The media capitalises on “emotional content” and, when “clicks” are profit, the more outrageous the title, the bigger the margin.
A common one I see on my feed is “pesticides are making all of your food toxic”.
I saw a short video on TikTok that called for consumers to “wake up” to the lies being spread by the government and that the “farmers are poisoning us”.
More worryingly, this specific post had 680,000 views, 35,000 likes and more than 6,500 shares.
For somebody uneducated in the topic, this would be worrying. Being told your food is poisoned would be scary if you had no reason to question it.
Farmers face criticism online as a result of people’s misconceptions of the industry that have been fuelled by these false claims.
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Inciting fear and confusion can only cause detriment to people’s faith in their food, and harm to their farmers.
If our society wants safe and sustainable food production, we must prioritise evidence over viral claims, and support honest conversations about farming practices and attitudes.
