Agricultural Advocacy: Telling your story

By: Will Jordan

If what you do is worth doing, why not tell someone about it? Advocating for agriculture often seems like a daunting task reserved for social media “influencers” or professional lobbyists. Typically painted as constantly posting silly videos onTikTok, sharing pictures with clever captions, or blogging about “a day in the life,” being an advocate has too often found the wrong light. If advocacy is not the most oft-thought image, then what is it? Simply put, it is showing support for a belief or cause.

Production agriculturalists, the people feeding and clothing the world, are incredible at what they do. Being incredible at farming and ranching may not equate to exceptional skill at crafting effective stories for advocacy.

On every front it can seem that agriculture is under attack daily. Whether from environmental or animal activists, or adverse governmental policy, it can sometimes feel hard to catch a break. When it comes down to it, if you don’t tell your story, someone else will. Though maybe not a “professionally trained” agricultural communicator, your firsthand story of agriculture is what consumers want and activists cannot contend with. Activists have an argument; you have an experience.

To craft your story, begin by identifying your target audience and the message you seek to communicate. Speaking with a consumer at your local grocery store is far different that engaging with an anti-agriculture activist. When you know to whom and about what you plan to talk about, condense your key position to eight words. In a fast-paced world, being concise allows you to have greater effect and impact.

Crafting an effective story is as simple as a PEA. Position, experience and anecdote are the three parts to your advocacy message. Your position is the condensed, one sentence of your view on the issue. Following with your experience, outlines why someone should listen to what you have to say. Finally, an anecdote is what your audience should listen to. Your anecdote ties a personal story to the issue at hand using your experience to plant the seed of your position in your listener.

A Google search for the words “agriculture environment” brings up over 1 billion results in less than a second. The top result tells searchers that agriculture is a leading cause of environmental issues. Does the PEA approach work in real life? Using areal-life example of adverse agriculture messaging, a PEA allows for a manageable process to tell your story in a comprehensive and effective way.When asked about agriculture, you are the expert and by developing a PEA story you can ensure consumers, legislators and other inquisitive people hear agriculture’s story firsthand. If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.