When I started this blog, I felt like I was the only one around blogging about rural life. If that was ever true, it certainly isn’t now. Here’s a list of people to contact if you ever want to learn something about rural life. I’ve pulled this list together from the contacts I have on twitter, and this fantastic list of Aussie farm blogs that Alison Fairleigh has put together. It’s by no means exhaustive, if you think I’ve missed someone feel free to add them in a comment!
- If you want to know how your steak is produced, you could ask: Angus cattle breeders Matt Cherry & Shelley Piper. Or send a tweet the way of Belle Baker.
- If you want to know why $1/ Liter milk is not all good and how milk gets to a carton you could read the blog: ‘The Milk Made Marion‘.
- If you want to know where your jeans, t-shirt and undies are grown. Have a ‘yarn’ to the cotton wife. Or send a tweet to Warraboy.
- If you want to know what a free range chicken is talk to Andy, or where to order some green eggs, speak to Shelly Green at Green Eggs.
- If you want to know how Australian sheep or cattle are & should be treated then get in touch with Grahame Rees.
- The folks at Mt Gnomon Farm can show you how they really bring home the bacon.
- What do the terms organic and biodynamic actually mean? They’ll tell you at Ruby Hills Organics.
- If you want to learn what life is like for a farmers wife, you’ll probably get a funny answer from wimmerachic. Wimmera chic farms about 50km up the road from me and has a blog here.
- Finally, if you want to known what goes into the wheat which goes into your pasta or the good and bad behind the GM Canola, you could ask me.
They play me on the radio,
and that’s the way I like it. – Ben Lee
Last Friday morning, I was thrilled to be phone interviewed by am ABC rural journalist from Tasmania. He was doing a story on farmers who use twitter and was given my (twitter account) name by the organiser of #agchatoz, our weekly twitter chat about all things agriculture related. It was really cool to be able to share on my two career passions, web technology and agriculture. The story was broadcast today on the Tasmanian ‘Country Hour’, the ABC radio’s rural news and current affairs show. It was really positive & will hopefully encourage more farmers & people involved in Ag to start tweeting & telling Ag’s story.
Check it out and find out how farmers are using social media to keep track of current industry news, sell produce & (in my case) chat with politicians:
Check out the ABC Rural news story: “Farmers turn to Twitter to market their produce”
The ABC Rural blog: “Farmers don’t really use Twitter….. do they?”
You can also listen to the podcast of the original radio article at the above location on the ABC rural blog.
Something new and exciting has started happening in Australian Agriculture over the past few weeks. For the first time, Australians interested in all things farm and agriculture related are getting together on Twitter to discuss their trade.
It’s been called ‘agchatoz’ and happens every Tuesday night from 8pm EST. This twitter chat was started by a small group of us Aussies who decided that we could copy the tweeting success of the American based ‘Agchat Foundation‘. The format of the chat is that there will be a moderator who poses questions around a particular theme to all who are following. These questions are used as conversation starters and allow different viewpoints to be heard and issues raised. ‘AgchatOz’ has been growing in popularity every week since its debut, with tonight’s chat being the best yet.
‘AgchatOz’ was particularly topical this evening because it featured an appearance by Tony Burke, who is our Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as well as Minister for Sustainable Population. He was an active participant in the conversation and also responded to many questions, including my own. Just to really emphasise this let me restate: I was able to ask questions and receive instant responses from a member of federal cabinet just 4 days before a federal election*. Read that last sentence again and think about how social media is changing our world. The Internet has such potential to improve and revolutionise the democratic process. It makes the sharing of information so easy that one can instantly ask questions, share ideas and solicit feedback.
Tweeting with Tony Burke
Our national broadcaster has also been getting in on the act, with a couple of twitter chats being hosted at other times by ABC Rural. I’ve found all of these conversations great. They offer opinions and dialogue that would otherwise never occur. Conversations that aim to educate and share can only be a positive thing. So please, if you are all interested in farming, have any questions at all about agriculture, or just want to join in and learn via observation, then hop over to twitter and search for, or use the hash tag #agchatoz or even simply #agchat.
*Oh yeah, and I didn’t have to get off my couch to do it.
I achieved something close to nerd farming nirvana for a short while on Wednesday afternoon. This very rare and beautiful state was achieved as I was sitting on the tractor and planting canola. For you see, this tractor was driving in gun-barrel straight lines courtesy of the 2cm accurate auto-steer that was steering it. At the same time as I was being directed by these invisible satellites, I was on my phone participating in an online Twitter discussion hosted by @abcrural. This was farming I could handle! Sometimes, technology is just awesome.
To repeat: I was participating in a live twitter discussion using my iPhone 3Gs over the Next G network while sitting on a tractor that was steering itself with 2cm satellite guided accuracy while pulling planting equipment weighing several tonnes. Farming has come a long way.
When I first started back at the farm I discovered an entire network of farmers using social media. This group was headed up by the folks over at Ag Chat & was linking together farmers from all over the world. I’ve found it really interesting ‘following’ American farmers, and reading about the totally different challenges they have and the way they farm. However this Twitter chat that I participated in on Wednesday was fantastic as it’s the first Australian based one that I’ve come across. It was started by the rural reporting arm of the Australian ABC. This is great because it provides a way for Aussie farmers and ruralites to connect and discuss issues online through social media. Hopefully it will grow and thrive as it’s American equivalent has and farmers from all around can engage both with each other and the consumers around them.
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