Farmers can present all the facts they want on a particular issue but still won’t necessarily change consumers’ minds, says the director of the Missouri-based Centre for Food Integrity.
“Facts don’t rule the day for consumers,” Roxi Beck told the Canadian Bison Association annual convention.
She said consumers are drawn to the ideas of people they perceive to be like themselves. Not being an expert won’t stop someone from having a strong opinion and influencing others.
These are the challenges producers face when dealing with consumers who no longer receive their information from traditional sources and authorities. The challenges are intensified when consumers have strong personal beliefs about food and agriculture.
Beck said this doesn’t mean producers can’t get their messages across. It just means they might have to change how they do it.
A survey that the centre did last year found that 34 percent of the 2,005 respondents — half male and half female — believed the food industry was on the right track in establishing trust. However, 38 percent said it was on the wrong track and 28 percent didn’t know.
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“This is a challenge,” Beck said.
“Trust certainly isn’t where we’d like it to be.”
She said people began to lose faith in institutions and authority in 1968, the year Time magazine said “shaped a generation.”
Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The five-year-old Vietnam War was being broadcast into people’s homes. Man set foot on the moon for the first time, and the images of the blue planet from outer space gave birth to the environmental movement.
People began to more openly express their distrust in elected government and leaders.
“Now authority is really granted by relationship,” Beck said.
Farmers want freedom to operate, but they have to earn and maintain social licence, which is the privilege to operate with minimal formal restrictions by maintaining public trust to do what’s right. This licence is granted by consumers, who are more often than not far removed from the farm.
Beck said farmers usually rely on the science, or facts, to explain why they operate the way they do.
“Facts are three to five times less important than values in building trust with consumers,” Beck said.
“This doesn’t mean the science isn’t important, but we have to approach it in a different way.”
She said consumers make their choices based on values, personal beliefs and perceptions. They are easily influenced by the tribal communications model rather than the traditional top-down model, she added.
Many food issues are complex, such as the debate over genetic modification, and consumers are exposed daily to issues that they aren’t qualified to evaluate.
Beck said farmers have to commit to forming relationships with consumers and having real conversations with them.
“Know what’s important to you and why,” she said. “Keep your emotions in check.”
She said farmers should try to find a point of connection when talking with consumers. For example, asking about a consumer’s children to understand why a mother might have taken a position on certain foods can help start a proper conversation.
CONTACT: karen.briere@producer.com
