The Fruit Growers News


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Media Madness - Are We Part of the Problem?

By Matt McCallum Publisher

I was reading the newspaper the other evening and came across an article on the sad state of affairs in agriculture. Poor prices, urban sprawl, aging growers, farmers who have to sell because the next generation doesn’t want to take over and they need the money for retirement. It went on and on. I felt pretty depressed to be involved in agriculture. Unfortunately the media has picked up on the negative vibes coming from agriculture and seldom do you see a positive story on farming. Think about what the non-farm person reads and hears over a year. Agriculture is in a recession, fertilizers are contaminating our water, pesticides residues may affect the health of our children and migrant workers are being exploited. We know this is BS (bologna sausage), but what have each of us done to combat this negative stereotype of agriculture. Last year a local television station was running ads about an in-depth story it was doing on the exploitation of migrant workers in our area. They showed pictures of screaming children in migrant housing and a close-up of a spider running across the floor. And the kicker – a pile of used toilet paper in a pile next to the toilet. These were powerful images, but really blew the entire situation out of proportion. After seeing it, I picked up the phone and called the station. The reporter was a pompous ass and I could tell he already made up his mind on how the story was going to come across. So I went above his head and called the producer and talked about the positive things local growers were doing. I also called several other growers and they called the station too. They still ran the negative story, which really focused on one grower 100 miles south of here, but ran a very positive story featuring several growers who called in. It was a small victory, but I learned that agriculture’s voice will be heard if we speak up. The only positive stories the media does these days seems to be on the organic industry, which the media thinks will save the world. And that’s no slam on organics, because they’ve been very media savvy and have gotten their message out. The local paper near our farm calls us every fall to find out about our crop for its annual orchard story. Our entire crop was wiped out by hail and I was about to tell the reporter about the disaster, when I realized how negative that would be. So instead I talked about the other crops we had and said we would have apples, but our raspberry crop was wonderful. So they sent out a photographer and took a picture of someone picking raspberries. The media loves the crop disaster story. How many times have you seen a picture of a sad farmer in a field where Mother Nature has destroyed his crop? Is this the image we want to portray? Agriculture has dug a hole with the media. We have fallen into their trap of negative journalism. Instead of harping on the bad, we need to find ways to get positive media coverage. In journalism school they teach all budding writers the definition of a news story. If a dog bites a man – it’s not news. If a man bites a dog – it is news. We have to figure out how agriculture can bite the dog and get some positive media stories. Plus, reporters are really quite stupid when it comes to knowing about agriculture, so we should use their lack of knowledge to our advantage. Think about something interesting you are doing on your farm. Call the local paper or television station and talk to the news or business editor. They won’t do every story you pitch their way, but don’t worry, keep trying. And offer to be a source for them in the future. Reporters are always looking for experts. If every grower in the country called their local paper with a story every few months, just think of the powerful messages the general public would hear. Yes, we do have problems, but what good does it do to whine to the public. After awhile they tune it out and stop believing it – like the boy who cried wolf. In the end it’s us, the industry, that can help define how agriculture is viewed by the next generation.