Australians have traditionally been strong supporters of farmers, but city media has become saturated with three farm-related issues - the Murray Darling Basin Plan, climate change and animal liberation - putting our industry under the spotlight like never before.
Comments on social and mainstream media continually throw up stories that people with little knowledge of our industry readily believe, whether factual or not, making it critical we begin a strategy to put our side of the story across.
People are ever ready to lump all farmers into one bucket, but we are diverse and varied in our types of production and, as an example, recent comments that farmers should not plant water-thirsty crops is completely irrelevant on the 99.5 per cent of land that is not irrigated.
According to 2017 Australian Bureau of Statistics, farmers own about 55pc of Australia's total land, farming about 394 million hectares. Livestock production uses 341 million ha and 31 million ha is cropped.
People who say farmers should not grow water-hungry crops should be reminded irrigation is only a tiny 0.5pc of our farm land.
That is why I have railed so hard against the government stuff up of the MDBA plan. All farmers have copped a negative smear in metropolitan Australia.
There are many more farmers adversely affected by the Plan than those who gain. The list is long - small irrigators affected by large-scale developments, others flooded or starved of water, floodplain farmers, farmers who rely on stock and domestic water, grape farmers at Menindee and the hundreds of dairy and other farmers involved in a class action in the Southern Basin.
On the animal liberation front, I think it important farmers put their side of the story in a factual but non-threatening way. We all instinctively have strong empathy with our animals and abhor any ill-treatment of any farm animal.
The vegan movement is growing, but once again requires facts, the anthropomorphising (making them human-like) of animals naturally leads to people being concerned about their treatment. Nobody can dictate what people eat, nor should they, but it is important people are factually informed about our industry.
The advertising industry spends billions a year crafting their messages to people in a very crowded space and agriculture needs the same level of sophistication in getting our messages across.
Cities have become increasingly removed from farm living, but it is critical our industry maintains city support to avoid potentially draconian laws politicians can inflict on us to appease city voters.
We must continue to point out the problems with the Basin Plan, ensure we are front and centre in the debate on climate change and start a program to ensure city people are factually informed about how important farm animal welfare is to farmers.
- Mal Peters