Thank you so very much to the “The Hound” ex Rural News Group Limited for his opinion piece last week, re Beef Lamb New Zealand use of levy money in supporting Shepherdess. It's telling that his post has since been deleted!
If ever I needed reminding of my purpose in life, why I do what I do every day, why everything I do is to lead, inspire, connect and empower our rural people, and most especially our rural women – then this is it.
As a female farmer, and also agribusiness banker, I’m at the coal face of seeing how challenging life actually is out there at the moment. At a time where the mental health of many of our farming people is hanging by a thread, I couldn’t be happier to have an industry body recognising and taking a holistic approach to what support looks like.
I am privileged to be part of the small team of women who brought The Shepherdess Muster to life. We created an event where women connected in an authentic and vulnerable way. Where women took home, to the place where we nurture and support our whanau and communities, the absolute best version of ourselves. For the tangible differences that we made in the lives of so many women, I could not be more grateful to our sponsors, which included BLNZ.
As for BLNZ advertising with the Shepherdess being a “woke diversity spend”, I’d like to point out to The Hound that there are numerous studies reflecting that businesses who actively focus on Diversity and Inclusion are far more likely to be profitable.
And “niche”? At 35% of the work force in the food and fibre sector (MPI Stats), I’d hardly call us “niche”, especially when you take into account that 56% of tertiary students specialising in Ag at tertiary level in 2022 were female (MoE stats). We all know, except for maybe Mr Hound, that we desperately need good young people coming into our industry – to see the stories of women who are innovating, shearing, farming, returning to their whakapapa, changing lives with their kaupapa; women who inspire, who dare to lead and are catalysts for change – this is exactly what we need to see and hear, and what The Shepherdess magazine delivers.
I'm a massive supporter of Kristy McGregor and all that she does, for her tireless and genuine commitment to telling the stories of our farming women. Plainly The Hound has never picked up this magazine, for he’d have seen the beautifully curated pages telling the stories of women changing the face of rural New Zealand.
I absolutely believe that strong rural people build strong rural businesses and communities, and in turn a strong New Zealand. Please support a rural media outlet that actually advocates for us - and thank you to BLNZ for valuing us!
https://shepherdess.co.nz/
We ❤️ booth neighbor connections at the #FancyFoodShow!