Bad News Sells and Farmers Sell Out

By Susan Allen Bad news sells and farmers sell out. I don't know how many additional issues of the November 2004 Vanity Fair were sold because of the cover story "America's Beef is Rotten and Washington Couldn't Care Less", but I seriously doubt the numbers varied much over other past issues the magazine has published. I would also question whether subscribers of Vanity Fair could even recall the piece less than a year later, yet for one demographic group it remains etched in memory, our cattlemen. As the November issue of Vanity Fair magazine was cast off to either doctor's offices or recycling bins, the beef industry was still reeling from the aftermath of BSE, a disaster that cost the industry between $3.3 billion and $4.7 billion last year. For ranchers, the article was simply another hit below the belt by a voracious media subsisting on a diet of press releases fed by animal rights organizations (like PETA) and organic extremists whose agenda was to topple the commercial beef industry when it was most venerable. For the media it was simply about ratings, and while we have all heard the adage "bad news sells", the majority of us will never suffer the ramifications of that cliché like American farmers, who have paid dearly for sensationalism and hysteria perpetrated by a bias press. Sixteen years ago, (only yesterday for my friends that grow apples), Ed Bradley told the nation on 60 Minutes that the "most potent cancer causing agent in our food supply is a substance sprayed on apples to keep them on the trees longer and make them look better. That is the conclusion of a number of scientific experts." His words still cause pain over a decade later as I quote them, because I am aware of the potential damage they could do if taken out of context. The power of the written and spoken word is profound and in the case of the apple industry, poison. Despite the fact that it was proven Alar's effects on human heath was minimal, or that the so called scientific "experts" lauded by Ed Bradley and Meryl Streep didn't practice sound science after all, despite the fact the Apple industry sued CBS, the damage had been done. Apple sales plummeted, with industry losses of 375 million dollars. Ed Bradley received more money for that episode than most apple growers netted that year. While Ed moved on to tape yet another 60 Minutes segment, he left growers in his wake struggling to pick up the pieces of college and retirement dreams shattered over simple misinformation. 14 years later potato growers would again question the media's lack of accountability. In 2003, acrylamide reared its ugly head over a potato industry dependent on french fry consumption. While acrylamide hysteria made the rounds of USA Today, the CBS Early Show, and the news wires, these same organizations failed to report additional studies that were also available. One published in the British Journal of Cancer found no link between acrylamide and bowel cancers, claiming that in fact, the risk of those cancers was actually lower in individuals that consumed more acrylamide containing foods, but the public was never made aware of it. Last fall the New York Times Magazine did not do wheat farmers any favors when they stated "carb-counters see bread as enemy Number 1", and added that "America's culinary ambassador (meaning bread) has gone stale ". I am sure that majority of readers regarded these 'off the cuff" observations in the dining section of a national newspaper as harmless , but for those who grow the grain that goes into the new dietary "enemy" press like this could be devastating . Months after the Times caption, and at the peak of the Adkins diet, the Bread Council completed a survey and found that as many as 40 percent of consumers said they planned to eat less bread. Media hysteria is a is a highly contagious disease that spreads like wildfire, and there is not an agricultural demographic group from salmon farming to sugar, citrus to dairy, that is immune to the misinformation virus. How I desperately wish commodity groups and industry leaders would grasp the fact that in today's over-communicated society, news no longer comes from one or two sources, affording the ag industry numerous new alternative outlets to offensively squelch junk science. It is imperative that those in the business of agriculture learn to nurture relationships with the press and construct a media infrastructure that will assure our farmers come out the backside of the next "alar-like" incident unscathed. Warning to Dairy, you are the target of the latest "study" to be plastered on the evening news.