Yet, despite an environment of increasing uncertainty, we farmers are still here. We are hanging on, always working. After all, the world needs feeding and clothing and it's our job to do it. But what has remained, till now at least, has been the farming communities and an occasional politician who might choose to listen. "But are they listening really?", many would ask. There is a sadly ever-widening divide between urban and rural New Zealand. It is a divide which I and the ACT Party have promised to come here and address. It was heartening to see COVID-19 briefly bringing New Zealand farming communities front and centre again, a temporary shift in perception which was so wonderful to experience and seemed by the wider public to be gratefully received. Farmers rightly asked, though, why did it take something like COVID-19 for so many people to realise how important farmers are to this country and how good we are at what we do? 