Dr. Leah Dorman, the Director of Food Integrity and Consumer Engagement with Phibro Animal Health in Columbus, OH encouraged farmers to engage with consumers on a shared value basis.
Dorman who spoke on ‘Reframing the Conversation’ in Winnipeg during the 2019 Manitoba Swine Seminar said consumers have a lot of questions about how producers grow and raise their food, but farmers have not done a good job explaining what they do on the farm and why.
“I think the first thing that farmers need to do to engage with consumers effectively is to share your values,” she said. “Our values align very closely with consumer values and much more so than most consumers believe. You can talk about things that concern consumers, which may be animal care, animal health, or it may be the environmental impact of what we do on the farm.”
Dorman told producers to relate what producers do on the farm affects the consumers and the healthy affordable food that they feed their family.
“It’s important that we get to what concerns them and connect with them at that level, understanding what they’re asking of us and then giving them additional information once we’ve made that connection,” she said. “Trust is key, and that’s part of the reason that we need to be sharing those values in each of our conversations with consumers. We have to connect at that values level demonstrating that our values align even more closely aligned with consumer values than the consumer may have thought. During that conversation, we have to set that groundwork.”
Dr. Dorman said once a producer makes that connection and consumers understand farmers care about the same things they do, farmers can follow up with the science that supports what they do.
“Consumers today are smart, extraordinarily smart knowing a lot more today than they ever did before with more and more information at their fingertips,” she said. “Unfortunately, not all of that information is good and positive. That’s where we need to be part of that conversation as a voice in the first person.”
Dorman added, “ As farmers, it’s our responsibility, as veterinarians, it’s our responsibility to make sure we treat sick animals appropriately because that’s the ethical thing to do. To prevent and treat disease prevents an animal from suffering.”
With so many attacks on animal agriculture and protein from meat, it’s even more critical for farmers to keep their collective houses in order.
“One of the things that I see and certainly in the media, even online, is sex sells. You know, if a farmer feeds his pigs, the video will not go viral,” she said. “But a farmer does something wrong, and that gets caught on video, that’s going to go viral because it’s negative. And I think as humans, what is the media – they don’t bring us necessarily those positive stories every day. And so it’s essential that we have lots of voices out there with a short video, with whatever you want to do. Maybe it’s a short post or a photo. We need lots of voices out there that are talking to that movable middle out there, so they have a better understanding and know what we do and why we do it on the farm.”
Dr. Dorman said it is vital to keep the food safe because when consumers express concern about the meds farmers gives their animals, their interest is food safety.
“They want to make sure that what they’re feeding their family is healthy. As farmers we can let them know we want to make sure that the food is safe,” she said. “Because we’re also feeding our families that same meat and let them know there are safeguards in place to do that. And one of those is withdrawal time. If we give an animal a medication, it is our responsibility as farmers and veterinarians, to allow that animal time, before it enters the food system.”
Dr. Dorman said the medication’s label has that time listed, and farmers and veterinarians must abide by it; then there’s the checks and balance system. So not only are farmers and some of the food companies doing tests to be sure the food is safe and no unsafe residues of that medication in the animal system and in the harvest facility or processing plant, too.
“So there’s routine testing then to make sure that, again, that food is safe to feed our families,” she said. •
— By Harry Siemens