Big Ag Launches New Marketing Campaign to Reach Women

In the passion play over the future of agriculture, I've seen one particularly anguishing battle emerge: Pollan vs. The Farmers. In this narrative, sustainable ag advocate and journalist Michael Pollan is the enemy, bent on destroying an American way of life, intent on denigrating the work of the American Farmer. "What does he know? He's not even a farmer!" It's a perfect straw man attack — if Pollan falls, then the entire movement goes with him.

Built upon a logical fallacy, this particular narrative will ultimately fail — but only if we're paying close attention. The latest chapter brings women to the forefront. A quiet article published in Stltoday.com a couple weeks ago announced that the organizations American Agri-Women and CommonGround were launching a new campaign targeted to women, the people who make the majority of food choices for their families.

American Agri-Women was founded 36 years ago to help develop a unified voice to American agriculture and bring about effective change. The organization has 50 state and commodity affiliates. On the local level, state affiliates include a few organic farmer members. The voice of the main organization, however, is decidedly antagonistic toward sustainable agriculture and seeks to promote the interests of Big Ag commodities agriculture. On Facebook, the organization has an entire page devoted to disputing the portrait of Big Ag created by documentary film Food Inc.

Most recently, American Agri-Women joined check-off-funded organizations National Corn Growers Association and United Soybean Board in pouring over consumer research with the help of public relations firm Osborn & Barr. What they found was a tantalizing demographic: urban and suburban undecided mothers. These are "women who are frustrated and feel guilty, like they're not good moms if they don't buy organic," as Amy Nuccio of Osborn & Barr put it.

The strategy is not so much a marketing campaign as a woman-to-woman relationship-building project via social media, grocery store partnerships, and media outreach efforts. Laura Nielson of South Dakota will become the face of CommonGround and the female, human face of Big Ag. The project will roll out first in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana, and Iowa.

With this new project underway, sustainable food advocates must be more mindful than ever to address the fact that we are not attacking farmers — we are building a food system that improves our health, protects the environment, and addresses economic disparities. In general, farming in America is back-breaking, unglamorous, and financially precarious work. Farmers feel beset on all sides, from falling commodity prices to outlawed seed-saving and the cost of fertilizers, processing, and distribution. When they see the sustainable food world attack their way of farming they see urban foodies who don't understand how farming works. Big Ag whispers in their ears "You feed the world!" Who do you think they want to listen to?

Projects like CommonGround's may seem ag-friendly and feminist, but they are still working against social change. It's still large corporate interests using women to put a human face on their message. Nuccio poses a chilling question: "What if consumers are driving policy?" It's a question that implies consumers shouldn't have a voice in shaping food-related policy. While I agree that we need to hear the voices of farmers in conversations about policy, the idea that end-users wield too much power in the public is astonishingly undemocratic. I can't believe it came out of a PR flack's mouth.

Without consumer advocates, would we even have a food safety bill before the Senate right now (however you feel about its details)? Would we have organic options at our local groceries? Farmers markets arose primarily to support small to mid-sized farms, yet it is consumers who have enabled them to flourish all over the country. Consumers work in partnership with farmers in pushing social change. It's an incredibly powerful partnership we need to continue nurturing.

The sustainable food movement is pro-agriculture, pro-farming. We use the much-disputed word "sustainable" because we want farming in America to thrive, not fail. Documentaries like What's Organic About Organic?, Fresh, and yes, even Food Inc., not to mention books like Farmer Jane feature the voices of pioneering farmers. It's important that we continue building relationships with farmers and listening to their perspectives.

Image via Jeffweese via Flickr