Celebrating farm families central to National Agriculture Day
National days of this and that are popping up on our calendars more and more each year. Why? Because they work. Having a day dedicated to a particular product, service, social issue or in this case sector, forces people to stop and think about how their lives relate.
Last Friday, Growcom paused to celebrate the 3,500 agribusinesses and farming families along with the 25,000 workers directly engaged in the Queensland fresh produce sector as part of National Agriculture Day.
As part of the celebrations, Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) hosted a breakfast where keynote speaker Terry McCosker (RCS) and panelists openly challenged industry and the government to continue to advocate and support agriculture at every opportunity. Terry gathered a few extra fans calling for the comeback of Farmbiz- like programs to help build agribusiness skills, knowledge, and confidence as, in his experience, with this confidence comes the ability to embrace change and growth.
As part of the panel, Growcom’s CEO Rachel Chambers highlighted the value of horticulture across 104 fruit, vegetable, and nut commodities. But most importantly celebrating our growers who are entrepreneurs, scientists, mechanics, managers, and financial controllers who have been trading and exporting since before ‘it was a thing’ and the lifeblood of regional communities.
Michael Murray and Dan Gallaghan from Cotton and Cane respectively were equally reflective in celebrating where we have come from through the generations and our continued push for profitable and sustainable agribusinesses and what it will take to support growers as industry advocates.
Agility and adapting to forced change were shared themes across all three CEOs as they shared experiences around increasing consumer and supply chain demand for sustainable products produced ethically and a growing preparedness to pay a premium for industry best management practices.
It was lovely to stop and share amazing stories of horticulture for one day with our growers and colleagues in agriculture. One day is a great start, however Growcom has a further 364 days to continue to strongly advocate, celebrate and demonstrate the immense value in our people and produce across horticulture.
