Although it seems like it’s been done for years in the dairy industry, farm moms and wives are now speaking out in a concerted effort to connect farm women to their urban counterparts, to close the consumer education gap that seems to plague our industry.

The Iowa Soybean Assoc. and Iowa Corn are teaming up to support an effort for farm moms to simply connect and educate the consumer. Through grocery store promotions, public speaking venues and social media outlets such as blogging, Facebook and Twitter, women in Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana and Kentucky are banding together to get positive word out about the safety and healthful benefits of America’s food supply.

Somehow, this doesn’t seem new to me. Is that because I’ve been surrounded by passionate dairy farm wives who have been standing in grocery stores handing out samples of cheese and chocolate milk for years? Is it because we have stormed the schools with our “got milk?” pencils, cheese erasers, bright balloons, Real-seal stickers and tattoos and slathering milk mustaches on any kid who would stand still long enough to get a picture taken?

Or maybe it’s because we have had 15 cents per cwt. taken out of our milk check each month for dairy promotion, so we can enter the school cafeteria and see glossy colorful posters of milk mustaches on A-Rod, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift?

Dairy  farmers have paid for and dairy promoters have followed through with one-on-one promotion for years. We have chewed on the ears of football coaches about the benefits of chocolate milk, we have stood in lunch rooms and handed out t-shirts with each bottle of milk that is purchased, we have written letters to the editor, commented on anti-dairy product blogs and taken to the airwaves to tout the pureness of our product on the radio.

We have researched our numbers, spoken to the local Kiwanis clubs and asked where the real butter is while standing in a buffet line at the local church luncheon.

While watching fitness guru Suzanne Somers tell women of America that dairy is taboo, we have continued to graciously provide the facts and field the phone calls of mothers who were scared into thinking that growth hormones were going to cause their daughters to be abnormal and ruin their chances at normal lives.

We have cleaned up our farms and opened the gate to watch 600 neighbors enjoy breakfast on the farm as they learn about the true aspects of farming, all while reassuring our husbands not to worry about any lawsuits because a kid stepped in a hole and twisted his ankle.

And now, as our sisters in farmhood join us in connecting with the consumer, I’m excited to see this spread like wildfire – as we continue to communicate that we consume the best food in the world, produced by the hardest-working men in and women in production agriculture.

 The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.