Farmers want Facebook

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Farmers want broadband so that they can feel more 'socially connected'

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 9:14p.m.

Farmers don't want access to broadband only for those worthy but dull things that can boost their on-farm productivity - they want Facebook.

"We want to be socially connected through networking sites like Twitter, You Tube, Facebook and other emerging technologies that connect people together, globally," says lobbyist Donald Aubrey, of Ben McLeod Station in the South Island's high country.

Mr Aubrey, a vice-president of Federated Farmers, told Communications Minister Steven Joyce at a rural broadband symposium in Rotorua today that though farmers could use the technology for things such as remote monitoring of livestock, pastures and crops, it was also vital for social reasons.

A digital divide between townies, with broadband access, and the remaining quarter of the population, "left with the scraps", would make it harder to attract and retain people in rural areas.

"Becoming a digital backwater or digital ghetto is quite simply not something we aspire to," Mr Aubrey said.

NZPA

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