Australian agriculture needs its very own celebrity chef to help change its image problem.
It may sound a stupid idea, but in fact I’ve been toying with it for a few years ever since watching Rick Stein in his Food Heroes series describing to his followers his passion for the rural communities, the incredible food they produce and their role in managing the English landscape.
In doing so, Stein was not only preaching to the upper middle class urban food lovers - who are often society’s opinion makers and some of broadscale agriculture’s biggest critics - about the greatness of rural communities, he was also reconnecting in the viewers’ mind beautiful food with its source on the land.
But he didn’t go all the way. What finally confirmed in my mind the merit of the idea was when I stumbled across the English program River Cottage on ABC one evening. It was by chance that I found it – in looking for the evening news I came across footage of a farm and a serious voice describing the practices therein. No hint of dumbing down, no excessive food-elite pretension, and most importantly no hiding from farming’s brutal truths.
The show is hosted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a "downshifted smallholder", who converts a Dorset weekend and holiday home into a highly productive hobby farm, from which the produce is used in a local restaurant and sold in local stores – and of course, cooked by Hugh for the food-loving television audience.
Along the way Hugh uses plain speech to matter of factly describes everything animal husbandry and crop production techniques, and then how those foodstuffs are prepared for wholesome, homely and delicious meals. He does not skip steps along the way, or hide anything from the cameras – as unpleasant as it can be to witness an animal being killed and butchered, the honesty is as much refreshing as it is educational.
Notably, it has also been accepted by the viewing public to the point that the program’s fourth series has just started in the UK.
Part of the winning formula lies in the fact that Hugh does not describe food production processes from an academic standpoint, but seeks to bring both the viewer and ordinary British citizens who participate in the program, along with him.
In one series he tracks a group of families from Bristol who attempt to convert a patch of unused land into a small-holding, now known as Bramble Farm, on which they grow vegetables and rear livestock. That provides the vehicle for lessons on crop produciton, soil management, and animal husbandry provided in a way that the tree-changer can understand and relate to.
In another series he attempts to convert junk-food addicts to the merits of good wholesome, home-grown food.
In the handful of episodes I viewed before the series ended recently on ABC, I witnessed these ordinary English families learning how to wring the neck, bleed, pluck and cook a chicken; a pork-loving hobby farmer was given a detailed lesson on how to butcher one of their own home-grown pigs; we followed Hugh’s own sheep in his local show’s hoof-and-hook competition, including good professional explanations from the judges on both ends of the event; been taught how to grow, pack and preserve, and also cook parsnips; the Bristol families were shown how to milk their goats and make their own cheese; and there have also been numerous lessons of the many and varied food sources that surround us every day, even in urban environments. In the last instance Hugh quite literally shows agriculture as part and parcel of city life.
Hugh is unashamed of showing us the unalterable facts of life, of which everyone should be aware and with which everyone must come to terms.
But don’t get the wrong impression that Fearnley-Whittingstall is a patsy for big agriculture. He made his name by confronting some of the techniques which he argues are unnecessarily cruel, such as the population intensity of caged chicken sheds. However, unlike the rabid fundamentalism of animal liberationists, he takes a far more practical and realistic approach and acknowledges the importance of big agriculture in feeding the world.
In the case of shed chickens he shows an intensive operation with a slightly lower population density in a shed which also features hay bales, roosts and hanging cobs of corn so that the flock can still express their natural behaviours while being fattened.
But the bottom line is that Hugh confronts the realities of farming and food production, and is proud to put them on display for the world to see. Too often agriculture’s first reaction to questioning of farming methods is to shy away from discussion of how livestock are kept and killed, or why pesticides are used on farms. Most of society holds farmers with a high degree of respect, but that will diminish if it treats the public like fools and pretend the facts of life don't exist. Most people are fair minded, and if agricultural methods are explained properly, most people accept the hows and whys of where their food comes from.
By no means is an Australian take on River Cottage the PR panacea that agriculture has been looking for. For a start, the right sort of chef needs to be found who both understands agriculture and where it fits into society, and who can connect with the viewing public via television. If that first hurdle could be overcome – and there’s no reason why not – then there’s plenty of good stories out there to be told.
It could be one step in reconnecting an important part of society – tree-changers and middle and upper class fine food lovers - with the produce they consume and the farmers who produce it.
What do you think?
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