Vegetable grower Alan Wilcox remembered for lifetime of service
Pukekohe vegetable growers farewelled 101-year-old Alan Wilcox in late July, celebrating his many achievements and reflecting the widespread respect in which he was held.
Until illness forced his retirement earlier this year, David had been working as consulting editor of Rural News, but his career in rural and political roles was long and varied.
Raised on a sheep and beef farm near Timaru, David started his career as a junior reporter with the fledgling Rural News in 1991, freshly graduated from a journalism course – after a period farming, shearing and working in the meat processing industry. Rural News was in the process of changing, with the aim of tackling the real issues affecting the country’s all-important rural sector, and David’s nose for news was a perfect match.
His first editor, Ron Clark, was a true newspaper man who believed that NZ’s farming sector lacked serious coverage of the issues that it faced, and that Rural News was the perfect outlet to do this. Ron’s hard-hitting and uncompromising approach to news rubbed off on David, who took the same approach over his own career in rural journalism – covering the good, bad and ugly of NZ’s agribusiness sector without fear or favour and ‘keeping the buggers honest’. One headline David liked to recall from those early days, one that nicely sums up the fearless attitude Ron and David shared, was the classic ‘Why bankers are bastards!’
Farmers loved that one more than the publisher did: the banks wouldn’t advertise with Rural News for years after.
Ironically, David’s rural journalism career began when a new National-led government was picking up the pieces of a shattered economy and severely depressed rural sector hit by major reforms, in the aftermath of six years of a Labour-led government.
It was a rich period of change for a newsman: farmers were unhappy with the producer boards and the fact they could not even vote directly for their own representatives. They changed the system, believing it would see much better voter turnout and higher quality representation. Fast forward to today, and, as David recently noted, a mere 12% of red meat producers bothered to vote at the latest Beef+Lamb NZ annual meeting.
Another big change David’s career spanned was the painful formation of Fonterra, from the numerous small dairy co-ops dotted throughout the country, into one of the biggest and most successful dairy companies in the world.
Throughout his career, David was committed to putting farmers’ interests first, taking politicians, business leaders and ‘dark-suited PR types’ to task. He himself had a few years in a ‘dark suit’ working in communications for Fonterra and, before that, in Bill English’s press team. He also worked as an independent contractor for a few years, helping clients such as the Rural Contractors Association with their media and communications work, and also served as a councilor on the Waimate District Council. More recently, he managed his brother and National MP Miles Anderson’s successful 2023 campaign for the Waitaki seat.
When he returned to the Rural News editor’s chair a few years back, the Hound’s teeth were sharpened – the ‘woke’ in particular getting savaged.
There are too few of David’s kind left in the media industry – old school journalists chasing the story, not virtue signaling – and he has left an indelible mark on rural journalism. He will be missed.
To quote David’s final editorial: “It is impossible to summarise more than 30 years of this dynamic sector’s events and happenings in a few words. However, what I can say is that things will continue to change, farmers will adapt and the industry will survive and thrive. It’s been an absolute privilege to have played a small role in NZ’s most important and vibrant sector.”
