AgChat Has Fourth Birthday

#AgChat Has Fourth Birthday

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Since April 2, 2009, farmers and ranchers have flocked to Social Media platform Twitter for weekly #AgChat conversations. Four years later farmers and ranchers from all over the country are using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and many other methods to share their personal ag story and engaging the public in conversations about agriculture.

A year after the #AgChat weekly conversations began, a Foundation was created with the same name. Its purpose is to empower farmers and rancher to connect communities through social media platforms.

AgChat Foundation Board member, Oregon Grass Seed farmer and social media guru Marie Bowers shares more about the weekly chats.

Bowers: “I guess my favorite part of the chat is seeing the diversity on there every week who join the conversation. Every week there is the same people and then every week there is new people. My favorite topics are usually the ones that are more controversial in nature such as biotechnology or labor or anything that has caused a stir in the news clips draws a lot of diversity into the crowd. It is interesting the way conversations go, or people are generally interested in asking a question and what comes from that.”

Interested in participating in one of the AgChat Twitter chats? Bowers gives details.

Bowers: “Every Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. Pacific standard time and then every third Tuesday is the Food Chat dialogue. AgChat is more focus on issue on overall ag issues and FoodChat is more issues of more consumer-focus non-ag focus.”

You can find even more help if you want to begin using social media as a farmer or rancher, go to agchat.org to learn more.