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Rachel Rohan, Joanne Mollinger and Lisa Harrison keep an eye on their social media pages. (ABC News: Melanie Vujkovic )
Three daughters of dairy farmers in Queensland's
Scenic Rim are launching a social media campaign to encourage consumers
to ditch $1 supermarket milk in favour of branded products.
Daughters of Dairy Farmers
— founded by Rachel Rohan, Joanne Mollinger and Lisa Harrison — will
tell the stories behind the producers through photos in its Meet the
Farmer series.The women say generic products are killing the industry, and hope throwing open the doors of the milking sheds will have a flow-on effect in the supermarket aisles.
Ms Rohan's father Peter was the first farmer in the series and was also behind the idea.
"I came back from an industry conference a few years ago where we were told to embrace social media in a positive way for our industry and I told Rachel — complained apparently — that I was too old for that and perhaps she should do that for me," Mr Rohan said.
The campaign also wants to continue the success of last year's social media movement, which saw people all over the country turn their back on cheap supermarket milk.
Ms Mollinger said the campaign was great, but short-lived, according to data from Dairy Australia.
"Even though the campaign's still going, people have gone back to buying $1 milk, so the aim is to sort of keep it out there on a more constant basis," she said.Ms Harrison said after speaking to Scenic Rim farmers, it was clear the situation was not improving.
"The feedback we're getting from the farmer is since the $1 a litre milk came in, there's been no good times … it's been constantly going down," she said.
The major supermarkets said they were doing their share to support the industry by stocking a wide range of products for shoppers to make their own choice, as well as sourcing milk directly from farmers on long-term contracts.
The three daughters all grew up on a farm, but now all work outside of the industry.
Ms Rohan said they hoped it would help people relate to both the farmer and the average consumer.
"We've walked both lives so we've grown up with this — this is what we know — we still have very strong connections to the dairy industry but we also talk to people that don't have anything to do with the dairy industry, so we can be a spokesperson for both sides," she said.
"For us to be able to come out and say 'hey, these are people and they're just trying to make a living, they're just trying to provide for you' — that's what we really want people to see," she said.The three women hope to continue the series until at least the end of the year and hopefully longer if they get the following.
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