15 August 2025. Brendan Taylor, AgForce Grains President.
If there's one thing I've become more certain of over the years even while so much around us is changing - it's that authentic voices matter.
There's no better spokesperson for Queensland agriculture than a farmer. This has been highlighted for me once again at the great uniter of city and country - the Royal Queensland Show.
This connection between authenticity and effective storytelling is never clearer than at our local shows. We as an industry and as individual producers should never lose sight of the value of participating in these shows no matter how much they have changed over the years, giving our city cousins a chance to engage with agriculture in their own backyard.
Because I see it first-hand. When producers share their personal stories at the EKKA, the public listens.
What we do at the Ekka particularly with grain and other commodities, is give people the chance to talk to a producer and make links between what they buy at the shop and what we do as producers. It's an invaluable opportunity we should never take for granted.
It's an incredible event that bridges the city-country divide. EKKA offers a rare chance for all of us in agriculture to close the gap between producers and consumers.
Most showgoers live in urban areas and are generations removed from the land. But a simple conversation with a farmer can shift perceptions and spark understanding.
And more broadly than that - it also helps people connect with food and fibre. When visitors learn that their bread starts in a grain field, their clothes may have begun in a wool shed, and their beef comes from family grazing enterprises, it personalises the entire supply chain. It's not just sugarcane or a grain crop or a cow or sheep - it's someone's food.
Agriculture touches every life, every day: whether it's a warm jumper, a steak on the BBQ, weetbix, toast and a cuppa with sugar for breakfast, Ag is part of the everyday for us all. That's regardless of where we live and how we work. EKKA is our chance to make that connection tangible. It helps the producer to join the dots for people not familiar with what we do - making clear the link between what we produce and what they eat.
It also demonstrates the diversity of Ag industries. From touching and feeling wool and grain, to showing how beef by-products are used in cosmetics and medical supplies or explaining how sugarcane's bagasse is used in renewable energy - the Ekka is a sensory, educational experience.
The Ekka is also an invaluable opportunity to support our social licence through trust and transparency. Sharing what we do - and why we do it - builds public trust. This is essential to protecting the future of our industry in the face of scrutiny and increasing misinformation from lobby groups. Having conversations with our city cousins, helping change hearts and minds one conversation at a time.
You don't need a polished speech - just your story. Visitors aren't after stats and slogans. They want to meet the people who grow their food and fibre. Your lived experience and human connection is more powerful than any brochure. It is amazing to see how many people are excited to say they met a farmer.
It's a great illustration of the power of real stories to influence real understanding. Conversations in the Ag Hall often spark "lightbulb" moments. For a child who's never seen a cow or understood how the chickpeas for their hummus are grown, this kind of immersive, hands-on experience leaves a far greater impression than anything they'll find in a textbook - it helps them make sense of the world around them and builds a connection they won't forget.
