Media reports of higher food prices and a global food shortage followed Russia’s recent ban on grain exports in early August.
While such predictions in The Globe and Mailand other urban newspapers articles may or may not come true, there’s a reason why the media pumps out such stories when the price of agricultural commodities rise, said Paul Hagerman of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
“Most reporters probably are representing the eaters of the world who always want cheap food,” said Hagerman, CFGB manager of public policy.
Read Also
Industry shares its thoughts on agriculture policy
At last month’s Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan Policy Summit, various industry heads brought forward ideas that they wanted producers to consider for the agriculture sector’s Next Policy Framework .
Canadian farmers usually benefit from higher commodity prices, and in the developing world, farmers need higher prices to survive.
“From my perspective, representing the folks who are hungry in the world, many of whom are food producers…. a gradual increase in farm commodities (is) good news,” he said.
“That gives farmers more incentive to invest in their farming. It gives them some stability for future.”
Farmers and farm groups need to engage the media to ensure the food producers’ perspective is part of the story, said Owen Roberts, who teaches agricultural communications at the University of Guelph.
Roberts, who writes a column on farm issues for theGuelph Mercury, acknowledged that getting the farm viewpoint into the media isn’t always easy.
“Part of the problem is in Canada we have a culture of cheap food,” he said.
“Whenever you have a culture of anything and you’re trying to counter it, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
Jim Ochterski, an agriculture development specialist with Cornell University’s extension service in New York, said the service hired a consultant to review how farming was portrayed in the media and recommend ways to improve agriculture coverage.
“The best thing a farmer can do, if they’re concerned about the way the media portrays them, is to establish a relationship with the reporters who live in their community or the nearest urban community,” he said. “Invite reporters out to the farm and (let them) experience first hand what farm life is all about.”
Roberts suggested farmers provide a story angle such as the producers’ share of the grocery store dollar.
“People don’t understand that it’s a cyclical thing and that farmers have been getting their butts kicked for a lot of years,” he said.
“Have some type of a campaign to explain that there’s a lot of participants in the food chain … And if farmers are getting pennies, when they need to be getting something more than that, they need to explain that to consumers in context. I don’t think that’s a story that can be told too many times.”
Pitching story ideas on a new crop or new technology is another way to generate positive stories in the urban media, Ochterski said.
“There’s a lot of things that farmers do that’s not newsworthy. But there are few things that farmers do that is newsworthy,” said Ochterski, who cited a tip sheet on dealing with the media at www.farmpublicrelations. info.
Ochterski said producers must make an effort to engage the media.
“As a farmer, if you feel like you’re too busy to do that, then you shouldn’t complain about how you’re being portrayed.”
