Dr. Aoibhinn N? Sh?illeabh?in:

I want to come in on that and to specifically highlight recommendation No. 80, that the members wanted community leadership and for peer-to-peer support to be a real part of farming. From the farmers who presented to us we heard that a lot of them care deeply about the wildlife and nature on their land, and a lot of them were making investments off their own bat because they knew they would get a return for it. What came across strongly was that the types of discussion groups that happen organically or naturally with farmers are that five or six of them get together regularly and talk about practice and about evolving their practice, and sometimes they employ an adviser. If we saw that across the scale then these messages would be far more clear and would get across an awful lot better. Something the assembly did really well, which is part of deliberative democracy, was to have dialogue. You had people at a table with incredibly different views but they were respectful of each other's views and they had time to talk to each other. What we hear a lot in media are people from the extremes with no space for dialogue or problem solving. We need to have people in rooms for a little bit of time in order for that trust to build, and that is where we will see the solution.

Another consistent message was that a lot of trust has been broken. Previous policies really emphasised farmers doing one thing and they see a U-turn now and they have not necessarily felt that they had been given forewarning for it. We must communicate these messages well. We must communicate why farmers are being asked to do something. One of our speakers gave us a great anecdote about this, because farmers are self-employed for a reason; they do not want someone telling them what to do. However, if you can explain to anybody who owns land why it is relevant and worthwhile for them to do something then they will come about that decision themselves, but you have to convince their head, heart and pocket. That was the analogy we heard and you will see that coming across clearly in the recommendations. That is what the members took strongly from what we heard from farmers and from the people from farming communities at the table in the assembly.