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Welcome to Humans of Agriculture. This podcast series is dedicated to discovering more about our food system, from the people involved in it.
Along the journey we'll be meeting people from all walks of life from Australia and from afar. Join us as we find out how our communities and our culture shape what we eat, and ultimately who we are.
More people, More often, Identifying with Agriculture
Speaker 1 0:00
Hey, guys, and welcome back to the humans of agriculture Podcast. I'm coming to you from New Zealand Mills holding everything together back in Geelong. And mill I think what we wanted to do is, I can't believe we're gonna know, what, three and a half months each night, two and a half months inside, it took us a little while to send out a newsletter. Because I think we kind of a lot when it comes to talking with our community, especially through email, like how do we make sure it's worth people's time? And I think what we wanted to do today was kind of check in a little bit, make the newsletter or podcast version, and I think maybe we can flesh out a little bit around that thinking of why did we hold out on sending newsletters? How do we want to engage our community? More in different ways? And actually more? You're gonna run it today, which is perfect, because I'm technically on holidays.
Speaker 2 0:54
You are holding down the fort? And on that oh, we are? Yeah, like almost three months into the year. But really funny. We were talking about it the other day with some friends. And they said to me, maybe instead of saying that time goes so fast all the time, we just need to start keeping up with the pace of life. And that really hit home.
Unknown Speaker 1:13
Yeah, interesting. Very
Speaker 2 1:15
interesting, because we've been saying it for quite a while, and especially at the end of last year and started this year that time has fun. And it has, but maybe it's just the pace of it.
Speaker 1 1:23
Yeah. And I think for us, like we talk a lot about middle ground that like hold cadence thing of how do we actually get a pace that we can keep up with. And I think the back end of last year was manic. But I actually think this year has been hectic as well. But more manageable. Maybe we are just learning to keep up and move our legs a little bit faster in my old age. But yeah, I don't know, like I feel like this year, we've definitely hit the ground running. We've got lots of kind of projects on and things happening. But also, I think it's probably part of that the maturity that we might be seeing in the early stage of our business as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2 1:59
absolutely. I agree with that. And probably a really good place to start because I looked up I can the first episode on the humans agriculture podcast got released on March 25 2020. So it's almost exactly four years ago.
Speaker 1 2:16
It is, you know, I actually reckon it's nearly four years to the date. I think this time four years ago was in Darwin was working at KPMG at the time, and we got flown up there. And I was like, looking down the barrel of this three month project we're doing up there and every few weeks or whatnot, we're gonna go to Darwin for a week to work with the client. And we got two or three days in. And then this whole thing came out about Australia's borders are closing. And then we were like, Oh, my God, we're gonna get stuck in jail. And at the time, it was like, this could be a good idea. Like, it could be great. It also could be horrible being stuck away for everyone. But yeah, four years of the podcast has fallen to 140 something episodes, which is insane. I think it's been like when I've been chatting to people they've asked about like, What's your favourite conversation or whatnot. But really, I think if you look back over those four years, it's been the evolution of different things that I've been curious to learn about. Perspectives I've been trying to understand for myself, and it's been a whole lot of learning about agriculture. Well, yeah, like next Monday's. Yeah, that's,
Speaker 2 3:22
that's actually incredible. And so like four years ago, until now, could you ever have thought that humans have agriculture us as a team would be where we are? Or what was the vision? Yeah,
Speaker 1 3:36
like, I think it's come up with something like you, you have like, I guess dreams, and you think of what's kind of possible. And then when you actually work your way back from the dream you've got, and like, even right now, I've got dreams of where I think we could be, you kind of come back and go, what's possible with what we've got right now. And the situation we're in with the people we've got with the potential partners with the funding avenues and things we've got, like, Yeah, is that dream actually possible from where we sit right now, I think rewinding to four years ago, it was really a passion project. And also, well, kind of from a point of frustration, but also from a point of curiosity and knowing that agriculture can promote itself so much better, and that the heroes in what we do within our sector actually like the everyday people. And so the podcast, I guess, the way that content has evolved since then, has really been about how do we create a space where we can bring the everyday people into that, and let them share their story and champion Ag in a way that we know can be talked about, because what is happening in agriculture is extraordinary. And there's so many amazing people doing amazing things and people who have multigenerational who the way they found a long time ago isn't the way they're still farming today and these group of people that kind of see the opportunities in agriculture, and I think there's a quiet way to just like we're hangs in my ears all the time. And it's Anna's be on the podcast where she talks about what she'd say to you 10 people, and it's like her, her whole career has been in agriculture. And it's afforded her so many opportunities. And it's been so rewarding. And I think that quote, what rings through my ears, it's like, that's what we need to be showing to the world. And that's really where we started. And I think it's still where we are today, albeit kinda slightly differently, and with a team and but still definitely focused on finding ways to grab that every day and show that to the world.
Speaker 2 5:30
And I think that sentiment from a sphere, like, so many, like almost all of the other guests have consistently said, a very similar thing, just in their own words, which I think speaks volumes for, like agriculture as an industry. But oh, maybe I said that, like, question on its head? Where did you think that humans of agriculture could be? And that was that really wrong? Or it's, it's really different, as you've learnt through, you know, building it into like, you were doing it while still having a full time job to now it is your full time job, and you've got full time staff? Like, where is it? Not what you thought it would be? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 6:12
To me, are you coming up with the tough questions, first of all? Where is it? I think there's probably been, well, like a few false starts and a couple of different ways. But yeah, probably I will. I'll answer your question straight up in the short, narrow, like, I probably I don't know where it's not only that, I know that it's like evolved in different ways. I think the part of so if I think of things that I'm passionate about in my career that I've tried to bring into humans about AG, it's around how do we increase like, consumers or everyday Australians awareness of agriculture? How do we attract and retain the next generation in ag? And then how do we showcase that I guess being like, whole value chain, like they're probably like the three real things I want to do? The power, which I still think is so untapped is in and around the career side of things. 12 months ago, we started and tried something now with a jobs board. And I think there's still an opportunity there, I think probably the biggest thing I've learned is that we only have so much time, we can only focus on so many things. And someone asked me a while ago, if you got a million dollars, what would change about the business? And I kind of said all to be honest, I don't really know. Because like, I'm working our way through it, I think the big thing would change is that we'd have like, real specialists in different areas. And so I think that careers opportunity is one, which we'd love to tap into, because I think we've got our community side, which we can do more with. But then it's going well with the connections we've got with the way that we get to see businesses because we've created content with them. How are we grabbing that? And then connecting that to people with jobs? And then how are we showing people outside agriculture? What are some of the roles, opportunities, etc? And so I'd say that's probably, if I think right now where there's an opportunity, that's probably where it is. And so if someone's listening, they might take it and run. I think also to like, if, if someone's sitting here listening and going, Oh, that sounds like me, I think what I'd throw out there is pitch it to me. And I think the other learning is probably in and around jobs. I think it's I find it really, really difficult to pigeonhole people and be like, oh, we need a marketing manager, we need to add careers person. It's like, in a small business, you need people who are versatile, who can fit into different areas of the business. And so what I'd love to see is someone who's like quiet. I don't even know if the word like bolshie is the right word. I don't think I think I made that up. But like quite progressive for one thing, and go, Ollie, based off what I know about humans of agriculture, this is where I see it going, here's what I can do to it. And if you give me the opportunity, I'll show you how we together can do something amazing for agriculture, I think I would love to see someone come in and kind of knock on our door, if they think there's an opportunity within humans of agriculture, and if they think they've got the skill set to be able to do it. One, I think to probably fit into our team, they're going to have to be pretty hungry. And I think that's probably a pretty good job interview, a way that they could start at is to come in and be like, Yeah, this is what I see. This is what I'm asking for in order to and this is where we can go together would be pretty cool.
Speaker 2 9:21
That would be cool. Watch this space, and probably good. Let link into what I also wanted to chat to you about is our community. Like I know internally, we say it all the time. And everything that we do is really focused on connecting with our community, engaging with them understanding where agriculture is today and how it can go into the future who's going to get us there and it is our community, but like from you owe me that. What role does that our community play and how can they influence and interact with us more?
Speaker 1 9:55
They influenced so much of what we do, I think it's the thing of being In agriculture, um, it was, you know, so well, like literally, our friends and our family, living and breathing this stuff. And I think so much of that comes back to if we think of the carbon shortcuts series that we ran, the better business stuff we run, like, when it comes to some of the pieces that we're trying to tap back into agriculture. It's like, the conversations we have with friends and family, or the challenges we can see from being out from the outside is like, hey, why don't you just listen to this short series about carbon? Or why don't you listen to this little piece around how this business took on communication, or how they set up their business structures, because maybe, in your family business, or where you are in your career, you might be able to learn something from it. So I think they're always front and centre in that. And we're probably not like pushing it to be like, you're gonna listen, because where you are is where you're like, we just see it as being not all bad businesses that are our boy, like, just say, The upside of it, it's more like, and I'll say, guys, but I mean that generally, to men and women in the sector, it's like, maybe if you listen to this topic of how someone from outside agriculture or whatnot, has approached business succession in their business, maybe you, you might be happier. And I think that's probably the part of thinking of the community. It's like going to friends and whatnot. And I see where people are at, and they're frustrated. And they've maybe got little bits of resentment and stuff coming into their family relationships, because their family is also the business is just going well, maybe there's, in this podcast, there might be one golden nugget that this person says that you think, Alright, maybe that's what I needed. And I think on the flip side of that, is having lived and being involved and growing up in a city environment, like people are genuinely interested in agriculture. So if we can get the stories of what's happening in ag and I know this just the other day, we went out to eat here in New Zealand, went out to this cherry orchard, which is running on zero emissions, the guy has come from a tech background, like he's a computer programmer, sold his company to seek back in Australia and then moved to New Zealand. He's running his whole business now on electric tractors and things. And there are people out there on that farm, that have no connection to agriculture. And then I sat next to them. And they were talking to their family and friends about it. And they were like, this thing's actually seriously cool. And it kind of blows your mind that that's what the person can do. Like, in the urban environment, we're seeing maybe electric cars and stuff. But literally, this guy was running a whole farm. And he's part of the supply chain off of electricity. And it's actually kind of mind blowing. So I think, yeah, communities are always there. But that community is broken into a couple of different parts. There's the people who are in agriculture, here. And now, what are the information insights? What not, which we think could benefit them? But also, what's the feedback they're giving us? And then how do we create the content from that? Then on the flip side, coming back to that everyday community pace and going, how do we help everyday Australians understand just how incredible agriculture is.
Speaker 2 13:05
And they do make up like, I think it's about 20% of our community based on on the latest survey. So it is, it is really cool as well. And earlier, I was chatting to a young farmer on the weekend. And he was asking what to do, he never really heard of humans of agriculture before. And I could see he's buying into the conversation when I said that there is a proportion of our community that are made up of people that are maybe not otherwise connected to agriculture. And that's when he was like, Oh, that's really cool. And so I think that is something unique to him into that culture, and something that's pretty special. Yeah,
Speaker 1 13:38
it's 26% of our community. And so I think like, that's the part of x more than Florida, but I think that's the pace of going well, actually, that's their biggest opportunity. And going back to your question, the vision for humans bag was, how do we lead the conversations for agriculture, but then be able to work in a way where we are open minded in touch with the everyday Australians that 95 plus percent of the population who live in capital cities, that 83% of the population who I have a distant or non existing connection to AG? How do we become that like, conduit, and connect the agriculture side and I think naturally the ag community, as we go on, as we do a better job, they'll become more and more of our champions, and now, support share, want to be more involved, share their story, whatever it might be. If we're doing a really good job connecting ag into that, everyday, Australian, I'm
Speaker 2 14:29
so for our community, what is perhaps in the pipeline for humans of agriculture this year, like short to medium term goals, my
Speaker 1 14:37
piece is to really just find a bit more of a so I really want to find like a bit of an advisory board. I think I fly quite blind in some areas, and I've got gaps in my knowledge. So trying to find a couple of people who can help kind of steer and be a sounding board but in a bit more of a formal way. I guess that's probably what the maturing of us as a business. And then I think for us, it's really going Going back to the video, and podcast, content creation, we really want to make content accessible to people so we can get agriculture out there, where that comes to us is really being social LED. And so I think, for the next 12 months, the focus is on how do we get agriculture in front of as many people as possible through the stories that we can share. So that's what we'll be working with, with our partnerships. So how do we probably more like how do we kind of generalise aspects of agriculture? We'd love to do another series in and around carbon, because I think that space is just evolving, and also getting more confusing at the same time. So how do we kind of come in and help simplify that? And then also, at the same time, how do we build those direct relationships with our community? And so part of that is, obviously, we've got the podcast where we can do things like this, which is a little bit different meal and talk to them. But also in the next 1218 24 months, I think there's a real opportunity for us to maybe host an event type pieces, whether that's a full blown conference or whatnot, we'll say but I think, yeah, from what I see, especially so like, the way that New Zealand market, their natural fibres of wool, and what not here, they do it so well, back in Australia. And I think in agriculture, we kind of we talked a little bit about sustainability. But I think we do it in a way, which is actually boring. And it's not aspirational. When you think, oh, to be sustainable as a compromise, and we can't have nice looking things. I think for us. Yeah, it's going how do we grab things from outside AG, look at areas that are doing things well, and bring that conversation and have ag as kind of the undercurrent in those and ultimately try and bring people back to that role that agriculture is playing in the world around us. So yeah, I think that's it in a nutshell. Really exciting times. Sure is. And then the other partner, which I probably should touch on is, I think, yeah, looking at ways that you can hold the microphone more as well. And I think that creates other opportunities for us. It gives us different insights into conversations and pieces like that. So that's definitely exciting as well, for the year ahead.
Speaker 2 17:06
Yeah. And probably I know that you wrote I really, yeah, a great piece on LinkedIn about it. Like it was a huge milestone, you had literally cut every single bit of content creation, since humans have agriculture's inception until sending Hannah and I have only this month to Queensland to do some video work for a partner. And yeah, like that was super empowering for me for myself. And when I've seen so I don't put words in my mouth, but we spoke about it on the road, like, this is really cool. Like, we were trusted to do this, we're trusted to go throughout, you know, Central Queensland, and have your backing. But what was it like for you?
Speaker 1 17:44
Yeah, I think it's really exciting. And I think, kind of beyond us to metal, like you look at Australian just how, what he did is it's kind of looking at how can we showcase what agriculture is like, in a way that we can do more from kind of where we are based in Geelong. And so I think letting go is naturally going to be part of it. But it's also going well, how do we think differently? How can we bring someone from China an hour into the conversation? How can we bring someone from North Queensland or from a cattle station in the territory or someone in Tassie? Like, how can we do more from where we are? And so I think for me, naturally, I probably had to let go at some stage anyway, because we chatted about it a little bit. Like, if we want to create a business that has longevity and whatnot, it can't be solely reliant on one person. But only I think it was yesterday I was reading something. And it was like, well, succession happens in any business. Because if if you want your business to last for multi generations, it's going to have to go through a succession. And so for us, I think, one, it makes good business sense. And two, it brings a different level of different curiosities into the conversation for it. And three, it's really the only way that we're going to be able to get across and showcase Australian AG is by letting go ourselves and being able to bring those different people in.
Speaker 2 18:59
It's pretty exciting. It's really cool to be involved. It is. Oh, that's almost wrapping up. But I do have a question bit of a selfish one. Perhaps haven't asked you in a while. But you're you're such a good life radar consumer podcast, like different shows and things on like Docu series on Netflix and whatnot. I'm out of books. What are you consuming at the moment? Do you have any recommendations, but
Speaker 1 19:25
I feel like I need to grab my bag. I bought one the other day. You have literally put me on the spot. I have no idea. Well,
Speaker 2 19:33
I've been holding off buying books because I've had a huge stack there. And now I'm finished them and I don't know what to do. I'm lost.
Speaker 1 19:40
Luckily I grabbed I walked into the Patagonia shop the other day in New Zealand and I love how Patagonia for purpose and how they've evolved but they I literally just bought this one on the weekend and I've only read the back cover. But it's the it's called The Future of the responsible company. What was learnt from Patagonia's first 50 years. And so, on the back of it on I've got a checklist or what they've learned. And yeah, some of the learnings that they've taken across it. So responsibility to owners and shareholders, to workers, to their community, to the broader public, etc. So, that's what I'm going to be talking into. And so I'm glad that you asked me that question. While I had my bag in harm's
Speaker 2 20:25
way, you're gonna keep me updated. And if it's good, I'll read it off to you.
Unknown Speaker 20:30
Sounds good. Thanks, Milton.
Speaker 2 20:31
No, thank you all. And thanks to our human culture community.
Speaker 1 20:36
Well, that's it for another episode from us here at humans of agriculture. We hope you're enjoying these podcasts. And well, if you're not, let us know. Hit us up at Hello at humans of agriculture.com. Get in touch with any guests recommendations topics, or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Right subscribe, review it, any feedback is absolutely awesome. And we really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe, stay sane. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai