THE agriculture sector doesn't have the right tools for the job of building trust between farmers and consumers, according to agricultural consultant Greg Mills.
Industry bodies have taken sole responsibility of creating trust with the community, but Mr Mills said the advent of social media had given consumers a direct line to farmers and as such, it's now their job to do the talking, not industry representatives.
Mr Mills, Moree, is chairman of the Council of Sustainable Egg Farming in Australia and an independent communication advisor.
He said industry still had a role in handling political and media matters, but consumers were seeking more credibility in the messages coming from the sector, and that was something that could be better achieved by handing the microphone to farmers.
"Consumers are asking questions. Agriculture needs more people with credibility to answer those questions. Industry can't do it as well as farmers because they're always going to be coming from a position of self interest."
Mr Mills said young, highly educated people were most active in seeking information directly from farmers.
Typically, they were women, who were the primary shoppers in their families.
"When they have a question, real farmers need to be there to answer it.
"Often, what the consumer is looking for is a value-based answer, and typically farmers are on the same page as them."
While it's daunting for industry to hand over the reins, it's necessary, Mr Mills said.
"The risk for industry is farmers will say something stupid, but the risk of not doing it is far greater," he said.
He said there was a nation-wide need to train farmers to communicate their stories and values to the public, and there were opportunities for both the private sector and industry to get involved.
Dairy Australia manager for industry promotion and product innovation Isabel MacNeill said her organisation agreed farmers' voices held more sway with consumers than lobbyists.
"We call tell the public all sorts of things, but it's 100 times more believable when it comes from farmers themselves and I believe it is their responsibility to do so, as much as it is mine," Ms MacNeill said.
But she said industry still played a vital role in creating opportunities to get their stories out to the public.
"At the end of the day somebody has to keep the consistency of the brand and help people manage their messaging, because it's important to remember that not everybody's a communications expert."
Under their "Legendairy" marketing platform (which puts dairy farmers at the forefront of public relations), Dairy Australia has invested in the communications skills of selected farmers to help them become "media ready".
But it was yet to kick off broad-scale training for farmers to increase their ability to have meaningful one-on-one engagements with the public.
"We're trying to find as many avenues and mechanisms as we can to give those skills to farmers."
Australian Pork Limited marketing general manager Peter Hayden said industry still played an important role in "translating" on-farm messages to the public.
"While I would agree with Greg (Mills), the ideal situation would be if people that produced food and those that consumed it spoke the same language."
He said there's a large gap between how farmers and consumers think and talk, and that's where Australian Pork came in.
Mr Mills said it was important farmers and industry groups focused on sharing stories about the technology used in modern farming systems, that way, consumers were surrounded by the "truths" of farming, rather than a "golden book view".
Unlike Dairy Australia, Australian Pork's marketing campaigns have focused more on the product that goes on the plate, rather than the producer.
"While there is a warm and fuzzy idea of farmers in a consumer's head, it's not what they think about most," Mr Hayden said.
While their marketing campaigns are cheeky and jovial, Mr Hayden said when it came to issues such as welfare, environment, and biosecurity, Australian Pork took a more serious approach which did include the representation of producers.