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Corn growers implement self-touting ad campaign

By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Beltway of the nation’s capital will be the focus of American corn farmers’ renewed efforts to educate and promote themselves to legislators and policymakers this summer.

Print, radio, website and even airport and train advertisements will soon blanket Washington in a $1 million campaign to share information about corn farmers across the country, and to remind federal policymakers that every decision affecting U.S. agriculture goes straight to small family farms, as well as larger operations.
Behind this ad campaign is the Corn Farmers Coalition (CFC), a two-year-old partnership of the National Corn Growers Assoc.

(NCGA) and several states’ corn checkoff organizations – last year 10 states provided funding; this year it’s up to 14. NCGA President Darrin Ihnen, a South Dakota farmer, explained the CFC was formed to find out how well federal policymakers and legislative staff understand the makeup of today’s farms and their issues.
While he said by and large, these decision-makers still seem to hold American farmers in high esteem, “we need to make some noise, because they think family farms are going the way of the dinosaur.”

The point of the ad campaign, as Ihnen and NCGA Senior Communications Manager (and CFC director) Mark Lambert describe it, is to provide quick facts to viewers and listeners on corn farms, with an emphasis on small growers. Primarily this is to promote their productivity – one print ad boasts that 90 percent of the nation’s corn is grown on family farms – but also includes claims on how modern technology allows them to do so with fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

“It’s going to be very difficult to miss” the ads, Ihnen said, adding CFC print ads will even be in view of D.C. baseball stands during home games. The campaign will run from June 1 through to Congress’ August recess.

John Adams, an Atlanta, Ill., grower for 38 years, said the CFC and its efforts came about because of recent experiences like his. Ten to 15 years ago, he used to travel to D.C. with other Illinois Corn representatives to meet with legislators about pertinent issues, and said at that time they and their staff members were fairly informed.
He took a long break, not going again until a couple of years ago.
Adams – whose farm has been in his family since 1862 – said he was “shocked” at how many lawmakers and their staffers thought so few family farms still existed, and didn’t understand how policies aimed at factory farms still affected so many small farmers.
“There are a lot of family farms, and we are working quite hard to produce food, fuel and fiber” for domestic use as well as foreign customers, he said.

“We represent all-size farms,” Ihnen said.

“(Corn farmers) sure wouldn’t be doing it in an effort like this if they didn’t feel a need for it,” Lambert said of spending $1 million – or as he put it, the revenue from 250,000 bushels of corn – on ads and radio spots.

In addition to making Washington aware of the extent of family-owned farms, Ihnen said the ads hope to debunk negative perceptions in the public and media about farming, such as using too much fertilizer or mistreatment of livestock. While the campaign is focused on corn growers’ interests, Lambert said he believes it will benefit the image of all farmers.

The print ads focus on numbers – percentages of family farms, export revenue, emissions saved – written on placards held up by farmers from Midwest and Plains states, with a short explanation at the bottom of the advertisement. The growers are each identified with their city and state to put a face on the issue for viewers.
While the ads aren’t big on details, Lambert said those interested in learning more can visit the CFC website, printed on them, for details on the farmers in the campaign as well as about corn and farming practices.

Along with this, the CFC wants to encourage corn growers to reach out to the public to demystify farming for them. To this end, it will be offering social media training to farmers who want it in the near future: how to create a Twitter or Facebook account and keep up with it, how to load educational videos onto YouTube and promote them, and the like.

Lambert said this is partly because the CFC has noticed a ramp-up in conversation about agriculture on those outlets, as well as in other online blog services, between farmers and consumers over the past 18 months. It’s not difficult to maintain such an account, he said: “They talk about what they do; talk about their families – make it real” for readers.

To learn more about this campaign or the CFC, visit www.cornfarmerscoalition.org

6/2/2010