Huge Support on Twitter for The Great Cafe Challenge

Farmers must connect & communicate with city folk. Dairy farmers need to take responsibility for their own Dairy Farming PR. By using twitter we spread the word about the #greatcafechallenge (where farmers are encouraged to take farming magazines into their local cafes or waiting rooms) all round the world to countries like Australia, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada as well as NZ. 

Pasture based dairy farmers (in fact all farmers), here is an opportunity to connect & communicate to urban people & visitors to your farming area. I strongly believe that farmers need to take responsibility for & actually do themselves the Public Relations, connection to & communication with the urban folks.

 “If it’s going to be then it’s up to me”. You cannot nor should you rely on other people or PR agencies to communicate the good news stories about farming & farming families. The positivity will only be seen as genuine if it comes from you the farmers. Sure we have PR agencies within the industry & the agro political groups work hard on our behalf. Yes we have friends in the rural press but farmers need to play a much more positive role themselves. This week on Twitter (social media) we really started the #greatcafechallenge with astonishing results. 

Last week on my blog (see further down the page) I talked about the concept of farmers taking in recent but pre-read farming magazines to their local cafes, coffee houses, waiting rooms (Dentists, Barbers & Hairdressers) to allow & encourage urban people to read & learn about farming, farming issues & to learn more about where & how their food is produced. Let’s share the good news stories about farming! 

Don’t allow a breakdown between urban & country understanding to create barriers that interfere with farmer’s legitimate “social license to farm”. Most rural issues are in fact whole community issues.

I think farmers need to learn how to use Twitter. What is Twitter? Twitter is a micro blogging form of social media. Using 140 characters or less twitter allows you to communicate with the world. Farmers in many parts of the world are very effectively talking not only to other like-minded farmers but communicating directly with the consumers, news agencies, rural professionals & the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter  

 In 2007 there were 400,000 tweet messages being sent per quarter. In March 2012 (6^th birthday) Twitter had over 140 million users sending 340 million tweets per day. Go to https://twitter.com/   

Twitter is easy to use & takes very little time send effective messages, photos or tell others about websites that promote agriculture & farming stories. 

Learn how to use twitter. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE0uhifkIfs&feature=fvwrel

 

Twitter messages supporting the #greatcafechallenge have been sent by @greatcafechallenge, @alisonfairleigh (Australia), @Fed Farmers(NZ), @ NZCows (NZ), @Farmers Weekly (UK), @PhilipSpratt (Australia), @NYFarmer (USA), @SaraRussellNZ (NZ Young Farmers), @AgChatOZ, @agrichatUK, @Beef & Lamb NZ, @Naked_Espresso (Australia), @Bendigo Talks, @MsHeatherWatson (Canada). (The @ sign indicates that these are Twitter accounts or Twitter Names)

#greatcafechallenge is the campaign to get farmers to take their used/recycled farming magazines into the local cafes or waiting rooms near you. This week I found in Palmerston North great goodwill by the local cafes & retailers towards farmers & farming. They thought it was a great idea to have farming magazines in their reading spaces. Why not….there is only so many cycling or fashion magazines I can read. 

I think it is important that we give the cafes & hairdressers the publicity they deserve for supporting farmers & agriculture. 

A dairy farmer from Carterton, NZ has suggested that we should put a sticker on the front page of the farming magazines that reads “Thank you for reading me. If you take me home please take me to another café next week. Thank you for reading about farming. We want everyone to understand farmers, farming & where your food is produced. Farmers care about our consumers.” Great idea.

If it’s going to be it’s up to you!

 Farmers please take your farming magazines into your local cafes.

 To our friendly Café owners/city retailers & Managers can I say on behalf of my farming friends a huge THANK YOU for supporting your local farmers.

Thank you For Your Support to your local farmers by stocking farming magazines in your cafe or waiting rooms:-

John at Imperial Barber, Palmerston North.

Massey University Student Cafe

Wharerata cafe, Palmerston North.

Sam's Place, Ashhurst Domain, Ashhurst, Manawatu NZ.

Australian Dairy Conference...The Use of Social Media by Dairy Farmers

“Consumers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!” This was one of the powerful messages from Charlie Arnot CEO of the Centre of Food Integrity (@foodintegrity, @charlie_Arnot) presented at the Australian Dairy conference (#ausdairy) in Warragul, Victoria, Australia. Charlie spoke of the need for all farmers to acquire a “Social License to operate” by building trust with not only the local community but in fact all consumers & customers of the food farmers produce.  http://www.foodintegrity.org/    
 Trying to defend farmers & farming practices by arguing with science or attacking the attackers is clearly failing. We need to demonstrate our commitment to practices that are sustainable, ethically grounded, scientifically verified & economically viable. To breakdown the urban disconnect with farmers will take a massive effort as well publicised environmental damage, breaches of animal welfare & negative public images of farming & farmers is very difficult to counter with genuine good news from farmers following “global best practice”.

Prof. John Ikerd, from University of Missouri, Columbia strongly debated the world trends of industrialisation of farming. Industrial scale farms have contributed he argued, to the financial crisis of many family farm businesses & impacting negatively on the environment & ecology. John believes this has enraged the mistrust of farming practices by non-farming people. Nor did he believe that most farmers & their families wanted to farm in that way, especially under corporate control. Perhaps it’s time to look at new relationships between farmers & consumers? John Ikerd suggested the audience at the Australian Dairy Conference (#ausdairy) seriously consider new models such as “Vertical Cooperation”….. That we look at the historical purpose of farming to move forward in a new direction. Farming has always had a multi-dimensional meaning: - a social dimension, an ethical dimension of sustainability (a genuine love of animals, pastures & soils) as well as providing healthy good quality food. Maybe it’s time to rediscover the “real culture of farming” & that “The past is the future”. These are challenging concepts to take on board as dairy farmers face increased volatility of milk prices & changing markets (the growth markets in the next decade are in emerging countries especially in Asia).

The ADC conference featured many discussions about farmer’s use of new technology & social media. There were sessions devoted to smart phone use & training in the use of twitter & blogging. Courtney Sullivan (Neilson, Australia) had surveyed Australian consumers about their knowledge of dairy farming & perceptions of how dairy foods are produced. This session about “Reconnecting the Disconnect” also included Nuffield Scholar Graeme Nicoll speaking about his efforts in “Agvocacy”.  http://montrosedairy.com/   (@hoddlecows) Graeme writes about his pasture based dairy farm in south Gippsland.

Marian MacDonald ( http://milkmaidmarian.com/   (@milkmaidmarian) on the last day led an interesting training session on twittering & blogs. She writes a very popular blog about her family dairy farm & she has considered ideas about how farmers can use social media such as twitter to become advocates for good farming practices. During the training she had helpful support from Ron Paynter (@payntacow) another dairy farmer using twitter.

Throughout this blog I have used the sign @(twitter names) and #hashtags (these are used by twitter to indicate grouping of similar discussion topics….or topics you can search on twitter. For example if you want to search discussion at the Australian Dairy Conference search using #ausdairy.

Finally I’d like to mention the brilliant “Cows Create Careers” Program run by Deanne Kennedy & John Hutchison. During the ADC Conference secondary school children from 5 Australian States presented Video TV Adverts aimed at getting a higher farmgate price for milk. I thought this was amazing! The Cows Create Careers program is run in schools to encourage employment choices in the dairy industry. It clearly has a very important role in Australia in Reconnecting the Disconnect between the urban consumers & dairy farmers. http://www.thepeopleindairy.org.au/projects.htm  

PS The best TV Video Advert was produced by Cessnock High school from NSW. I thought this was very clever & innovative……guys you were amazing!