A "GROWING" Distraction

Many industries rely on word games. They constantly change language to distance themselves from the reality of what they do: breed animals, exploit them, and ultimately kill them for profit.

The sheep industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to this manipulation.

For years we’ve heard terms like pastoralist, producer, and grazier. All carefully chosen words that soften what the industry actually is.

But recently a new term has appeared that is so misleading it’s almost unbelievable.

“Grower.”

The term is now being pushed heavily through industry language, particularly by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), and is increasingly appearing in marketing, industry reports, and even letters to government.

It’s a desperate attempt to align the sheep industry with passive agriculture - the type of agriculture where something is grown, like fruit, vegetables, or grains.

But sheep farmers don’t grow sheep.

They breed animals.

They don’t grow wool either.

Animals produce wool, and those animals are ultimately slaughtered.

So what do real growers think about this?

The people who genuinely grow crops without killing animals for a living?

Because this looks like another calculated marketing move to blur the lines and make animal industries appear more benign than they really are.

Ironically, these same industries often demand strict language rules when it suits them. For example, the dairy sector frequently argues that plant-based products shouldn’t use the word milk.

Yet here we are watching the sheep industry casually rebrand itself with a title that clearly doesn’t reflect what the industry actually does.

It’s part of a relentless marketing machine designed to shape perception and manipulate the narrative, while behind the scenes the system remains exactly the same.

Animals bred.

Animals exploited.

Animals killed.

So keep an eye out for the term “grower.”

It’s being inserted everywhere.

And it tells you a lot about just how far the industry will go to change the language - rather than change the reality.