Cutting to the environmental chase

Farmers have told a hairdresser at Fieldays in Hamilton they are overwhelmed by the number of changes needed on farms.

They could get a free haircut, from Jason Muir who runs the Cutz for Korero, only if they were willing to have an honest yarn about what environmental challenges they face on the farm.

A quick ‘‘so what are we going to do for you’’ from Muir sorted what new hairstyle they would walk away with and a snappy follow-up of ‘‘what environmental issues worry you’’ easily got them to open up.

The free haircuts were organised by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

‘‘I can help the EPA ask the questions they want to ask farmers and get the messages across they

Jason Muir

Cutz for Korero operator

want communicated to the farming community. Farmers are a great bunch to chat to,’’ Muir said.

He said farm industry representatives told him they found it hard to get messaging about change across to the farming community.

It was all about finding solutions, he said.

EPA community engagement lead Vanessa Crowe said the authority wanted to make an impact at Fieldays, have conversations with people in farming and influence behaviour change around environmental protection.

The authority also wanted to acknowledge the issues farmers faced and to encourage conversation, Crowe said.

People were used to getting into a chair and getting their hair cut, and would open up easily in that environment, Crowe said.

Muir originally had the idea for a popup hair salon in exchange for political conversation in 2014.

He had always been interested in street performance and started the first popup salon when New Zealand debated a change of its national flag that year.

The country was not very good at political debates and needed open conversations without fear of judgment on topical issues, Muir said. The popup salon celebrated hairdressers as communicators and the role they played in serious issues, he said.

Crowe said this was the second time the project had run at a Fieldays.

Anyone could book an appointment but many people simply walked in. The first time the project ran, Muir asked farmers what was important to them when it came to environmental protection, Crowe said.

This was done to build trust and let people know what the authority did, as not many members of the public knew about them, Crowe said.

Farmers acknowledged that there were environmental issues but felt overwhelmed with change, she said.

This year the conversation had shifted to talking about actions that could be taken, Crowe said.

The authority believed change happened when farmers shared ideas about what they or others did to improve the environment and to be innovative, Crowe said.

Authority strategy general manager Paula Knaap said it wanted to hear what farmers thought the future of sustainable farming looked like.

‘‘Farmers are a great bunch to chat to.’’