Telling ag's story: Modern ways to spread the word

Telling ag's story: Modern ways to spread the word
BEAVER DAM –
"My father-in-law isn't on Twitter, but he shakes hands with people buying meat and milk in grocery stores. He tells them he's a farmer and he thanks them for supporting farmers."
That's what Carrie Mess, known in the cyber world as Dairy Carrie, says about the importance of speaking up about farming and reaching out to consumers.
She says it doesn't matter so much how we do it. What's important is that farmers reach out to help others see farmers as real people.
"The bottom line is people want to know that their food is safe, animals are being cared for and we are protecting the environment," she said.
Mess describes her work as "agvocacy."
"We advocate for agriculture," she said. "The messages out there about the bad actors in agriculture are coming from people who are loud, but they are not the majority. They simply have time, money and celebrity power on their side. As farmers, we don't have the time or the money to create all this hype. Our jobs aren't sexy, so they don't get all the attention. But we do have knowledge, passion and trust on our side."
Build trust
She says most farmers, after viewing misleading, inaccurate videos put out by organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or the Humane Society of the United States, decide they need to educate people.
"That's wrong," she said. "If your salesman comes on the yard and says he wants to educate you about the importance of buying his product, do your respond? We simply want to influence people by telling our story."
Perhaps Mess understands this better than some farmers because she grew up in the city of Madison and doesn't even have distant relatives on a farm.
She learned about farming on the job. Her husband, Patrick, grew up on his family's dairy and had some off-farm jobs before deciding to farm full time. He introduced her to the realities of dairy, and soon she became very involved with the family's 100-cow, 300-acre dairy.
She had been running an online business selling lingerie, and through the good following she had developed on Twitter, she began to also tell about some of the day-to-day activities on the farm. She was reaching a whole new audience and people were interested.