Amongst the sea of people at the Emerald Show this week were three people in green shirts – something which has become less of a fashion choice, and more of a beacon for people off the land.
Bonnie Sargood, 24, the daughter of Scott and Adma Sargood, Halton, Charleville, has stepped into the spotlight made by her dad and launched Bush Bumpers – selling bumper stickers to raise money.
The money will go towards creating professional short films aimed at our city cousins in an attempt to better educate on basic facts.
Ms Sargood said without basic knowledge of the industry, anyone from a city background can hardly be expected to make informed decisions or opinions.
Raised on a cattle property and then sent to boarding school, Ms Sargood said she was constantly amazed growing up and now living in Brisbane at how little understanding there was of the rural industry.
“What kicked it off was the vegetation management laws, we started the Facebook page for Dad… and that went really well,” she said.
“Afterwards I went back to Brisbane and continued working (as a nurse) and started talking to my friends about the vegetation management laws and how it would affect farmers and they weren’t able to come to a drawn conclusion and also they couldn’t really have a lot of input because they didn’t know a lot about it.”
“It got me thinking – I think we would have a lot more support from people in Australia if they had a better understanding of how it does affect farmers in their day-to-day life.”
She said producing something to combat campaigns run off “misleading information” was vital.
The videos won’t be directly about vegetation management, but instead about farmers, what farming produces for Australia and how the industry impacts on the economy.
Ms Sargood said one of the hardest parts of living in Brisbane was seeing constant advertising campaigns from organisations such as WFF and PETA.
“It’s probably what motivated me to do this, but the hardest thing is living around people that also have been exposed to it but do believe it because they don’t know any better,” she said.
“It’s hard hearing it, but living around people that believe it is very hard.”
The bumper stickers are $10 and $5 and all the funds go towards making the videos.
For more information or to purchase, check out the Facebook page here.
To read more about Scott and Adma Sargood click here.
Kelly Butterworth
Rockhampton-based journalist covering all things ag.
Rockhampton-based journalist covering all things ag.
