A Blueprint for Agvocates... in an era of Digital Food Activism

1 Dec

A look at leading “agvocates”, the people and institutions actively engaged in promoting agriculture.

In December 2017 I compiled a list of “agvocates”: people and institutions actively engaged in promoting agriculture. First coined by Mike Haley, a grain farmer from Ohio (@farmerhaley) (who also credits Ray Prock (@rayprock) and Darin Grimm (@kansfarmer)) “agvocates” is a combination of agriculture + advocacy, and is a way of referring to leading agricultural advocates. Why do this? It’s important to know who those advocating for agriculture are. They have their pulse on the vein that is the lifeblood of agriculture. Many of these people and organizations share followers, but the best share the message well beyond traditional agricultural circles. Many are tactful and tactical, knowing how to tweet, post, or connect in a way that builds followers. Others have unique personalities that make them fun to engage with. Their messages are clear and strong, positive and honest. They love what they do in food and agriculture and want to share it with others.

The first list of agvocates included more than 500 individuals, corporations, companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and universities. It was released to a firestorm of comments - and criticism.

Much of the criticism surrounded the use of Klout to rank the Agvocates, creating the sense of a popularity contest, or at least a comparison of advocacy effectiveness. Some argued whether more followers mean better agvocacy, others about the inclusion of certain names or the omission of others from the list (for example, claiming that they 'weren’t really ag friendly’). One person registered his discontent with the whole affair by changing his Twitter handle temporarily to ‘Klouty’!

All of these comments and critiques were considered when I decided it was time to update the list. For a start, Klout no longer exists, so that issue is resolved. This time the social media presence carries more weight, and the number of followers on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter were compiled for each of the Agvocates (as of January 2020). More than 50 food and agribusiness podcasts were also considered. Agvocates come in many shapes and sizes, from farmers to food producers, from paid social media mavens to those with a commercial agenda. Corralling these different agendas into a coherent movement isn’t easy, but it is necessary.

Why necessary? Because the connection between agriculture, food and consumers has never been more fraught. “Digital Food Activists” vocally express their critiques of the food system, and sorting out the relative merits of those critiques requires agvocates with genuine expertise. Knowing who is an agvocate gives both food activists and people in the ag sector access to a community of well-informed specialists. It facilitates information exchange between and across the various specializations.

What is Digital Food Activism?

As the name suggests, Digital Food Activists use the online world to express their opinions about food and the system that produces it. As Tanja Schneider (editor of the collection of essays Digital Food Activism) notes, social activists play a critical role in trying to change the food system. Social media platforms offer unparalleled power to make opinions, whether informed or ill-informed, heard.

Food activism has probably existed since the first farmers 10,000 years ago: it is likely that right from the beginning, the availability and control of food (including how it is made, stored and distributed) had been a political issue. Rules on safety and purity date back to at least 1266 (with British laws on purity and quality of bread and beer). The three ‘waves’ of food activism in the US (whole / pure foods in the 1930s; food safety in the early 1900s, and organics in the 1960s) can be linked to food activists of each era. Examples include:

· Sylvester Graham in the 1830s, whose emphasis on whole grain, pure foods and vegetarianism enraged bakers and butchers but led to an emphasis in healthy eating (influencing Kellogg, among others) and vegetarianism that continued into the next wave of food changes;

· Upton Sinclair, whose novel The Jungle gave the public a searing account of the meat packing industry in 1906. Although he was dismissed as a ‘muckraker’, follow up investigations led directly to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act;

· Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, documented the effects of DDT and other pesticides is credited with launching the environmental movement, and is directly linked to the ban on DDT.

In the 1970s Michael Jacobson set up the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which is sometimes credited as building the momentum for change within the food system. And change it has seen. In the United States, Jacobson advocated for nutrition labels on all foods, making it possible for people to be fully aware of what they were consuming. To Jacobson’s surprise, it didn’t garner the change in eating habits he predicted, but the CSPI led to greater transparency about the food products we purchase, and the nutritional value contained therein. Jacobson planted a seed of curiosity and concern in the minds of the consumer and over 50 years that seed has spread. Today people increasingly demand to know what is in their food and how it is produced.

The difference with contemporary Digital Food Activism is the scale and speed with which information- and misinformation- is spread. Food producers are scrambling to respond to Prosumers, Super-consumers, Millennials etc, often with no more information than the activists have. Consumers are clearly shifting their purchasing decisions in ways that are affecting the food system and the online world offers the opportunity to research and voice opinions about the food they purchase. The messages in online posts have a direct effect on big food companies, and reverberate down the food chain, all the way to farm level.

At the frontlines: Food activists

Food activists advocate for change, to improve the food system. Some have a particular agenda (such as animal rights activists) where a compromise or middle ground can be hard to find. Dr. Oran Hesterman, founder of the Fair Food Network, says “Most large systems, such as education and energy, rely primarily if not solely on policy makers and industry leaders to act on our behalf. With the food system we can have more impact. We can take responsibility for fixing it both through individual decisions and through collective action.”

Some food activists are professionally involved with food (eg, government officials, school food program directors, etc), but food activists can come from anywhere: gourmet cooks or home cooks, social justice campaigners or environmentalists, animal rights advocates or macrobiotic enthusiasts, etc. In a way, every person who purchases food is advocating for what they value in food. What all food activists have in common is that they are pushing for change in the food system, to benefit society in some positive way. This may include improving the nutritional value of food, reducing food waste, increasing awareness about where food comes from or how it is produced or grown, etc.

Food activists amplify their message via social media to change or improve what they consider faults in the system, directly and indirectly impacting those at the front end of the food supply chain: farmers and producers. Many are deeply uncomfortable and skeptical about the role and goal of business being in the food system.

The other side: Agricultural advocates

Many farmers and producers also want to see changes in the food system, but they fear that the degree of change being advocated by food activists can be deeply impractical, even potentially starving the world of affordable, available and safe food.

Agvocates are agriculture’s answer to activists, and they have also adopted social media platforms (eg Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, blogs and podcasts) to amplify their voice. While agvocates celebrate agriculture on the internet and support one another, they often seem to be in an echo chamber, never reaching beyond their own circles to the greater public. Agvocates often despair at the lack of connection with consumers who have not grown up on a farm and have never been to a farm.

Farmers, food producers and Digital food activists together?

Finding common ground between food activists and agricultural advocates requires them to work together, to share information as needed and positive messages as appropriate around food and agriculture.

The challenge in uniting behind a common message is to agree on an interpretation of facts, or indeed what Anneline Padayachee describes as the 1, 2 or 3-Dimensions of their perceptions. Messages are often disjointed, with social media stories aligned to fit with each person’s preconceived positions. When US milk company Dean Foods announced its bankruptcy in November it was astonishing to see the range of explanations given on Twitter. Depending on who you follow you might have heard that the reason Dean Foods went bankrupt was:

because of the alternatives to milk (soy, almonds, etc) that consumers are actively choosing to reduce consumption
because of climate change
the US market is very vulnerable to trade issues, and specifically Chinese milk purchases of milk powder
the company hadn’t learned to produce value added products from milk, such as sports supplements
Trump
Democrats

None of these explanations would have given you a good understanding of what actually happened. The Twittersphere plays to the short-term: the quick shot, the assumption, the humorous take. The opinions of famous people, including actors, chefs and sporting stars are used as substitutes for expertise. There are many legitimate reasons for making changes to our food system but as Jack Bobo (CEO, Futurity Food) noted, “the world has the safest, most plentiful food system in the history of the planet and yet consumers have never been more scared.” With so much information at our fingertips, no one needs to be uninformed. Hence, the importance of agvocates.

Dr. Jude Capper, with The Livestock Sustainability Consultancy, suggests those who want to change the narrative need to focus in the middle ground, which she says represent 80% of consumers: those who are open to information and fact-based discussions and don’t have fixed (hostile) opinions of agriculture. She suggests 5 steps; share your values; be positive, polite and personal; keep it short simple and see-through; focus on the important; and know when to walk away.

“When we hear news that upsets us or hear commentary about animal agriculture that isn’t quite right, we’d benefit from taking a beat to really listen and think before firing off a response with our initial, unfiltered thoughts,” recommends the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s Hannah Thompson-Weeman. “Many times, agvocates end up “breaking into jail,” or drawing more attention to an issue that most of the general public was unaware of. We may not put our best foot forward in our knee-jerk reaction, and mocking a company, journalist or consumers for what we see as ill-informed decisions they’ve made, won’t win farmers or agriculture any admirers or earn any trust.”

In writing about ‘how to argue better- with science’, Brian Resnick recommends two simple techniques to engage with those who don’t accept your ideas. First, if your argument doesn’t convince the other side, find out what will. Second, listen. Concepts, by their nature, are hard to understand and certainly to implement. Food activists and agvocates do have common ground, and finding it allows the spread of powerful, accurate messages to the consumer. Social media provides an opportunity for agriculturists and food activists to unite and grow a common voice that amplifies the story of food production for the education of a wider audience.

Two sides, one coin

It can seem that the digital food activists have an inherent advantage: they are directly and emotionally engaged with consumers and are seen as being unbiased in their positions. But, agvocates can also gain the trust of consumers: in surveys they generally report a high degree of trust in people who are described as farmers, a calling they connect with on an emotional level. Even food and agribusiness corporations have been able to find credibility by making their business very transparent and open to online scrutiny.

Of course, food activists generally focus on what is wrong with the current system, and what needs to change, while agvocates prefer to focus on how much has improved. This difference underlines the fact that activists think of sustainability as being a destination while those in agriculture see it as a journey, one they’ve been on for over a century and expect to be on for another century.

The future of agriculture and food on social media

A common concern at agricultural meetings and conferences is the failure of the sector to attract young people to choose an agricultural career. It turns out that the food production industry has the same challenge. The reasons cited for both are similar: the long hours and the dedication required; comparatively poor compensation.

An example of a group trying to change the image of agriculture among young people is AgriAware in Ireland. Funded jointly by the farming community, the food industry and the government, AgriAware focuses on creating materials for schoolchildren from 7 to 16. Surveys show a dramatic shift in perceptions of farmers, how farmers treat the land and their animals, and agriculture in general, including in urban environments.

As the number of farmers continues to decline, the challenge is that consumers will appreciate less and less where their food comes from. The next era of agriculture is arguably the most important– as my Forbes article describes, digital technologies could generate more change in farming than have occurred in the last thousand years. Innovations could see food produced in entirely new ways, as insect farming, petri dishes and fermenters become new sources for human and animal nutrition. But as Jack Bobo loves to say, ‘people love innovation almost as much as they despise change’. The innovations implemented need to make consumers comfortable with both innovation and the food they love to consume.

Agvocates can be an important part of building that understanding. They can build support and create coalitions to actively address concerns from consumers and the public. They can share stories and ensure information is distributed in an understandable and relatable way. Consumers need to be able to trust the message and be able to discern truth from “fake news.” There is indeed an opportunity for food activists and agricultural advocates to join forces, share stories and educate the prosumer.

Let’s seize it.

Here is a list of top influencers I found on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

https://www.cainthus.com/news-posts/agvocates

Top 30 Ag & Food podcasts list https://www.cainthus.com/news-posts/top-agvocates2

Thanks for the help in creating this article Alexa Potocki and research to Isha Munde on the Agvocate and Podcast lists. Thanks for positive feedback and critical comments from Jack Bobo, Hannah Thompson-Weeman, Jude Capper and Anneline Padayachee

3 TAKE-HOME SUGGESTIONS

1) Follow both leading food activists & Agvocates on social media.

2) Listen to the best food & agriculture podcasts to stay informed.

3) Use your knowledge to engage positively, pass your knowledge on.

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