There’s no doubt about it, our industry is under attack. When there’s not an undercover video being released to the media by an animal activist group, there’s an article about how animal agriculture is ruining the environment or increasing global warming. There are those that attack us on the grounds that a vegan diet is healthier – that meat and cheese are making Americans overweight, and those that say that the industry doesn’t do enough to provide “high-quality meat products” to underprivileged populations.

It would be nice to lull ourselves with a hope that this negativity is just a phase – but unfortunately, I don’t think it is. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Mark Bittman compared the effects of food on public health to gun violence. Now, I concede that this comparison is not only ridiculous, but also poor form given recent events; but I caution you not to completely brush this article off despite these concessions.

Mark Bittman may be a characteristically outspoken, opinionated critic of agriculture. We have come to expect this from him.

But, here’s what’s unexpected. Bittman’s article alone garnered 345 comments … in one day. After a short perusal of the comments I can tell you it went from bad to ugly; there was very little good.

On top of the initial comments, there were dozens of letters to the editor written in support of the piece. While some people thought Bittman’s comparisons were a little far-flung, I didn’t read a single letter where the author didn’t agree with the basic premise that our food system is broken.

For me, there’s nothing more disconcerting than seeing in glaring print such a negative public opinion. I wasn’t raised on the family farm or ranch, and my family isn’t in the processing business. I often tell people that agriculture was the career that chose me – during college I stumbled upon an internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and have worked towards a career in the industry ever since.

In my current position as director of communications for the Animal Agriculture Alliance, I spend a lot of my time reading articles such as Bittman’s, and thinking about how we can better educate the public – our consumers. I am a firm believer that one of the best ways to communicate the triumphs of agriculture is to empower those with their “boots on the ground” to talk about it themselves.

The Alliance’s College Aggies Online Scholarship Competition launched last week, with its very purpose being to encourage the next generation of America’s farmers and ranchers to use social media to speak honestly and openly about agriculture. In the past, the program has allowed students to post blogs, articles, photos and videos on the College Aggies website, which is mostly viewed by other students engaged in the competition.

This year, we wanted to grow the program even more and encourage the participants to be “outwardly focused,” that is, to go public with the content they create.

Part of our industry’s communications problems are that we all talk to each other, instead of to the public. I can’t tell you how many emails I get when a nasty article is published, playing the blame game with the finger pointed right at agriculture. Everyone wants to rant and rave about the article to other ag industry folks, but no one is responding to the source.

This year, our College Aggies will be doing just that. One of their “Aggies Homework” assignments will be to find an opinion piece written about agriculture and respond to it by actually submitting a letter to the editor. Not a single letter to the editor or comment that I read following the Bittman article appeared to have been written by someone remotely connected to agriculture.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – "I don’t read the New York Times" – to which I am going to respond: Maybe you should.

Not only is the Times the most popular American newspaper website, receiving more than 30 million unique visitors per month, but they have the third-highest weekday circulation, selling approximately one million newspapers daily.

It’s in publications like the Times where we’re being talked about most negatively, and we as an industry need to become more engaged with those populations that are most removed from the family farm – the readership of newspapers like the Times.

I can assure you that there is no one better to post a comment or write a letter to the editor than y’all – you’re living the life that others are only writing about. You’re the experts in the field and you can enlighten those who most likely have never even seen a ranch, much less a processing facility.

You may not change the minds of the author or the commentators, but at least the public is hearing both sides and can then form an educated opinion themselves.

But while you embark on this path towards engagement, enlightenment, and education, I want to close with one final (I promise!) thought. The opinions shared on the national media stage are just that – opinions. Everyone is entitled to them, but they are not facts. Only we know the truths about the industry, and I encourage you to start sharing them. PD

Emily Metz Meredith
Communications Director
Animal Agriculture Alliance