How to Talk About the Future of Farming in Aotearoa New Zealand

This guide is to help people talk effectively about the future of farming, and land-use change in particular, to the general public and farming communities who are interested in how people in farming can respond to the environmental challenges we all face. The Workshop worked with OLW communications and researchers over 2020–21 to create this short strategic communication guide, for people in the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge and their collaborators. It is also for all people in communications, science, policy and community roles who want to talk effectively about the future of farming and land use change.

You want your communications to support and encourage people across the farming industry to follow best evidence to adapt to and mitigate against environmental harm. To preserve and actively restore the land and water that supports our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the generations to come, as well as to build resiliency against a changing climate.

This guide is for working with those people who care for our environment, understand something needs to be done, but may be unsure or unclear on how to do so. Perhaps they are farmers who are anxious about their livelihoods, their communities’ future, or feel exposed to unhelpful stories about farmers’ culpability. Perhaps they are people living in cities who care about the environment, food production and farming in Aotearoa, but don’t understand how they can support people in farming to change. These are our persuadable audiences, and with the help of those who already understand what change needs to happen, we can deepen their understanding and build support for the types of changes needed to farm for the planet and our future generations’ wellbeing.

In this guide we:

• Provide insights into the science behind our recommended communications strategies.
• Explain the different types of thinking people have about farming, the environment and land use change.
• Outline how that thinking is either helpful or unhelpful for building people’s support for the solutions that will protect our environment and wellbeing into the future.
• Recommend how to avoid surfacing unhelpful thinking.
• Use a framework of ‘building blocks’ of narratives for change to explain the techniques and tools you can use to surface helpful thinking and build people’s support for the solutions that will protect our environment and wellbeing.
• Give you examples of what these techniques look and sound like in communications. We encourage you to use these in your communications and adapt them in response to feedback.
• Provide a checklist to help apply the recommendations to your communications.