In a 'post-truth world', where anti-farming policies prevail and politicians are 'looking for easy answers', serious concerns are being raised about food and fibre security.
It's a rhetoric that's by no means limited to Australia, with farmers globally being plagued by policy roadblocks and the belief that "what's going wrong in the world has everything to do with farmers".
The topic of global policy roadblocks to food and fibre security was addressed at the National Farmers' Federation conference in Canberra last week, with agriculture industry representatives from several countries weighing in on the challenges that face primary producers.
Federated Farmers of New Zealand chief executive Terry Copeland said the actions of the government in his country make clear they don't rank food and fibre security as a high priority.
"I think New Zealand's got a line where policy makers have gone so far down the environmental lens, to the detriment of social and economic, that we're getting slightly out of balance," Mr Copeland said.
"I think there's a lack of connection, particularly with city-based people who tend to run policy... that don't really know where food comes from.
"Therefore, the tenuous link between people that design the law and those that are going to be responsible for delivering it or living with it are now completely at odds."
Having a Labor government in power over the past six years had posed a myriad of challenges for the farming sector, Mr Copeland said.
"We've had 26 pieces of legislation that affect farmers in the past six years," he said.
"What that has done, more than anything, is erode farmer confidence to the point where farmers don't know how to plan for the future."
This lack of confidence is shared by Australian farmers.
World Farmers' Organisation director Fiona Simson said cost of production and worsening weather conditions aside, uncertainty within the Australian farming community was largely being driven by the people on the hill.
"The policies that are being put in place, it's incredibly important that farmers have input into them because without that I think we risk them," Ms Simson said.
"Farmers are really quite nervous that without farmer input into those policies, then we lose opportunities; it's just extra red tape, and extra onerous conditions under which we farm."
Starting from scratch
Speaking from the United Kingdom, National Farmers Union deputy president Tom Bradshaw said Brexit has posed big challenges for the agriculture sector.
"One of the biggest barriers that we've seen is that while we were in the EU, all we ever did was translate policy that was made in the EU, we'd gold plate it and we'd put it in place in the UK," Mr Bradshaw said.
"We've had a lot of politicians celebrate the fact that we now have a blank sheet of paper and are starting from scratch, but we've seen our civil servants lose the ability to create policy.
"Because they haven't had to do it for so long, now it's become overwhelming the fact that they can start from this blank sheet of paper.
"Taking responsibility for where we want to get to in 10 years' time with the food policy that we want in place is going to be very important, but the ability to deliver that is actually one of our biggest challenges."
Farmers are to blame
In the Netherlands, where anti-farmer politics has been running rampant for quite some time, Farmer-Citizen Movement founder and leader Caroline van der Plas said farmers are fed up with always copping the blame.
"It seems like what's going wrong in the world has everything to do with farmers," Ms van der Plas said.
"Farmers felt like we were already reducing emissions and doing everything society wants from us for many decades, and still every day turning over the page in the newspaper or listening to the radio or watching television and hearing all the time that you are a polluter, but you are a food producer."
Ms van der Plas (pictured right) said there was great anger from farmers that they were being labelled as "polluters, animal abusers, toxic sprayers".
She said people, particularly politicians, were forgetting "that we are making your food, keeping you alive".
With the European government deciding livestock numbers needed to be cut by 50% and 1.47 billion euros ($A2.44bn) being earmarked to buy out Dutch livestock farmers to reduce nitrogen pollution, "the bomb exploded".
Following a large protest by farmers in 2019, the Farmer-Citizen Movement was founded.
From there, they took on parliament and secured one seat in 2021. In March this year, the party upended Dutch politics by securing the most seats in the upper house of parliament.
"People said 'what can you do with one seat', but now we're the biggest party in Holland with the regional elections, so you can do everything with one seat," Ms van der Plas said.
"Once you're in parliament, you can do everything that every parliamentarian does.
"You are a lawmaker, but you can also hold back laws; you can debate with other politicians and tell the true story.
"I won't say it's the only way but it's the most effective way of putting food security, food production, and the position of farmers in our country, not only on the political agenda, but also on the agenda as a whole."
Activism
Putting food security and the position of farmers on the agenda, whether it be through industry activism or a seat in parliament, will be increasingly important at a time when community believes the loudest voice is the voice of truth and "politicians are looking for easy answers".
"One of the challenges we see is that it does feel like we're living in the post-truth world," Mr Bradshaw said.
"That's been led by some of the world's leading politicians, that they've been able to say anything and get away with anything.
"If we are genuinely in a world where populism drives everything, then we're not going to get the right outcomes."
Instead, science and evidence-based policy will need to prevail, to ensure issues like food security, climate change and economic prosperity are properly addressed.
