Agriculture and Social Media “The Perfect Pair

BY EVELYN

Social media has taken the world by storm. It is not unusual for people to rely on social media as their only form of communication with their co workers or friends, their daily news outlet, and various other types of infor mation. It is slowly beginning to consume many of our lives. Even in the world of agriculture we have seen how it has slowly crept into our lives in both a negative and positive way. If you haven’t noticed, consumers are now using social media as a way to learn about agriculture. As scary as this sounds, as farmers and people of Ag, we can use this to our advantage.

Unfortunately, when social media began gaining traction, the Ag industry didn’t hop on the train and we quickly fell behind. Disturbing videos of animal agriculture put up by animal rights organizations like PETA, littered the Internet. Those videos that, may I add, did a terrible job at portraying our industry, spread like wildfire. Overall, there was more negative information about agriculture on social media than there was good.

Around that same time period, is when my Sister and I decided to start a platform that shared our life on our family’s farm in Upstate NY, called @nyfarmgirls. The goal behind our Instagram page was to simply share what we do on a daily basis on the farm. We quickly realized how much social media was lacking farmers, and instead was infested with those who claimed they knew everything there was to know about agriculture, yet never stepped foot on a farm. We knew something had to change.

In efforts to combat the negativity, we decided to debunk all of the myths on our platform. We took the topics head on, using our first hand experience in the industry. From GMOs to separating the dairy calf from its’ Mother to artificial insemination. We didn’t leave a single topic out. The more we shared about the reality of dairy and crop farming, the more people wanted to learn, and in the best way possible. There have been several instances when we have someone come to us and say, “I am so happy I found your page, because I was on the fence about consuming dairy. I just didn’t know what to believe anymore.” These moments make everything worth it.

I am not going to sugar coat what we call, “Agvocating.” There are some hard days. Those days are usually when the vegans and animal activists find our page and choose to spew hate behind the keyboard. In the past, those comments would really get to us. We have learned over the years of agvocating that although these hateful people have a loud voice, they are not the majority. We typically choose to delete and ignore the negativity if they are not truly there to learn something about Ag. I know that what we do is making a difference in those who are genuinely curious about how agriculture works.

I am sharing our journey of Agvocating in hopes that we will encourage more people involved in agriculture to do the same thing. We need more people having the back of agriculture and everything it encompasses. It is easy to say, well, someone else will speak up for me. We did the same thing for many years! But, the truth is, the people want to hear from the farmers themselves. They want to know how calves are cared for, corn is grown, pigs are butchered, and cows are treated from the ones who experience it everyday. We need more people sharing their story, so someone else doesn’t do it for you.

Make an account and start posting. It is as simple as that! The followers will come. You can gain traction faster by using hashtags, posting quality images at a consistent rate (everyday), and getting involved with other influencers.

We started our page knowing close to nothing about social media, but thankfully it’s quite user friendly. Once your page begins to grow you will find that you created a little community. A place where you can talk Ag and just life in general. Social media is a powerful tool and has changed our life forever.

If Instagram isn’t your thing, you can try Facebook. Or TikTok, one of the newer platforms, with over 850 million users. If you are looking to make some money while agvocating, try YouTube.

If you are already sharing your story and agvocating, thank you. You are changing the future of ag in the best way possible by helping consumers stay more connected to farms. We often hear the handful of excuses from people saying they are too busy, don’t know how to, etc. There are no excuses. We need to keep consumers in touch with the truth of Ag, especially when it comes to animal agriculture.

I found that when my schedule is hectic as ever, I still make time to share my life in AG on social media, because I am passionate enough about agriculture and its future.

I hope that as social media continues to become an even bigger part of our lives, more people will choose to use it as a way to connect consumers to the truth of modern day agricultural practices. We need you.

You can check us out on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok @nyfarmgirls.