Farmers Need to Tell Their Stories

Meat farmers have to do a better job of telling their own story to counteract the “activist agenda” about how meat is produced in Canada farms, according to rancher Adrienne Ivey

By Drew May – the Brandon Sun

“The words ‘factory farming’ have been on the tongue of every documentary and every scare tactic that’s out there around food today,” she said.

Ivey is a beef farmer from Saskatchewan who uses social media and her blog to tell the wider world about what it’s like to live and work on a farm. In a presentation at Manitoba Ag Days, she said she and other farmers can use their platforms to dispel myths about how animals live on many farms and the real impact of genetically modified foods.

“What we are just starting to really understand is we need to be caretakers of the consumer-farmer relationship”

 
She used the example of a photoshopped image of a human fetus growing inside a tomato to show the kind of myths that represent GMO foods on the internet. Not only do human fetuses and tomatoes not have anything to do with each other, GMO tomatoes are not commercially available for people to buy in the grocery store.

“It’s part of a bigger agenda … Some groups are against GMOs, and it becomes part of a larger activist cycle,” she said.

She said animal antibiotics are also widely misrepresented and demonized online, using the example of a photo of syringes sticking out of a piece of meat. For beef and pork farmers, it’s important to show the public how antibiotics are used and why they are important for animal welfare.

Ivey said farmers and people in the agricultural industry are disadvantaged online when it comes to their followers. When a celebrity talks about food production on Twitter, they are reaching tens of millions of people across all walks of life, but farmers are much more limited with their followings.

“I can guarantee you that of the 523 followers that my husband has … Every single one is probably ag-based. Katy Perry on the other hand, when she is speaking to people about food production, not one of her followers probably has a touch point in agriculture.”

Adrienne Ivey, a rancher from Saskatchewan, speaks during her Manitoba Ag Days presentation at the Keystone Centre in Brandon last week – photo: Drew May/Brandon Sun

There are ways that farmers and people living in the industry can take better advantage of the online tools available to them though. One tip Ivey said has helped her is to be her genuine self online, which people can connect with.

“Being open about who I actually am has to be the first step. I’m a farmer, I’m a rancher, but first I’m a mom and I’m a regular mom. … Our family is organized chaos and people connect with that.”

She said farmers can share a “slice of life” with their followers, like what they’re having for supper, working in the fields or moving cattle. These moments give the outside world a real look at what farm life is actually like.

By being genuine online, Ivey said her and other farmers have been able to connect with people outside the agriculture industry, which is one of the biggest challenges.

“It’s only natural that as farmers our friends are farmers, our peers are farmers, our business associates are farmers, our neighbours are farmers. … People who work and live in (agriculture) don’t need to hear about how awesome it is. We already know.”

She said farmers should make an effort to follow and interact with people outside of their industry online, so grow the audience of people getting a view of what farm life is like. Ivey said she has made connections with people in nutrition, athletics and other areas through social media platforms and they have educated each other.

“When It comes to our farms, every single one of us understands that we are the caretakers of our land, we are the caretaker of our livestock, we are the caretakers of our livelihood, but what we are just starting to really get is we need to be caretakers of the consumer-farm relationship.”

oringally published in the the Brandon Sun