Bergveld, who participated in the workshop, stresses the importance of people working together and taking action. She offers an example. Way back, the co-operatives started up because the farming people were absolutely at the bottom. Business was taking advantage of us. Questions were also posed about the distinctiveness of farming as lifestyle and workstyle.
Farmers work at home.
But so do people with home businesses, and many writers, artists and professionals. Farmers' families contribute to the work together. But this is also true of many other family-run businesses. Explorations such as these show that farming actually has a lot in common with other kinds of work. Other myths challenged include, for example, that it's non-farming newcomers to the countryside who complain about smells from neighbouring farms.