Educating Consumers

Educating the Consumer. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Jay Vroom, President and CEO of CropLife America recently was the keynote speaker for the annual Far West Agribusiness Associations Winter Conference and he spent some time talking with the attendees about working together to help guide the politicians that are not tied into agriculture. He also said that education of the consumer is very important as well.

VROOM: I think we’ve made a lot of progress in the entire ag community in hanging together and finding strategic focus. And then lastly doing what we’re doing here which is talking to other people. Your main audience may be farmers but non-farmers will hear your program, to reach out, not so much always to be in the broadcast mode but to also listen; find out what people are concerned about

Getting that message across can be difficult.

VROOM: The big measure of our success in American agriculture is adopting very complicated systems and science and technology and it’s very easy for us to be specialized and not know what’s going on across the road either so having to stop and figure out what is it that people might not understand and then figure out how to explain it in a method that will break the sound barrier and not put people to sleep is - it’s a science unto itself.

According to Vroom one easy way to connect with people is to simply talk with them.

VROOM: What we are learning in this space is we’ve not had good communications as one of the tools in our modern agriculture toolbox but we’re getting there. And we just need all of us to take some ownership of that and you can reach an audience of one person...talk to somebody. Listen. You can make a difference.

If there is one issue that seems to plague Vroom and CropLife, it’s the Endangered Species Act.

VROOM: It’s been going on for more than 10 years. We’ve lost in matters of degrees on almost every case that’s come along on the basis of procedure, not actual harm to any species. It’s a very complicated law with some provision in it that frankly were well intended when the law was first written nearly 40 years ago but don’t make any sense today.

CropLife America’s member companies produce, sell and distribute virtually all the crop protection and biotechnology products used by American farmers.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.