There is a "real disconnect" between the farming industry and the media and both sides are to blame, according to a Countryfile director.
BBC Countryfile director Anna Jones, who grew up on a farm in Wales and has done a Nuffield scholarship exploring how farmers are portrayed in the media, addressed the National Pig Association's (NPA) South Central Regional last week.
Ms Jones said the media is predominantly urban and generally lacking in specialist knowledge and understanding of the countryside.
“Combine that with a severe lack of time and resource and you are seeing a very shallow covering of agricultural issues,” she said.
“But the industry is not really meeting them half way. On the farmers’ side, I believe there has been a real lack of transparency,” she said.
“I think the industry is over-defensive. Every industry is being challenged and scrutinised and rightly so, especially at this time as we prepare for Brexit, but farmers often feel very personal about it when they are challenged as they are so proud in what they do.
Ms Jones added: “I believe the industry voice is a little too dominant and those individual on-farm voices sometimes don’t come through to the mainstream media. Most stories need a case study where you have a non-political unbiased farmer speaking from the heart with passion.”
'Impartiality'
Ms Jones, who comes from an upland farm on the Welsh-Shropshire border, launched a defence of features that have appeared on Countryfile over the past two weeks.
The first covered the increasing impact of veganism on the meat industry, including an interview with a vegan activist.
The feature explored different systems on pig farms and the "paradox between what consumers say and what they actually buy in the supermarket" when it comes to pork products.
The programmes have received criticism from both sides of the divide over farm animal welfare, but Ms Jones said the producers had gone to great lengths to ensure the features were balanced and fair.
“I will stand by those features and their impartiality,” she said, in response to questions from farmers in the audience who questioned the decision to give publicity to the vegan activist and suggested the line of questioning was not robust enough.
In the latest feature, for example, Ms Jones said the Countryfile team gone to great lengths to find a farmer, speaking anonymously, willing to defend the use of slatted rearing systems. Ms Jones described the farmer as "a star" and "the bravest woman in Britain".
