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April 2015

@TheTable www.fooddialogues.com

Hors d’Oeuvres INSTAGRAM - #PIGSOFINSTAGRAM

The Main Dish FARMLAND WINS PR WEEK’S ARTS,

ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR

FOLLOW: _PETUNIA_THE_PIG NATIONAL AGRICULTURE DAY Denis Arey Kristin Fletcher: “Keep up the good work helping Ranchers & Farmers head in a new direction!

Happy Ag Day”

Photo Caption: From left to right: Ralph Harris, emcee; Marcus Peterzell, EVP, Ketchum Sports & Entertainment; Maxine Enciso, VP/ Account Director, Ketchum; Randy Krotz, CEO, USFRA; Doug Simon, DS Simon Productions

FROM OUR FACEBOOK COMMUNITY USDA REPORTS

97% OF ALL US FARMS ARE FAMILY OWNED

Get connected with USFRA online.

“Lights, Camera, Farmland! The FARMLAND documentary, produced by award winning director James Moll, took top billing in the PR Week Awards’ Arts, Entertainment & Media Campaign of the Year category. The national film release was supported and led by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®). The FARMLAND campaign received the honor in New York on March 19th. According to the PR Week entry, the annual PR Week Awards recognizes creative excellence in public relations programming and are viewed by the public relations industry as one of the highest honors. The campaign beat out several competitors including Chipotle’s Farmed and Dangerous campaign.

“USFRA is proud to be recognized by PR Week,” said USFRA CEO Randy Krotz. “We couldn’t have achieved what we have without the vision of Director James Moll and his team, the support of numerous individuals including present and

former staff, USFRA’s board members who immediately embraced the opportunity and many, many others. USFRA is committed to taking the message of farmers and ranchers to unexpected places, as we did with FARMLAND, and we will strive to look for innovative and unique ideas that will continue to foster consumer dialogue around food in America.”

“I also want to express a special thank you to those who have hosted a FARMLAND screening in their local community or attended a screening event,” continued Krotz, “and extend a personal invitation for those who have yet to see the film, to do so. It is imperative to get the film in front of consumers who have questions about how we produce our food, and we call on the entire agricultural community to help us do this.”

“Brilliantly done, added a Judge in an article from PR Week. “This asset will live on for a long, long time.”

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Head of the Table With a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n roll farmers do resonate with today’s consumers

by

Nancy Kavazanjian USFRA Chairwoman

W

e’re working hard to build trust in America’s food supply by advancing the voices of real farmers and ranchers into discussions about food production. That’s been the heart of USFRA program strategy from the start and that’s the approach our current directors and industry advisors embraced at this winter’s strategic planning session.

But, is this the wrong approach, as Rich Kottmeyer, technology and consumer science advisor for Farm

Journal suggests in a recent column? In fact, Kottmeyer contends that bringing out the farmer to convince consumers to be receptive to agricultural technology and practices could be detrimental to the cause.

For insight, I turned to Melissa Kinch at Ketchum, who explained that Ketchum research indisputably shows farmers are trusted sources and do improve trust when they talk about how they grow and raise food - more so than teachers, friends and magazine articles.

And, consumers relate to farmers when they answer questions. The more we show common values the more consumers relate to farmers and vice versa. Therefore, millennial farmers relate to millennial consumers while

farming moms relate to mom consumers.

Conversely, consumers don’t relate “when farmers are positioned as an alien species or are put on script versus telling their

can reintroduce consumers to the reality of production agriculture.” Meanwhile, I encourage everyone to join me in answering consumers’ questions about how their

“

We’re working hard to build trust in America’s food supply by advancing the voices of real farmers and ranchers into discussions about food production.”

story.” When farmers say ‘we know best’ or ‘city folk don’t understand’ disconnects arise.

I’m looking forward to Kottmeyer’s next column when he promises to “explore how farmers and agribusiness

food is raised by relating as parents, as small business owners, and as agricultural innovators committed to sustainability working hard to make the world a better place!

Right of the Table

What’s on Ohio Farm Bureau’s Plate?

H For Dessert: USFRA research shows that people like games. Xbox is planning the release of Farming Simulator 15 that “combines all the right ingredients to offer the richest and most detailed farming experience…”

Players get to try their hand at farming including the use of various tools such as tractors, harvesters, planters, chain saws, chippers and trailers. Wouldn’t it be awesome if this game introduced a new generation to pursue jobs in agriculture?

Farming Simulator 15 will be available on May 19, 2015.

alf a million Toledo area residents unable to drink their water for three days drew headlines around the world last summer. Harmful algal blooms were the culprit, and fingers were quickly Leah C. Dorman, DVM pointed at farmers. Agriculture recognizes the need Senior Director of Policy Outreach Ohio Farm Bureau and value of being part of the solution to this complex problem. Addressing Ohio’s water resource challenges started well before the Toledo incident. Ohio Farm Bureau had already convened Healthy Water Ohio (HwO), a diverse partnership of stakeholders from conservation, business and industry, universities, water suppliers, public health, agriculture and others studying Ohio’s water challenges. The goal is to develop a 20- to 30-year water resource management strategy. HwO has solicited input from the public, stakeholders, organizations and others to identify Ohio’s water resource challenges and find solutions. Groups that typically may not collaborate are actively working together on a plan to sustainably meet current and future water needs while enhancing the economy and quality of life for all Ohioans. We must be able to balance the need for clean drinking water and the ability to raise food. A set of recommendations will be released by this summer. Ohio is blessed to have an abundance of fresh water, and it is vital that we take the best care of it that we can.

Coming Soon: Ohio Farm Bureau, with support from USFRA, will be hosting a Food Dialogues with a water theme on May 28, 2015. The event will be livestreamed on FoodDialogues.com.

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The Special American Sheep Industry Association Working to Keep Sheep Producers Profitable by

T

American Industry Sheep Association http://www.sheepusa.org/

he actions of antilivestock groups, whether it be legal or legislative challenges, threaten operations of sheep ranches across the western U.S. says American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) Executive Director, Peter Orwick. ASI is an active affiliate of USFRA. Today there are litigious actions by the Western Watersheds Project to curb sheep grazing on federal lands – an action that threatens over 40 percent of the industry.

The sheep industry, like many in agriculture, is being targeted through the Humane Society’s efforts to cut funding to the Wildlife Services Agency and even asking for total elimination of the agency, which provides critical wildlife damage control to sheep producers across the country. If this comes to fruition, it would

Aperitif

affect more than half of all sheep businesses. In addition, there are other attacks on federal agencies such as USDA sheep research that has a direct impact on the day-to-day workings of the sheep industry.

Orwick says a main goal of his organization is to communicate to legislators, detractors and consumers the truth about the sheep industry. He notes that nearly the 80,000 farmer and rancher families who raise sheep in America take great pride in grazing their animals the majority of the year but that requires the ability to protect sheep from predator problems that have reached nearly every region of the country. Orwick says the industry maintains ecological grazing practices and that grazing livestock properly is good for soil, water and animal production and also

Farmland Promotional Materials Available

provides fire management and wildlife habitat. The industry provides millions of privately owned acres of habitat for wildlife all while sustainably producing millions of pounds of lamb and wool each year.

ASI is utilizing several online channels including Facebook and Twitter, along with more traditional communication tools such as their monthly Sheep Industry News (since 1911) as well as a weekly newsletter. They provide their members with the Sheep Care Guide; A Targeted Grazing Handbook; and Sheep Safety and Quality Assurance course. ASI has a legislative action network

and litigation teams that work to ensure producers are able to protect their sheep and properly manage them for food and clothing production.

In addition, as a member of the Animal Agriculture Alliance, ASI utilizes the services of the organization to help connect, engage and protect sheep producers and their livelihood.

In their role as an USFRA affiliate, ASI assists the communication team with consumer messaging about sheep production. In addition, ASI helps to push out information developed

by USFRA to its members as well as through their social media channels.

You can now help us promote FAMLAND DVD sales.

USFRA has made available two online ads as well as a print ad for use by all affiliates and industry partners.

We encourage you to download these ads and place them on your websites. You can access these ads by going to FoodDialogues.com and clicking on the toolkit and instructions for use are included.

The FARMLAND Digital Toolkit will be available April 1, 2015 and physical toolkit will be available for ordering beginning April 1 for a May delivery. The kits are customized based on the size of the screening.

Example items in the Digital Toolkit includes: Brand and artwork guidelines; Event Checklist; Invite Letter Template; Social Media Overview Guidance and Draft Posts; Community Promotion Tips; Farmland Logo; Film Overview Discussion Guide; and more. You can access the toolkits in the Affiliate & Industry Partner section of FoodDialogues.com.

We encourage you to share your experiences on promoting FARMLAND with us. You may find your stories and photos featured in Snack Time or @The Table. Please contact Larry Stoller, affiliate and industry relations manager at lstoller@USFRAonline.org.

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Tasty Tidbit 50 Most Powerful People in Food

Second Helping Ag Industry Joins Together Against Food Myths

What do Chipotle and Only Organic have in common? Viral videos full of half-truths and fabrications about food. Some may remember Chipotle’s 2013 “The Scarecrow” campaign that was launched with a video viewed by more than 14 million people along with an online game. People were so outraged by the lies that comedian Will Farrell teamed with his friends at Honest created a spoof of the video that received more than 12 million views.

Lesson not learned.

In February Only Organic launched its New MacDonald campaign (#NewMacDonald). Like many other negative marketing attacks, disguised as entertainment, it used emotion to try to turn myths into consumer truths. This video used grade school children to attack farmers’ practices in very visual and disturbing ways. While the video is nearing 1 million views, and the #NewMacDonald hashtag has exceeded 10,000 Tweets, a diverse group of farmers representing all types of production practices spoke out, with one voice against, the campaign.

During a Twitter Party, Tweets called the campaign “misleading” and “unfair” and called for an end to “farmer bashing”.

From USFRA’s perspective, we believe it is a tipping point for consumer transparency and truth. USFRA CEO Randy Krotz has called on the ag industry to stop attacking each other. But, he stresses, we all need to do more going forward.

USFRA remains committed, said Krotz, to taking farmer and rancher voices to places where tough conversations are happening so consumers can learn the truth.

In the words of USFRA Chairwoman, Nancy Kavazanjian, “it’s a good time to turn the tables and tell our stories about how all of us in agriculture are the New MacDonalds.”

A

nd the most powerful person in food in 2015 is…

Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

How did Ag Secretary Vilsack come to be such a leading influencer of the conversation about food in America? The editors of The Daily Meal asked the following key question (among others), “Who changes the dialogue around food in America,” and then set out looking for an answer. The results are published as the annual “America’s 50 Most Powerful People in Food”.

The editors of The Daily Meal cite USDA as playing a vital role in how we perceive and interact with food through its role of overseeing the country’s food and safety systems as well as setting nutritional guidelines. Vilsack took the helm in 2009 and during his tenure has led the fight against childhood obesity. He has teamed up with Michelle Obama on programs designed to raise awareness of the need for exercise and nutrition, including the development of proposed guidelines for school wellness policies that The Daily Meal said, “Turned school lunch into an unlikely political background”. Under his tutelage the USDA also unveiled the revised Food Pyramid and new MyPlate guidelines.

The 2015 list includes some, well, slightly unexpected people such as The Tonight Show Host, Jimmy Fallon (#41) and Yancey Strickler, Founder and CEO of Kickstarter (#25) as well as some people who are household names such as Mehmet Oz, Doctor, Author and TV Host (#32), Rachel Ray, TV personality along with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (#13). There are also heads of major food corporations on the list including Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (#7) and Hugh Grant, Chairman, President and CEO of Monsanto (#3).

Noticeably absent: Farmers and ranchers.

Family Farmers made the list as #50 in 2013 but have not been present prior and are missing from the list in 2015. Why is this?

There could be a combination of reasons including farmers and ranchers simply being left out of the conversation and farmers and ranchers being hesitant to speak out about how they grow our food.

Regardless of the reason, USFRA is helping to ensure those who produce our food are at the table in all conversations about food.

We are amplifying the voice of farmers and ranchers to consumers in new and unexpected places and will continue the dialogue in more traditional media and consumer venues.

Our hope is that as USFRA continues its important work, with the help of a growing number of supporters, “America’s 50 Most Powerful People in Food 2016” will include again America’s farmers and ranchers in a leading role.