“We’re just not great communicators, compared to our adversaries.”

– Kevin Stewart, agvisiontv.com

It might be easy to roll one’s eyes at the latest campaigns from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – such as their attempt to rebrand fish “sea-kittens” in an attempt to make people reconsider eating them.

Truth is, PETA and other interest groups like them are highly sophisticated and well-funded groups that understand the importance of winning the public relations battle. They also understand that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

All this points to an inescapable conclusion, says Kevin Stewart of AgvisionTV.com.Agriculture needs to get its act together with its own unified message or run the risk of losing control of the industry.

Speaking here at Manitoba Potato Production Days, Stewart told farmers everything from the Walkerton water tragedy to recent food scares is causing consumers to slowly lose faith in the food system – and agriculture is typically slow to respond, offering a fragmented message at best.

“To the media I think it’s beginning to resemble a choir without a conductor,” Stewart said. “It’s just noise.”

Facts didn’t matter

Stewart pointed to the Walkerton water story as a perfect example of how a farmer can be scapegoated. Within a couple of days of the story breaking, activists had organized a media event in front of a pig barn decrying the impact of large-scale animal agriculture operation on water quality and safety – despite the fact that pork operations had no connection to the event.

In the end the initial source of the tragedy was traced back to a small-scale beef feedlot that investigators later said was well run and obeying all the rules. The real problem, they said, was a poorly maintained well, located in a low-lying area where it never should have been sited, and a water treatment system that was criminally managed.

But the facts didn’t matter by the time that came out, because the perception of the public had already been formed, Stewart said.

“In a crisis situation, if you hear something three times and no one refutes it, it’s deemed as true,” Stewart says. “Every time a negative event happens, we just cringe and say nothing.”

“We’re just not great communicators, compared to our adversaries.”

That’s especially troubling in light of the recent spate of bad news surrounding food. From listeriosis to BSE and everything in between, it’s all causing people to question the safety of food.

Stewart showed a number of reader comments from food safety stories on the CBC’s web-sites and they were universally negative. Most were aimed at the food system overall, but there’s a risk farmers will get tarred with the same brush.

“Every time we say nothing, we make a withdrawal from that bank account (of consumer goodwill) and people become a bit more cynical,” Stewart said.

Strategies

So what’s the answer? Studying your enemies’ tactics and adopting them as your own, Stewart says. For example, there’s the near-constant media attention that groups like PETA command. These groups have clear-cut communications strategies.

“Their first rule is ‘Keep the pressure on,’” Stewart says. “They understand that the two strongest forces in nature are time and pressure.”

It’s the same when it comes to fighting a PR war. The constant media exposure these groups garner slowly, over time, begins shifting public opinion, no matter how outrageous their tactics might seem. Minus the outrageous tactics, Stewart says, it’s a strategy agriculture should also follow.

“We can’t simply step to the microphone when something troubling happens,” he says. “We need to start a dialogue on an ongoing basis.”

Farmers bring a lot of good tools to the table that will help them win this battle – not least of which is the fact that again and again Canadians consistently identify farmers as among the most trusted individuals in the country, along with those in occupations such as firefighting.

“Farmers – not agriculture – have a very strong brand,” Stewart said.

In Ontario, where he runs his TV production company, Stewart is involved in a project aimed at putting the power of the brand to work on behalf of agriculture. It’s a pilot project between the Ontario government and almost all the provincial farm organizations.

Their goal is to produce TV advertisements and web content, not just to correct misconceptions about farming, but to generally promote the role of farmers in the food system and highlight the safety of Canadian food.

Farmers need to step forward and tell their stories, he said, or someone else will tell them. Farmers also have to be prepared to accept that there will be a cost to do so. They don’t have to like that fact, he said, but they have to accept it.

“In case of disaster”

“It’s like an insurance policy: there might be a cost, but there’s also a value,” Stewart says. “It’s not a luxury – it’s in case of disaster.”

Stewart showed three TV commercials that will begin airing shortly as part of the campaign. All put a face on the concept of a farmer and explained the benefits of agriculture to society at large.

One key to connecting with consumers will be understanding that farmers and non-farmers generally speak two different languages. For example, when issues come up, consumers generally talk about values issues: Were animals treated humanely? Is a product safe and wholesome for them and their family? But farmers, industry groups and companies have tended to fall back into their own science-based rationale.

“That sounds uncaring, when consumers are talking about values issues,” Stewart said. “You need to talk in the language of the society.”

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