s a heck of a lot of knowhow in how we’ve learned to convert sunshine, soil and fresh airinto fantastic products.
Branding our method would also enable farming to be a lot less defensive, and provide anunderpinning argument for farmers’ contribution to our country.
Not the least, it would be a separate component, alongside the electric fences, animal and plantgenetics and other agritech components that we sell overseas.
That is, instead of giving away (and implying that it has no value) theknowledge component of responsible pastoralism, we’d have a means to charge for theknowhow .
And on that overseas note, we’d also have a platform on which to partner with others.
If we enable other (world) farmers to be part of our brand, and also make more money, not onlycould we profit, but we’d be clearly seen to be spreading and encouraging the adoption ofresponsible pastoralism.
All it takes is for us to name/brand what we do.
Maybe it is just too simple?
Maybe we’d rather look for a complicated strategy that no one can explain in a sentence?
Maybe a common sense view isn’t commonsense after all?
P.S. I envisage that individual farmers would sign in/up to an as yet to be defined philosophyand statement of a sustainable responsible pastoralism. However, it probably would require no morethan the current good practice, put down simply on one sheet of paper.