Talking turkey

After the politicians came the real business - commodities. Paul Kelly, who developed the Kelly Bronze turkey was the most interesting speaker for me. As a marketer of his product he is a genuis, and bursting with enthusiasm. I loved the moment when he told us he had ignored pr advice that livestock producers should never show pictures of the animals - consumers can't take the idea of eating them apparently. Kelly didn't agree and his publicity is full of happy turkeys. I would like to have told him that I (a non-farmer and self-confessed townie) wrote a viewpoint article for Farmers' Weekly urging farmers to be more up-front about meat production and show us their animals. If meat eating, and livestock production, is to survive, we have to be more honest about it. I am interested in food and cooking and I am a committed carnivore. But I do want to know where my dinner comes from, and how it lived. Paul Kelly says that he wants consumers to be able to come to the farm where his turkeys are raised at any time and have all their perceptions about the brand confirmed. That is of course the secret - you have to be confident that your standards meet customer expect

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ations. I applaud his confidence.