I could go on forever about this commercial and my love for this specific Paul Harvey moment, but I will spare you.
I love agriculture, every bit of it. Thank you Dodge and National FFA for supporting American Farmers and Ranchers.
It is no secret; I am working for a PR agency. Our client base is agricultural organizations; my focus is on the animal health world. I took this job due to the fact I could combine my passion for the cattle industry and communications every single day.
I wanted to share a few resources about talking with consumers, these resources come from studies I had heard about, but I hadn’t the slightest idea of where to start searching for them. Seeing that most Americans (I mean like the other 99 percent of the population) is three to four generations removed from the farm or agricultural production having the ability to connect and articulate with consumers is becoming harder. These two studies showcase terms that consumers like, and can easily relate too.
Below is page from one of the studies that I found highly interesting, and I reference it every single day.
Capturing the Shipper Mindset-Merck Animal Health
The Consumer Mindset-Merck Animal Health
There always seems to some fun, rather stupid song that just kicks me summer off. This year, I claimed, Call Me Maybe to be that song.
This was followed with my parody of the Harvard Baseball team.
How many great plays on words can there be…I mean it is breeding season and all!
From the Montana Stockgrowers Association
Sexy and I Know It has just continued to be a song that you can help, but to like it…or just sing along with it. This song has become a summer phenomena especially, for my love of agriculture. The Peterson Farm Bros from Saline, Kansas have become a viral YouTube sensation with “I’m Farming and I Grow It.”
I had the opportunity to spend most of the week with the Kansas Livestock Association, Young Stockmen’s Academy, which was a great experience! Being on the road much of the week put me a few days behind my typical social media monitoring. The texts, emails, and Facebook posts were pouring in so I knew I had to watch this video at the first chance I got. I fell in love with this video, it is s catchy, funny, and yet so real.
If you haven’t checked out this video, I encourage you to do so.
What is your favorite advocacy video on YouTube? Mine is a close tie between the Peterson Brothers and another video that got 30,000 views…and is done by (coughing *Texas A &M). Both are great videos, show casing agriculture…what are your opinions on social media and agriculture?
Let me start this post with, this might be a little all over the place, so hold on.
What a week for American agriculture in the media.
On Monday night I arrived back to the LBK from a fun-filled weekend in Kansas. My mini spring break, I know you are probably thinking, “really Kansas is an inland state with no beaches, what kind of college student are you?” I have a special spot in my heart for Kansas and K-State, so it was GREAT!
I didn’t get a picture of it, but I loved the signs by the Kansas Agri-Women, that state “1 Kansas Farmer Deeds 128 People (and that number had been changed several times).
I stole this photo from another blogger...thanks TilTheCowsCome
Traveling always leads to a pile of laundry.
Sitting on my bed watching the evening news following my arrival home, and in the process of tossing everything out my suitcase, I was stopped dead in my launch of dirty clothes. The beef, pork, and lamb industries had fallen under attack from the mainstream media.
Now I went through the study, it looked to be reasonably well done. My major issue was the old data that they used, and that this data was not collected with the intentions of proving that red meat consumption was bad for you. The link above directs right to the study so you can check the facts for yourself.
There is two sides to every story that the media reports, and that this study is allowed to be scrutinized. And if it wasn’t not allowed to be, we wouldn’t be researching ANYTHING, EVER.
It also reminds me of something that a one of my research participants said:
“American agriculture has nothing to hide, and I am not sure why we have been operating like secret society.”
The Lean Finely Trimmed Textured Ground Beef media blunder is also on the minds of many Americans. If you missed my blog post with numerous resources please check it out.
And today…I am not totally up on the whole “Luck” TV scandal, but it will continue to make news for the next week or so. PETA and HSUS is involved. What I heard briefly from an interview with the California State Vet was that he wished all of the horse industry was as well documented and cared for as the horses were on this television show. My first thought was well, dont horses die on the track every once in a while? I mean I could be so wrong, but horse racing is an interesting world, I will leave it at that.
The first Friday of March should signify something right? Spring is getting close, flowers will be blooming, crops will be planted (when mother nature allows), and beautiful white face calves will be hitting the ground (or any color, but I am partial).
Either way, I am going to kick of March with asking a question. Not to you the faithful blog reader, but to the Center for Food Integrity and their blog called Best Food Facts.
The Center for Food Integrity started the blog called Best Food Facts with the hopes of creating a running tab of agricultural resources from the leading researchers in the field. Anyone can ask a question, about anything related to food and agriculture.
Go ask a question on the BestFoodFacts.org website, and then share this website with your friends, family, and social media network. This organization wants to become the WebMD of food, so lets help them! Don’t be scared, start asking, the organization and the panel of researchers want to answer your questions––we are all consumers!
I hope you will check out this new website that was launched this week by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it is called Know Your Farmer, Know your Food Compass.
Example of asking a question on BestFoodFacts.org
We are all consumers, whether we are raising the corn that is in almost every processed product or the beef that is in a fast-food hamburger, at some point we are all consuming products.
Do you have worries or wonder how a product came to be that you are serving to your family? I know I do, but I also know where the resources are to find the answers.
Following my blog post “I Wont Ever Eat Chipolte with Willie..or Anyone for That Fact…Again” I think this is a fitting chart (see below) to show consumer concern and questions about the food industry. I question companies like Chipolte whose mission is to use sustainable produced animal proteins or organics. Which is a great intention, but here is the deal we cannot feed the world on organics or naturally produced food (whatever that means), Michael Pollan even said so himself. So is pushing this agenda item ethical?
Personally, I dont think the “benefits” of eating organics out way the premium price from choosing these products over conventionally produced products.
This is my opinion, and food is a personal, and emotional choice, so heck, I dont care what you chose. It is all supporting agriculture.I was having the discussion with myself over this consumer information, and who would be willing to sponsor the research funding to find out these answers. Thankfully a united front for U.S. Farmers and Ranchers called the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance did just that. I saw this chart of Facebook from Ag Media 101.
So what are your opinions, concerns, or comments regarding food production and consumption in this country? Are the major agribusiness companies going to make us all obese or starve us all death in the end? (Opinion of many concerning the current state of the “whole story” of agriculture–see blog comments).
Additional reading: Bill Gates discussion of the green revolution and the advancement of agricultural technologies.
I read the cup, and choked down my tacos and made a vow that I would never eat there again.
This commercial by Chipotle and Willie first made it on the web this summer. I put it on my blog, and the ad drew attention on Facebook. I was surprised to see it make it mainstream appearance tonight during the Grammys.
As this is a well-played agenda item by Chipotle aired, NCBA Director of PR Daren Williams responded quickly. He has one of the best quotes I have seen tonight through social media regarding this issue:
Dear Chipotle: Food with integrity requires marketing with integrity. So tell us the truth, how much of the meat you sell is truly “naturally-raised.” What percentage of your vegetables are organic? More important, is “naturally-raised” and “organic” really better for our health and the environment? Or is this all just a bunch of “clever marketing”? Inquiring minds want to know.
Signed, Your Confused CustomerThis is followed by a quick blog post by Crystal Cattle; she dispelled the myths and misinformation that is told in this ad.
And friend Jara Settles had another intelligent statement regarding this ad:
Organic farming practices are a great niche market for some of our nation’s producers and kudos to those consumers who can afford organics… but I’m sorry Chipotle, organic food will never feed the masses with a safe, wholesome and ethically produced product the way conventional crops/proteins do… or as Cambridge chemist John Emsley puts it “in a global conversion to ‘organic farming’-an estimated 2 billion people would perish. . .”
Nebraska Farm Bureau also responded in September, the organization described the ugly picture life may be like for the 7 million and growing world population without modern agriculture.
Finally, the Beef Beltway via Daren Williams responded in the fall of 2011 to this ignorant commercial.
Editorial Posting
What a week for editorials in the Corvallis, Oregon Gazette Times. It was brought to my attention on Tuesday evening of an editorial about the Oregon State University (OSU) College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) program was yet again under attack from a member of the community.
This time the writer happens to be completely uneducated about the actual practices at Oregon State University. Here is a screen shot of her note, but my thought, don’t write something like this with some facts.
I am going to answer her questions/statements:
Question 1: Why isn’t this lady pushing for the addition of a new degree program in the CAS? Doesn’t she want to fund that program?
Question 2: OSU does have a Food Science program. I am guessing that if they had the funding and a researcher interested in “improve the safety and nutrition value of meat, milk, and eggs” wouldn’t they be conducting researcher in that field? Ms. Sams please contact the department to find out more information.
That’s right, the CAS took major budget cuts, combine departments, resources and cut back on programs. I am not sure which researchers are in the Food Science department right now, but I bet they are working for every penny they get from the university and outside sources to continue any type of research.
Question 3: I am pretty sure that the Animal Science degree plan is intended to “promote the humane husbandry of food animals”. So unless she is saying she needs to be instructing classes on this, I think it’s covered.
Question 4: Again, “reduce environmental pollution and conserve natural resources” they are working on this! Please research the appropriate contact on the colleges’ website.
Question 5: Yet again, this statement goes back to research. Also, a niche market that needs help developing products, marketing publics and other resources better be forking up some money for the college to yet again help them by doing research “broaden economic opportunities for family farmers, including the development and preservation of niche markets”!
OSU College of Agricultural Sciences is a major land-grant university, therefore they are responsible for conducting research and engaging students to think about the future. That is their job, not to solve every problem known to man.
There is a big difference in how manure is handled and how FEED, a livestock FEED is handled. Silage must be kept airtight to not grow mold, that’s the reason it’s kept in the white plastic tubes. Manure is typically spread over the fields to replace nitrogen.
I don’t understand what she is trying to get at in the second paragraph; modern dairy production takes place in a barn.
I will that the Swine facilities agree this facility needs to be renovated! Either way, the pigs are happy and cared for. Yet again pigs are kept in barns in modern facilities, plus this pigs have way more space to move around in than modern pig facilities so big happy for the gilts, sows, barrows and boars! Also, if I were a pig in Western Oregon and you kept me outside, I would fear for my life in an endless mud pit, send me to the climate controlled facility any day.
Who in the world is this woman quoting?
OSU is home to a broiler facility and feed facility.
I say this woman needs a firm education in modern agriculture production. If she is interested in niche markets that will not feed the world I encourage her to found her own small research facility that will further the advancement of personal food production. I am glad she wrote this as it serves as a reminder to us all that we must continue to educate those around us on the difference in feeding the world and feeding our selves out of our backyards.
