In today’s information society, words have a power like never before to give perspective and change perceptions. Unfortunately, we in agriculture have not been very active in making sure the non-farming public (our customers) understands the meaning of the words we use to describe our operations. Worse, sometimes the words we choose adversely affect the intended tone of our message.
Words are like stereotypes – there are good ones and ones that aren’t so good. We generally think of stereotypes as bad, but stereotypes help us to quickly rank information about a person, and we reflect that by how we act around them. Firefighters, policemen and members of the clergy are occupations with positive stereotypes, while the individual may not be that way at all. Words can be the same way.
Consider the word “chemical.” Most people agree the word has a negative vibe, and that is true from the standpoint of the average person on the street. However, when I ask people, even farm organization members, to name the number one, most widely used chemical in agriculture, few know the answer – water. Water is absolutely essential to life; however, as an extension agent, I will occasionally be asked to help someone to start a “chemical free” garden. Obviously, they aren’t including water in that equation.
Words change in meaning as well. When I was in college, “organic” meant containing the carbon or “C” atom. It has a very different meaning today; although, I do ask people if they realize that 99.99 percent of the cows in our county are organic. There are two whimsical concrete statues of cows at the head of a farm driveway that are most definitely inorganic under any circumstance!
Just for fun, “homemade” enjoys a good reputation; however, when you see the word homemade in the description of a restaurant, do you think that the food was hauled from the owner’s house, wrapped in foil and greasy paper bags? It is perceived that homemade is simple, fresh, filling and good.
A quick sidebar: The intent here is not to say one is right or wrong, but to understand how words are interpreted and perceived so that you might either change your wording or better explain what your words mean, especially to the non-farming public. A good example of a misperception by the public exists in the beef industry. Whether you enjoy grass-fed or grain-finished beef, when the public thinks of grain fed to cattle, they generally think of golden wheat and bright yellow corn – in short, human food.
The truth is most of the grain we feed cattle, hogs, chickens and other livestock are coproducts of some major manufacturing processes. Notice that I didn’t use the word “by-product.” The word by-product can be perceived as inferior in quality. With some of these by-product feeds soaring over $700 per ton in the recent past, it is hard for me to call them inferior, thus the word coproduct – an added-value spinoff of the manufacturing process.
Soybeans are a great example. We use soy oil in foods, sauces, fuels, paint, plastics and the list goes on and on. The coproduct of soy oil production is soybean meal (SBM). Annually, the U.S. produces 1.5 billion tons (yes, billion with a B) of SBM each year. If we didn’t use that meal for something, like feed for livestock, we would need a trench 14 feet deep, 300 feet wide and 400 miles long to bury that much material in a landfill. Disposing of our SBM would be the equivalent of cleaning up the rubble of the World Trade Center disaster every three days. It took New York City 500 days working as hard as they could to clean up the mess once.
Of course, SBM is just one example of how we might use coproducts to enhance livestock performance and efficiency. What we do need to pay attention to is that the public understands our terminology enough to make reasonable conclusions about modern agricultural practices. And like the extension model that began over 100 years ago, we need to focus our attention on the young people of our world. The youth of today are our customers tomorrow, and they will also be the voters and decision makers that shape our industry in the next 10 to 70-plus years. PD
Andy Overbay holds a Ph.D. in ag education and has more than 40 years of hands-on dairy and farming experience.
PHOTO
Those involved in agriculture freely converse in a language that is not readily clear to the average consumer, as depicted in this American Forage and Grassland Council social gathering at Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania. As promoters of agriculture, we need to make sure in our social interactions that the public understands our terminology enough to make reasonable conclusions about modern agricultural practices. Photo by Jenna Hurty.
