You’re just a little serial #AnimalAbuser aren’t you? A Message from Casey Langan
I
get that many of you reading this have no interest in Twitter, but I’m guessing you do care about agriculture’s image. So read on. Milk has been the subject of vicious online attacks by vegan activists. That’s right, good old-fashioned milk. So in January, dairy promoters flooded social media with positive info about dairy’s benefits. Messages, photos and videos were accompanied with the hashtag/ slogan of #milktruth. I did my part by snapping a photo of the glass of milk next to my dinner plate and posted it on my Facebook and Twitter pages with: “Milk…it’s what’s for dinner. #milktruth.” It got a few “likes in the friendly confines of Facebook, but the less-private, rough-and-tumble world of Twitter was another story. It’s there that “trolls” like to hang out. Not little creatures found under bridges, but activists looking to tear down agriculture 140 characters at a time. I had heard of a farmer who vowed to post something every day in 2015 accompanied by the hashtag #farm365 had come under attack by trolls. It turns out #milktruth and my milk photo also would attract the venom of vegans. A self-described vegan activist by the name of Monica shot first. Her Twitter page featured photos of killer whales, and trust me, I came to find out she had the personality of one too. She ‘tweeted’ for all the world to read that I must “like drinking puss and antibiotics.” What?! I made no scientific or medical claims. It was just a picture. I replied, “Please visit a real dairy farm if you’re ever in Wisconsin.” “That’s like saying please visit San
April | May 2015
Quentin prison if ever I’m in California! NO thank you!” she quickly replied. Then Brittany who goes by ‘VeganBunnySlave’ on Twitter chimed in: “Mmm, warm breast milk of an animal that isn’t your mother. Would you drink your mother’s milk? Time to wean.” Seriously? Heather who goes by ‘RowdyVegan’ warned, “Better keep an eye on that prostate cuz milk is linked to prostate cancer.” Tacky, to say the least. Then good old Monica spewed something too graphic about my prostate to print here. I couldn’t resist, I snapped another picture of milk and typed, “I’m chugging some more milk as a toast to you.” “You are just a little serial #AnimalAbuser aren’t you?” she snapped. All of this for drinking milk? It got me thinking about all of the times I’ve encouraged Farm Bureau members to engage with the non-farm public. Is this the type of vitriol they are being opened up to? The sad truth is sometimes yes. Before you vow off of social media and retreat to your corner of the world, please consider this: The vicious vegans represent a small minority. Farmers and agriculturists are a minority too. We’re on opposite ends of a bell curve. We’re both fighting for the hearts and minds of the large majority in the middle of the bell curve. We’ll never win over militant vegans who make a hobby of spewing hate at someone for posting a photo of milk, but we do have a chance with the confused consumers in the middle.
The shock of my first encounter with ornery vegans gave way to strengthened resolve. I hope yours will, too. Are you doing what you can or will you let others fight alone? We’re all at different comfort levels with social media and speaking up for agriculture, but we all can turn our game up a notch. If we shy away when someone calls us a few names, then they’ll control what people see, hear and read about agriculture. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to turn the public dialogue about agriculture over to someone who refers to themselves as ‘VeganBunnySlave.’ Langan is WFBF’s Executive Director of Public
Relations and has not given up on Twitter or milk.
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