Victorian farmers open a "digital gate" to their properties

A digital campaign, Open Gate Conversations has been launched Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano and Campaign Ambassador, Gorgi Coghlan.

Ms Germano said the campaign kicked off at the Queen Victoria Market, where shoppers put their questions for farmers on video.

"There is already a bank of questions in there," Ms Germano said.

"People can go on the site and write a question, and farmers will answer them."

She said the concept came out of the animal activism inquiry.

Research commissioned to inform the campaign found 61 per cent of Victorians felt they had low knowledge about farming practices in the state.

In the same study, 70pc of farmers surveyed considered it extremely important to farm in a way that met community expectations.

Ms Germano said the digital hub represented an important opportunity for farmers to listen to community concerns and be transparent about how farming was changing.

"Our customers rightly want to know how our food and fibre is grown and raised," she said.

"This is our opportunity to openly share what we do with the community."

The research highlighted three key issues that raised concern amongst consumers; climate change, food quality and animal welfare.

"One of the things that was noted was whether or not we were being transparent, because often the criticism is that we are not being transparent enough," she said.

"This is supposed to be the antidote to that."

Ms Germano said biosecurity concerns sometimes precluded visitors from coming on farm.

"Certainly where there is intensive animal production, chicken sheds and things like that, you can't just walk off the street and go and find out.

"But we have a bank of farmers ready to go and we'd hope farmers would go on line and register."

Ms Germano said the VFF did not want to "curate" the responses too much.

"We also want to allow for the fact different farmers might have different responses, to the same question and that's okay - just to highlight we are quite diverse and not everybody uses the same production system."

"If we whitewash it, it won't do what it was intended to do, which is give people the capacity to ask curly questions.

"There may be some answers that the community won't like, but that's usually in matters were farmers are carrying out continuous improvement."

Ms Thomas said the VFF Open Gate Conversations campaign would encourage discussion about the issues that mattered to all Victorians; climate change, sustainability, use of chemicals and other technology, animal welfare and managing landscapes.

"Victorian farmers are innovators and leaders in their fields - we know they will jump at this chance to make new connections with the people who buy their products," Ms Thomas said.

Campaign Ambassador Gorgi Coghlan has lent her voice to the campaign to encourage Victorians to stop and think about how their food is produced.

"Whether your interests are sustainability, food quality or animal welfare, Open Gate Conversations will put you in touch with a farmer who can answer your questions," Ms Coghlan said.

To find out more about Open Gate Conversations, visit www.opengateconversations.org.au