Jones on ‘trust through truth’ and ignoring the deniers
No-one gets a ‘get out of jail free card’ on climate change and no one person or organisation has all the answers on adaptation, Julia Jones says.
“Shit’s gonna happen. Drought will become a very big normal and we’ll have all these other dramatic weather events as well.”
Speaking via Zoom to the final session of the Growing Kai under Increasing Dry discussion - ironically at the height of the flooding in Canterbury - the NZX’s Head of Insights rapid-fire style and delivery was as big a jolt as the morning coffee.
The whole key is risk management, she said. “The more we scenario plan, and the more we think about potential scenarios as a collective unit, the healthier we’ll all be because even if none of the scenarios happen, we’ll still be much better prepared than if we did nothing.”
Jones has little time for blamers and extremists, and while she said we should not compromise the environment, the economics of regulations and calls for land use change also need to be considered.
Our primary sector - food and fibres, including wood and wool - earn New Zealand $48 billion.
“We’ve got to be really conscious that we need to protect that as we push to adapt because if we don’t have the economics behind it, it’s hard for our communities
to things.”
Jones said she gets frustrated when she hears people insist that farmers needed to change ‘x’ and ‘y’.
“That’s fine. But how are we going to help them get there? What are the banks going to say about it, and around the value of their farms, if the farms have to change? What are local
survive and
afford
authorities going to do that change?”
Jones, the winner of MPI’s emerging leader scholarship to attend the Te Hono boot camp at Stanford University, said in a world where consumers are vitally interested in traceability and how their food is produced, we should make our efforts to adapt to climate change part of our food narrative.
to
support
And we should be honest, and also include what we’re trying to do about the “bad bits” because people distrust hype and claims of utopia.
“We will truth.”
While being “a bit freaked out sometimes” by Generation Z “I love them because they’re really into making a difference and won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. get trust through
They want solutions,” she said.
At a recent speaking engagement, a girl of about 16 “was having a real Greta [Thunberg] moment. She was yelling at us…. [claiming] our farmers jam animals into small places and pump them full of antibiotics.”
When Julia asked her if she’d actually been on a New Zealand farm, the answer was no.
“Her influence was through influencers [on social media].”
If it isn’t possible to get young people on our farms to experience the reality and the challenges, we should at least be connecting them digitally “so these kids aren’t watching a farm in America where they are in a feedlot being pumped with antibiotics, but get to see our cows roaming free, and that we use less antibiotics than anywhere else in the world.”
Jones’ advice was not to seek to punish people who don’t have accurate information, but also not to waste time on deniers and those who refuse to accept science and the truth.
“Let’s not put energy into the lowest common denominator who have no interest in change. Focus on the willing, and those who maybe don’t know where to start. Wrap around them and give them information.
“The others will either eventually go away, or they’ll get scared and they’ll start to follow.”