EasternIowaFarmer_Fall2022

BY JENNA STEVENS
Ag in the Classroom
Coordinator
Clinton County Farm Bureau
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Two percent. Two percent of an
acre is 871.2 square feet. Two
percent of the price of a 2022
John Deere combine with a corn
head is $18,650.50, and two percent is also
the number of farmers and ranchers in the
United States directly employed in producing
our food, according to the American
Farm Bureau Federation.
Depending on which resource you want
to believe, that number might even be
lower. Producers are by far the smallest
segment of the agricultural industry, and
yet without them none of the rest of the
agricultural sector would continue.
Millions of people work in ag in positions
juxtaposed to production, and yet
many of them have never made a living
farming.
As technology increases, producers
find themselves facing challenges never
dreamed of in previous generations. While
the internet makes it easy to market grain
in an instant and troubleshoot problems
from the cab of a tractor, the tradeoff is the
need to play defense about the decisions
and practices necessary to put food on our
own tables.
Production agriculture often finds itself
at the center of controversy on social
media and websites alike, making the
public skeptical of what we do to produce
the products that feed, fuel, and clothe
consumers. This mistrust is powered by an
online culture that allows critics to hide behind
the anonymity of their tablet screens.
It has become trendy to raise concerns,
real or imagined, about everything from
pollution to poultry production, calling into
There’s a lot of power
behind the 2%
in U.S. agriculture
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TILL
Megan Clark gave a TEDx talk about the
misconceptions within animal agriculture in
front of an urban audience in the Quad Cities.
Clark, who graduated from Central DeWitt,
studies agricultural communications at Iowa
State University.
question decisions that we as farmers have
spent months thinking about, planning for,
and with a leap of faith, finally taking.
Farming is stressful, no one can deny
that. Every decision comes with careful
estimations.
“If I stretch this note out longer, can I afford
the payments on a new bale wrapper?
What repairs am I looking at if I go with
used options? Did planting an extra 500
acres to beans this year make a difference
on my bottom line or did I give up too
many bushels that could have been corn?”
Online criticism from environmental and
animal welfare groups and people posting
negative comments anonymously can make
the conversation feel unbalanced and lead
to frustration if you are producer.
To combat this, we must leverage our
voices across the same platforms that
are being using by critics; but, instead of
remaining anonymous, it is important that
we be a face, a voice, someone willing and
able to answer questions with facts rather
than theory.
An example of this is the TEDx Talk
given by Central DeWitt student, Megan
Clark. Clark was selected to speak about
the topic of misconceptions within animal
agriculture in front of an urban audience
in the Quad Cities. Her talk, titled “What
I wish you would ask me,” addresses misunderstandings
in the show cattle industry
and gives advice on how producers and
consumers can work together to close the
knowledge gap.
Finding a way to share production
practices with consumers is key in helping
them develop an open mind when it comes
to having conversations about where and
how our food is produced. When these
conversations take place face-to-face, it is
easy to answer questions that arise in the
natural flow of the discussion, but with
online critics, a different approach must
be taken. We as producers must meet them
on the same social media platforms and
websites where their comments take aim.
Instead of playing defense, we must counter
with a strong, fact-based offense, citing
resources from credible sources along with
telling our own stories.
While two percent does not seem like
much land in an acre or much of a down
payment on that new John Deere, it is one
hundred percent of the voices needed to
counterbalance the negative information
online. If we do not start telling our stories,
people who have less than two percent
knowledge of what we do will tell them
for us.
Megan Clark’s talk can be found on You-
Tube under TEDx Youth Davenport with
the title “What I wish you would ask me.”
28 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | FALL 2022 eifarmer.com