Alasdair Boden: Fight the good fight on social media

James Rebanks, farmer and social media “star”, was once asked by a young farmer how he should use social media to further his career.

To which James replied: “I honestly think social media is the worst thing you can do.”

His argument centred on his agricultural heroes being too busy for such matters because they were head down in actual farming. That’s exactly how I feel. In part. 

See also: Alasdair Boden – ‘accidental’ farmers bring fresh ideas

About the author

Alasdair Boden

Having been brought up in Kendal, Alasdair Boden returned to the Lake District in 2019 when he and his wife, Heather, bought a holiday cottage business. The 37-year-old describes himself as an “accidental farmer’ having later acquired the 40ha historically connected to the enterprise.

Read more articles by Alasdair Boden

My anxiety is that I should be on social media. I’ve dabbled in video creation, I’m on drone number three, but I just don’t have the time.

However, I should make the time. Social media is our way of portraying life and all that we do, and there’s no more important an industry that needs it than ours.

Put simply, the boom in the vegan movement was only made possible by people with time on their hands retweeting posts, but that’s a rant for another time. 

What I’m doing at Low Nest Farm is, I feel, important. I’m not rewilding, but I am working with nature in a way that will hopefully benefit the planet.

And to stop the wave of negativity towards farming, I need to be promoting what we’re doing to prove no orangutans were hurt in the making of this burger. 

The public love farming content. There was the case of a young farmer who set up a milk vending machine and promoted it on TikTok one night expecting little response, only to wake up to a queue of customers the next morning.

The Hoof GP has 2.4m international followers and is up there with the likes of Tom Pemberton, Olly Harrison, the Red Shepherdess and Cammy, who are all working hard to show the incredible work going on in the industry. 

So James, you and I are wrong. Every farm should be pumping out content to show what we’re doing, to engage with the public and to fight the good fight.

Now I’m off to work out how this drone works and become another millennial with a YouTube channel. You can find me on @alsboden, just don’t expect any content!