Vet Ag Advocate

Trained by the American Farm Bureau, Dr. Elizabeth Kohtz who is a Dr. of veterinary medicine has a full plate. She has a full-time job, kids at home, she serves as County Pres. of the Twin Falls County Farm Bureau and she has traveled the world in order to learn and teach about agriculture. She says advocating the truth about agriculture helps to counter uninformed emotion. “A lot of our decisions are made based on emotion and not necessarily off of statistics. If you look at research, it has shown that in a presentation or a talk, people remember, 65% of people will remember a story and only 5% will remember statistics. That is why it is so important for us in agriculture to get out and tell our story.” In today's Internet world, where an infinite number of opinions are available for mass consumption, Dr. Kohtz says it is vital for the men and women of agriculture to engage in the conversation. “Social networking is in extremely important. I am a part of a closed mom’s group on Facebook and there are 1500 moms throughout the United States. I am one of the only farmers on there and only know three of these women in real life. When there is a question that comes up about milk, about organic, about GMO’s, I am the one that they look to on there because they know that girl from Idaho is a farmer and a dairy veterinarian and she has firsthand knowledge of this rather than going to the ‘ Food Babe”’ and other people that don’t have the stories and the knowledge.