Farmers for Climate Action was hit by a coordinated and sophisticated social media attack earlier this year, which it says was designed to mislead people into thinking farmers are opposed to renewables.
Approximately 66 fake social media accounts flooded the group’s pages with comments attacking Farmers for Climate Action and renewable energy ahead of the federal election.
The “sophisticated, coordinated attacks” were led by accounts which looked like they were real farmers and included conspicuous Australiana, such as vegemite and flags.
“These campaigns appear to be part of a deliberate strategy to create a false perception of opposition to climate action within agricultural communities,” Farmers for Climate Action told the Senate inquiry into astroturfing.
“These campaigns aim to drown out the authentic voices of farmers who support renewable energy or who have chosen to enter into commercial partnerships with renewable energy companies.
“We suspect that these coordinated campaigns are pushed by those who benefit from slowing or stopping renewable energy projects.”
The inquiry launched in late July to investigate climate and energy mis- and disinformation campaigns and uncover which foreign and local organisations are funding “astroturfing”, fake grassroots movements that are actually coordinated marketing campaigns.
The inquiry comes as research links money-flows from global conservative movements into groups in Australia that are purporting to be grassroots or independent entities.
The terms of the inquiry have been met with strident denials by some groups that they’re funded by “dark” money, and claims that it is in fact the federal government which is astroturfing the public.
Preying on fears
Mis- and disinformation campaigns are preying on farmers’ own fear for the environment, by making them feel they’re actively contaminating the land by endorsing renewable energy.
“False claims about renewable energy harming farmland, such as assertions that wind or solar projects damage soils, threaten food security, or are opposed by rural communities, are directly contradicted by peer-reviewed science and the lived experience of farmers,” Farmers for Climate Action says.
“We regularly see examples of disinformation that typically spread online prior to being picked up and repeated in real-world settings.
“These include… misinformation around the decommissioning of renewable energy projects, particularly wind turbines, despite there being no examples in Australia of a wind farm not being properly decommissioned.”
One example is the way an update last year from the meat industry’s supply chain integrity manager, Integrity Systems, was used to spread fear about possible contaminated meat.
Integrity Systems said farmers need to consider the risk of contamination from degrading electrical infrastructure, including renewables, coal seam gas wells, and coal mines.
This was then turned into headlines says wind and solar projects might contaminate farms and prevent farmers from selling their stock for meat.
Claims that solar panels leach toxic chemicals into the soil and that wind turbine parts frequently fall off are prevalent in Australia, appearing frequently online and in planning application submission.
But 33 of the most used claims were roundly debunked by research out of Columbia University last year.
At worst, these campaigns to spread false information are setting communities against each other.
“These campaigns seem to aim to target farmers as a way of slowing or stopping the shift to clean energy, costing farmers direct income (from clean energy projects) and indirectly (through worsening storms, droughts, floods and fires),” Farmers for Climate Action says.
“Those pushing these campaigns seem not to care that they are dividing rural communities.”
Not as opposed as you’d think
Farmers are at the core of the renewable energy transition as they’re either the hosts or the near neighbours of the major projects sweeping into regional Australia.
Those who support the energy transition are not tunnel-visioned about the process, with plenty acknowledging earlier this month at Farmers for Climate Action’s first summit that work needs to be done to fix bad industry behaviour.
But survey after survey shows most are in favour of efforts to reel-in climate change, such as the Agricultural Insights Study released at the summit showing 57 per cent says climate change is their top concern.
Another a year earlier showed 70 per cent of the 1001 respondents, all people involved in the farming sector in renewable energy zones across the eastern seaboard, supported clean energy projects in their area.
“Despite this clear and repeated evidence of high levels of support for renewable energy in farming communities, Farmers for Climate Action sees repeated claims online, in the media, among anti-renewable energy activists, and by some politicians that most farmers and regional communities are opposed to renewable energy projects,” the group says.
“These claims have gained ground, with polls showing that people – including regional residents and including supporters of renewable energy – significantly underestimate the level of support for renewable energy in their regional communities.”
Even reputable industry organisations aren’t immune to using survey data to further anti-renewable energy ends.
The inquiry submission cited a Victorian Farmers Federation survey that found “getting the energy transition right” was the fifth of 20 concerns for farmers, but which the organisation told the media was instead a fear of being steamrolled by projects.
