Consumers, more now than ever, are interested where their food comes from. Consumer perceptions of agriculture shape preferences in their food choices, which in turn shape requirements from grocery retailers that get passed down to the farmer. Many of these consumer perceptions have been altered by the growing focus of negative media and videos from animal activists, whose aim is to put an end to animal agriculture. Research conducted by the Center for Food Integrity found that consumers hold farmers responsible for the health and safety of food they produce, along with federal agencies and food companies.
The thing that separates farmers from the other two, however, is that farmers are recognized as being one of the top three most trust worthy parties to carry out that responsibility. For many years, dairy farmers let their Dairy Checkoff dollars do the positive marketing for dairy. Today though – with the advent of social media, farmers have grown eager to tell their farm story to the public. The issue, though, is that many farmers don’t know where to start. Knowing this fact, and having eager farmers to share stories are two key reasons why educating farmers in how to advocate for agriculture – or Agvocate – is important.
In August our team organized a workshop designed to help producers tell their farm story, utilizing the help of NY Animal Ag Coalition (NYAAC). NYAAC is “a farmer founded and funded organization whose mission is to enhance the public’s understanding of and appreciation for animal agriculture by fostering a dialogue with consumers, engagement with farmers and cooperation among members of the industry.”
The morning portion of the event was led by NYAAC directors Erin Hull and Eileen Jensen, who had participants focus on their “why”. Why do you do what you do? What is your story, what makes you proud to be a farmer? Their direction led the participants to first understand that your why is the first thing that is important – the “how” to agvocate should happen after you understand the “why”.
NYAAC then led the group through an exercise to uncover how you, as a farmer, are like your audience, and how you can make a personal connection to your audience. Combining all of these things while using listening skills will allow the two parties to find common ground. Participants role-played different situations and worked through the process of creating their story.
The afternoon session featured a panel of producers who Agvocate in different ways. Johanna Bossard of Barbland Farms, Julie Patterson of Patterson Farms and NYFarmGirls – sisters Evelyn, Claudia and Jojo Leubner all shared their methods of agvocating and best practices for sharing their stories, and answered questions from the participants. Johanna utilizes Facebook extensively, and shares photos from the dairy frequently, along with offering tours of the dairy to groups. Julie also shared that they maintain a Facebook page, but prefers to give tours of the dairy and shared guidelines they follow when doing so.
NYFarmGirls hold a huge Instagram presence and talked about mistakes they made early on when gaining momentum, and best practices for posting photos and stories. Some have a newsletter, which is mailed to neighbors quarterly, and shared that NYAAC offers assistance for the design of the newsletter, and will help with appropriate content. In all, twenty-two people participated in the workshop, hosted by Whittaker Farms in Whitney Point.
After the workshop, two farms contacted NYAAC for help in putting together a newsletter. Another asked for help in guiding tours to their dairy. Several others have started agvocating more regularly via social media channels, and sharing more of their farm story. Another workshop, focused more on social media, is planned for the winter program season, as producers have expressed further interest in setting up a farm page on Facebook or Instagram.