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Animal Ag Watch By Hannah Thompson-Weeman
Hannah Thompson-Weeman is president and CEO of the Animal Agriculture Alliance.

Food Tank Summit Part II: Where are the farmers?

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the first annual Food Tank Summit held in Washington, DC in mid-January. Following my last post about farmer reaction to the New MacDonald organic marketing campaign, I was inspired to reflect on a topic that bothered me about the Food Tank Summit – the lack of farmer attendees and speakers.

While the agenda was packed with speakers, one party was vastly underrepresented: farmers – organic, conventional or otherwise. Farmers are getting increasingly engaged in telling the story of agriculture – and yet this conference featured a whole panel on the subject with only journalists and authors represented. A discussion on how to define a ‘family farm’ went on without hearing from a single farmer.

I was interested to see that many of the event’s attendees felt the same way, expressing their disappointment with the lack of farmer representation using the event’s Twitter hashtag (check out #FoodTank to read tweets from the event). While many of the attendees’ picture of a great farmer is likely very different from mine, we all agreed that we’d like to see more in the spotlight.

Research agrees, with studies pointing to farmers or farmer-led organizations as viewed as more trustworthy than other sources, including the USDA or FDA.

However, I have to ask myself if I would have been happy with any category of farmer represented on the panels.

If the Food Tank panels included farmers espousing the importance of organic farming and depicting modern production methods negatively, attendees would have walked away with their views reinforced that all U.S. farmers felt this way, and I would have been tempted to fire off some angry Tweets.

If they featured large-scale modern producers arguing that small producers are inefficient and have no place in the food system, the conversation would have turned negative and unproductive very quickly.

But what if there had been a mix of views – a respectful dialog between small or organic farm operators and large-scale producers about why they chose the production methods they used? That conversation sounds like one I’m interested in hearing, especially in front of an audience like the one gathered at the Food Tank event. Sometimes when I see the marketing tactics used to promote one production philosophy at the expense of another, I wonder if enough damage will be done to make that kind of discussion impossible.

The response to the New MacDonald campaign, however, has encouraged my belief in the agricultural industry’s ability to work together for a common goal – an informed public who is able to make food purchasing decisions based on fact, not fear. I’m hopeful that farmers will continue this trend of supporting one another and encouraging open-minded, fact-based dialog.

If given the spotlight and the opportunity to represent the agricultural industry, I strongly urge any farmer to stay above the fray over production methods and decisions. Make it clear that you are speaking on your own behalf and representing only your opinions and experiences. Speak positively about your own operation rather than disparaging your neighbor. Advocate for honesty in marketing and the freedom for consumer choice rather than advocating for restrictions on other production methods.

Simply put, stop the food fight.

3/31/2015

 
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