Finally: Farmers Reaching Out to Worried Consumers

When Bob Stallman’s daughter called him a month ago to ask him if drinking milk would be bad for her kids, he knew farmers had an image problem.

Here was the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, talking to his daughter - who had been raised on the family ranch, for goodness sake - about milk and food safety.

Turns out her church had just finished watching the movie, Food, Inc. Thus, the phone call.

“Clearly we have a lot of questions we need to answer,” says Stallman, who is now chairing a collation of 49 farm groups to try to bridge the knowledge gap between modern agriculture and consumers. For the first time in modern ag’s history, there’s a national effort to speak in one voice.

The U.S. Farm and Ranch Alliance (USFRA) formed last year after lots of soul-searching and hand-wringing. This was an unprecedented organizational effort, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman told me after the group’s first initial meetings. I mean, when have we ever seen 49 farmer and rancher organizations get together to agree to do anything? And, more importantly, agree to set aside all the wedge issues, like ethanol and livestock, for example?

So you know right away: The USFRA means business.

Consumer trust

“We had a great concern that consumer trust has been eroded by the critics, whether it’s the Michael Pollans of the world or the anti-livestock groups,” says Stallman. ”It’s the first time I can recall we have ever agreed among agriculture to enhance the ability for farmers and ranchers to operate freely and increase collaboration, and put aside the issues we can’t agree on.”

The purpose of USFRA is to focus on consumer attitudes; formally incorporated in November, the 49 farmer and rancher-led affiliates include both state and national groups, commodity groups, farm organizations – the kitchen sink, if you will.

“We initially wanted to fund this at $25 to $30 million a year but even that’s not enough to run a national consumer campaign, so we’re also going to try to reach out to people who influence the attitudes of consumers,” adds Stallman. “That’s where we’re going to put our resources.”

Right now USFRA is 75% funded by producer groups and 25% by the agribusiness sector, including input suppliers all across the food chain.

They hope to move that closer to 50-50 eventually, but doing so could erode their credibility. I mean, a consumer is more apt to believe a farmer’s message than some giant agrichemical company.

Even so, Stallman says, “We’re not going to hide anything.” And, he adds, they’re going to do a bit more listening.

“We need to answer the questions consumers want answered,” he says. “Farmers and ranchers have been good about telling consumers what we think they need to hear, but we have to change our attitude and stop preaching a bit.”

Next up: a national town hall meeting in September, along with activities unfolding across the country.

“We’re willing to engage with those who criticize us, other than groups who deny our right to exist – those people we can’t have a conversation with,” says Stallman. “We want to talk to local, organic, free range, anyone, but we’re going to dispute those who don’t use facts. If you want a dialogue about gestation crates, that’s fine, but if you make up something that’s not factual we’re going to dispute that.”

USFRA will also show up on social media. “Conversations are going on now that we’re not a part of,” says Stallman. “Look at Facebook, Twitter, or the blogosphere. We have the ability to track online conversations. There were 277,000 conversations about food, and agriculture in the month of May and agriculture wasn’t part of hardly any of those. As producers we want to be part of that online conversation.”

Moving the needle

The final result, USFRA hopes, is to move the needle – so the consuming public actually does understand better what farmers do. In essence they are trying to create a firewall between critics and consumers to make it more difficult for the critics’ message to gain traction. “But we have to be transparent and gain consumer trust in the first place,” Stallman adds.

And that means a lot more producers need to step up to tell their story. For those willing to stand before a television camera or speak to reporters, USFRA offers media training. “You don’t have to be smooth talkers, just be honest and speak from the heart,” says Stallman.

The key is to tell consumers how production practices benefit them. It’s about providing health choices for everyone. If you want to buy local or organic and you can afford it, that’s fine. If you want safe food at an affordable price agriculture will provide that too.

“If the market demands it, more fruits and vegetables will be produced,” says Stallman. “People who demand we change our food system overlook that. If people only want to buy local food you’ll see the biggest change ever to local production.

“Our system is built on what consumers demand.”