There is something that has been on my mind about our industry and production agriculture in general for quite some time that I believe that we need to reflect on as we try to educate the public on our way of life, and to be a face that they put on their food. It was one of the reasons that I initially left the industry and the reason I was leary to come back to the industry and something that still worries me as the industry tries to be more transparent due to consumer demand. It is the matter of how we view/present ourselves to the rest of the US population via social media.

I don't have in front of me the socioeconomic statistics of owner/operators of farms in the US but I have been to enough farm shows, programs and classes to know that most of us are white, middle to upper class, unabashedly conservative in our politics, and far to few of us have much in the way of off the farm experience in life. As a result of this I have noticed that when I read blogs, tweets, articles, ect that are written by farmers in an attempt to educate the general public on our way of life they often come off as arrogant, condescending, and I think have the potential to do more harm then good. I cringe every time I read statements like, "farm kids are harder working then non farm kids", "growing up on a farm instilled values that I carry to this day", "I wish the rest of the people in the US realized how hard farmers worked", ect

Having left the farm, having lived in poor urban areas and worked in non agricultural industries I can honestly say that we on the farm don't have a franchise on working hard, being motivated, and struggling to make ends meet. In fact I would say that we have plenty of advantages that others don't have, due to tax structure that allows us to keep our income low, but still having plenty of things that "the farm owns." My experience working in an increasingly global world/marketplace that more and more industries operate on a 24/7 basis, in order to maintain competitive advantage, and so to be successful one has to be flexible and responsive to that demand. By no means am I saying that farming isn't hard work but I think in our attempts to open up to the public we need to realize that all successful people have to put in the time and effort to get there, and that isn't a 40 hr, 9-5 week.

While I don't have a template that lays out what is the best way to reach a public who is significantly more diverse socially, economically, and racially then the average farmer, I am asking that you please be conscious of what you are posting so that we aren't offending the very people we are trying to educate about our way of life.