Where did the anti-farming sentiment begin, not just in Australia, but around the world? And most importantly, what can we do about it?

Claire Taylor brings a genuinely global perspective to this conversation. Originally from Scotland, she travelled across multiple countries as part of her Nuffield Scholarship, exploring how farming is portrayed, discussed and defended in different cultural contexts.

That journey eventually led her to Australia—where she fell in love with a farmer and now lives just outside Orange, New South Wales. Having only been in Australia for a year, Claire speaks candidly about what it’s like to miss your old life while navigating a major career pivot.

Once an agricultural reporter working across TV and newspapers in the UK, Claire is now the founder of her own consultancy, Agvocacy Consulting, focused on helping agriculture tell its story better.

This episode is has been made in collaboration with the Australian Dairy Conference and is packed with practical, accessible advice on sharing positive stories about farming—and you don’t need to be an influencer or media professional to do it well.

The Australian Dairy Conference is on in Melbourne from February 11 to 13, so make sure you're getting quick to book your ticket!

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Farmers are often portrayed as being lone operators, but we know that working in agriculture, or any rural business, is a team sport. No matter what specific industry you’re in, you’re not going to get far without the ability to get people working together towards a shared goal.

None of this is possible without effective leadership, and that’s the topic we’re going to be tackling in this episode. How do you define your leadership?

And who better to ask than two women in leadership roles within the massive event that is the Australian Dairy Conference.

• Rose Philipzen is the first woman to act as president of the Australian Dairy Conference. With a lifetime of experience in the industry in New South Wales, Rose shared what her trailblazing journey has taught her about the benefits of leaning into a collaborative leadership approach.
• Ella Credlin is working in Rose’s team as the conference’s programming chair. As a passionate dairy farmer from south-west Victoria, Ella was tapped on the shoulder to work for the ADC, and told me all about her hope to create positive change within the industry she loves.

Also in this episode we discuss the Australian Rural Leadership Program. The ARLP is a 15-month program that helps rural people develop their skills as leaders in their field.

This episode was brought to you in collaboration with the Australian Dairy Conference, Australia’s premiere conference. Next year the conference will be held in Melbourne in February at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. You can register for the conference or explore the program at this link.

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Nikki Davey is well known in the rural women's community as an entrepreneur, flower farmer, speaker and absolute go-getter. She founded Grown Not Flown, an app connecting customers with local flower growers. This startup business had a great cause in directly challenging the lack of sustainability in the flower industry, where many flowers are flown to Australia from countries in South America, Africa and Asia. Which is a crazy amount of unnecessary flower miles... given the amazing flowers we have right here in Australia.

As a business and a movement, Grown Not Flown was kicking goals. Nikki won the National Agrifutures Rural Women's award in 2023. She fostered a large social media following and most importantly, created a platform that was popular with both growers and customers. But a couple of months ago, Nikki posted online about how she was winding up Grown Not Flown. This came as quite a shock to many.

But the reality of any startup is that most fail. Sometimes you can even have the market fit, a brilliant founder and a popular platform... and things don't work out.

So you're about to hear an interview with Nikki Davey that she did on another podcast called Agtech.. So What, who have kindly shared it with us. Sarah Nolet is the interviewer and dives into the business side of things, from what it's like being the founder of a startup, the challenges of finding funding and how difficult it is to make the final decision to wind up the business.

Nikki is still doing amazing things of course too, including a new role in the sustainable flower industry, her new startup AI business, Stratlas and she just released a book for business owners about collaboration... called "The Pie Gets Bigger."

This is a Rural Podcasting Co. production. Check out our other podcasts and how we can help you create your very own podcast too!

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