Making the Farm-to-Fork Connection

Making the Farm-to-Fork Connection

Taking consumers to the farm with TikTok videos, Ted Talks and transparency

By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

What comes to mind when you think of influencers? Hollywood celebrities? Sports stars? How about an Iowa dairy farmer who uses robots to milk and feed his cows?

Dan Venteicher connects with hundreds of thousands of people each week via his smartphone and social media directly from his family’s farm.

“People like watching cows, and I like helping them learn more about dairy farming,” says Venteicher, 31, who creates videos and posts them to his “Iowa Dairy Farmer” TikTok account, which has nearly 736,000 followers. He has another 843,000 followers on his Facebook page with the same name.

Dan Venteicher uses social media to help people learn about his dairy farm.

Venteicher, who milks 200 Holstein cows, began making videos after he stumbled across a TikTok video a college student took of his robots during a farm tour. “Some of the commenters wondered if we were lazy and questioned why we use robots,” says Venteicher, who earned his dairy science degree from Iowa State University in 2013.

Instead of getting frustrated, Venteicher started posting multiple videos each week to entertain and inform audiences about daily life on the dairy farm. With his motto of “Fact-Based Farming,” he also answers people’s questions about modern agriculture, including why a robotic feeding system is used. The answer is simple, Venteicher says. The robot can feed the cows every two to three hours, depending on the cows’ needs. Easy access to fresh feed leads to happier cows and higher milk production.

Social media-savvy farmers and influencers like Venteicher know that transparency builds trust. Mark Jackson, a fifth-generation farmer from Rose Hill, Iowa, discovered this when he gave his TED talk, “A Personal Story about Farming and the Future of Agriculture,” in New York City in 2014. “Sometimes you find yourself being cast into roles you never imagined, but it opens up some great opportunities,” says Jackson, whose TED talk (available at ted.com) received a standing ovation.

Mark Jackson is a fifth-generation farmer from Rose Hill.

Jackson Inspires Other Farmers to Share Their Stories

Jackson began volunteering with local farm organizations after he started farming full time in 1974. His involvement in the Iowa Soybean Association and American Soybean Association led to an opportunity with the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative, which included conservation groups and the World Health Organization.

Jackson learned that many of these leaders didn’t understand Iowa agriculture and sometimes overlooked unintended consequences. “Farmers know there’s more than one path to town, so to speak, and each option might have merit,” Jackson says. “I encourage people to look for compromises to reach the desired outcome.”

Jackson follows this approach whether he’s posting Facebook updates from his Mahaska County farm or speaking to top executives of Unilever (which owns the Hellman’s mayonnaise brand) about sustainability and agriculture. “It’s important to keep an open mind, be considerate of others and see the bigger picture,” Jackson says.

In 2014, Jackson gave a TED talk in New York City about agriculture.

His influence has inspired other farmers, including his son Michael. Through the Ag in the Classroom program, “Farmer Mike” visits with students across the U.S. via video calls. Kids can watch “Farmer Mike” in his combine at harvest and in the tractor cab during spring planting to get an insider’s look at modern farming.

“My son makes me proud,” Jackson says. “Being an ag influencer is all about planting a seed to encourage people to learn more.”

Farm Babe takes on Burger King

Those seeds can take root in a powerful way. Just ask Michelle Miller, a speaker and online influencer known as The Farm Babe™. Miller is a big-city-globetrotter-turned-farm-girl who helps people understand the truth about modern agriculture.

Miller grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she participated in 4-H, rode horses and helped her friends with farm chores. “No one ever talked to us about the tough topics, though,” says Miller, referring to GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and other controversial ag issues. “We were just told to muck out the animals’ stalls.”

After graduating from high school in 2000, Miller attended the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles. She designed window displays for Gucci on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills before working with Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Chicago.

“I bought into the idealism that just shows one side of food production,” Miller says. “I was surrounded by people who felt this way.”

During this time, Miller also traveled the world, exploring culture and food. She ended up back in the Midwest, dating a northeast Iowa farmer. As she learned about crop and livestock production, she saw a different side of the farm-to-fork connection – and it was vastly different from the environmental degradation and other topics presented in various materials.

“After learning the truth of modern agriculture firsthand, I began debunking the myths I once believed,” says Miller, who started speaking up on Facebook to share what she was learning.

Michelle Miller, known as The Farm Babe™, thrives on helping people understand the truth about modern agriculture.

She reached out to Vani Hari (“The Food Babe”) to counter some misinformation Hari was communicating online about farming and food production.

“She blocked me, so I started following a Facebook page called ‘Banned by Food Babe,’” Miller says.

“Then, I created The Farm Babe in 2014 to build my own social media ag advocacy platform.”

Miller started with 100 followers and grew her audience by posting regularly, listening to others (including those who disagree with her) and trying to find common ground. “I say, ‘I understand where you’re coming from,’ because I used to feel that way, too. Just because someone is misinformed doesn’t mean they’re a lost cause.”

People are bombarded daily, however, with food-related claims by celebrities and other influencers. In 2019, Ellen DeGeneres advised 78 million Twitter followers to “Eat less meat. It’s good for the planet, for the animals and you.” Then there’s Kim Kardashian, who was named the “chief taste consultant” in 2022 for Beyond Meat, a Los Angeles-based producer of plant-based meat substitutes.

When Burger King launched a misleading advertising campaign in 2020 for its “Reduced Methane Emissions Beef Whopper,” Miller couldn’t stay silent. The fast-food giant claimed that consumers could enjoy the burger with less guilt because lemongrass was added to the animals’ rations to trim cows’ daily methane emissions by 33%. The ad also featured jokes about cow farts and erroneous claims about beef production’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.

“I reached out to Burger King through social media and said, ‘We’re making amazing headway with sustainability and farming,” Miller says. “I invited them to the farm to learn more.”

They accepted, and Miller gave the Burger King crew, including Fernando Machado, chief marketing officer, a firsthand look at the sustainable beef production cycle. “You never know what can happen with just one social media post,” Miller says. “If we work together, we can move mountains.”

After learning the truth of modern agriculture firsthand, Miller began debunking the myths she once believed. She started speaking up on Facebook to share what she was learning.

Fact-Based Farming Catches On

Providing transparent insights into his farm motivates Venteicher to keep creating videos. His most popular videos are his rebuttals of misinformation, from animal care to agriculture’s environmental impact. His messages have been so well received that followers asked if they could buy merchandise. Venteicher opened an online store with “Fact-Based Farming” shirts, caps and more.

“I try to be authentic by showing the good side and tough realities of dairy farming,” says Venteicher, who originally planned to become an ag teacher. “Sharing videos on social media allows me to combine the best of farming and teaching.”

Dan Venteicher's most popular videos are his rebuttals of misinformation, from animal care to agriculture's environmental impact.

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