FARMERS should be considered the rock stars of Australia, according to celebrity gardener and television personality Costa Georgiadis.
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The passionate, energetic and quirky Gardening Australia host told those at the Henty Machinery Field Days that young people should see farming as an exciting career.
Georgiadis – who received compliments about his beard, which he hasn't shaved since 1991 – believes farming needs to be rebranded as something exciting.
“We need to nurture and build the the future of farming around kids,” he said.
"We've got to create those pathways and we can all have a say about.
“It's storytelling, and it's about the way we tell the story.
“Kids often leave the farm and they go in search of something different.
“I think Australia's future is based on a real resurgence in agriculture and a youthful injection into the industry.”
A young girl recently told Georgiadis that rock and roll had changed people's awareness and what people knew, and he said farming needed a similar change.
Pennie Scott, who started an “Eat Local” campaign in Wagga, also spoke of the importance of farmers selling their own products.
“The paddocks to the pocket business model is how financially viable farmers can create their own destiny,” she said.
“They become price makers, not price takers.
"We need price makers or we will see the loss of farming families in rural areas.”
