Ag and Media

Ag and Media

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Agriculture talking to the press. We've all heard horror stories in the press regarding the way agriculture conducts its business. These reports are typically very bias and agricultural analyst and reporter Joanna Schroeder has some very important thoughts. "What advice do you have for the ag people? That's a whole different issue and what you hope from the ag world is that truth will prevail. When you have these undercover cruelty videos they work because they are real and horrible and people like to watch them. They don't like to watch the good side of agriculture which is actually fact. The recommendation I have for the ag industry is that you have to get the truth out into pop culture where the people right now, the millennial's in particular who are very interested in food and health food is raised and produced where they are living and playing, they spend a lot of time on social media. They are the big movie watchers, they are the ones who watch Netflix, that is where we need to get that message into that pop culture component because then people will hear it and see it and start thinking about it and start a dialogue that is not so emotionally based. The truth that you and I both know is that animal cruelty is less than 1% of any operation. It is the exception, not the norm. But a lot of the media, a lot of the activists make it look like that's the norm instead of the exception. We need to go in with fun videos and informational games and movies to get the truth out and I think you'll start to see things shift."
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