Every radio host and newspaper reporter around the world wakes up to the same question: What am I going to cover today?
Farmers can supply the answer because we are content providers who have great stories to tell.
We can give updates on how the growing or the harvest season is going. We can discuss food prices. We can describe what we’re doing to keep the soil healthy, the air clean, and the grocery stores full.
It turns out that lots of listeners and readers want to know.
Here’s the trick to getting their attention: We don’t have to wait like wallflowers for journalists to contact us. It may be more effective for us to contact them, offering insights and ideas from a unique perspective.
I used to carry around a laminated card in my billfold. It listed the phone numbers of local radio stations and newspapers in Iowa. As I traveled around the state, I made a habit of reaching out and making myself available for interviews.
Many times, it worked. I got on airwaves and pages to discuss what was on my mind as a farmer.
Back then, I was president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Our group usually had a message we wanted people to hear. I gave those laminated cards to every board member and told them that when they visited any part of the state on corn growers’ business, they had to contact the local media.
Success doesn’t require special training. You don’t have to be a communications professional. And unless you’re going on television or a video call, you don’t even need to comb your hair or put on a clean shirt.
The farmer’s secret weapon is authenticity. Your expertise is your personal experience. Nobody is a better advocate for agriculture than the men and women who work the land.
Farmers are among the most trusted people in the United States. Farming and agriculture in fact topped Gallup’s latest survey on the reputations of various business sectors. Six in ten Americans held a positive view of ours. The computer and restaurant industries followed, and they were the only other two to receive positive marks from a majority.
The poll examined views of 25 sectors and industries. The results, released in September, revealed an average positive score of only 38 percent. Nothing beats agriculture.
This means that when farmers speak, people listen with open minds. And it gives us an amazing opportunity to amplify our voices and spread our views.
The issue of the day can be tariffs, taxes, climate change, crop protection, or technology choices from biotech to precision ag to conservation tillage. It can also be the latest heat wave or hailstorm. We have a special authority and credibility to discuss who we are, what we do and why we make the choices we do.
We should be agents, not objects: It’s much better when we talk about ourselves, as opposed to letting non-farmers talk about us.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is simply introduce the public to the groups we represent. My main purpose in asking my fellow Iowa corn growers to contact the local media was to leave the audience with a good impression of our organization while providing important, authentic information from the field, literally.
The media has changed a lot over the last decade. People consume news and information in all sorts of ways.
Radio remains the world’s largest form of mass media. Every week in the United States, it reaches 87 percent of adults. It’s hard to beat local, live, and free. Globally, especially in the global south, radio is the main information provider for the majority of the population.
Printed newspapers have lost influence in the last generation, though I still subscribe to the Des Moines Register and the Fort Dodge Messenger. Readers are more likely to trust local outlets than national publications, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center.
The old forms of media still deliver value and are worth it. So are the new ones. Podcasts are essentially on-demand radio. Digital news sources, including social media, have many readers.
Farmers should work with people in every kind of media: radio and podcast hosts, news reporters, and social-media influencers.
Let them know who you are and what you can offer. Give them what they need every day, in a world where content is king and farmers always have stories.
