By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Some people draw inspiration to do their jobs from powerful personal stories of overcoming adversity, or from examples of others’ work; others take it from a matter-of-fact reminder of best practices, punctuated with some new ideas.

These were all available to attendees of the 10th annual Kentucky Women in Agriculture (KWIA) conference last week. From surviving cancer, to traveling abroad, to helping promote a successful equipment business right here in Kentucky, these three women were among the several speakers during the three-day fete.

Native Kentuc-kian Andrea Lohr learned a few years ago, at age 31, that she had breast cancer. As the mother of two young children, wife to a politician (elected that year to the Virginia legislature) and partner in a family farm, she related touchingly how she coped with her changing perception of herself as a woman, as well as how those around her rallied to help.

“I absolutely love agriculture,” she enthused. “I love the farm … (of the cancer) I am trying to say, ‘What lessons can I take from the last several years and make a difference?’”

Though production agriculture is done by fewer than 2 percent of the U.S. population, she told women at the conference they can talk with some of that other 98 percent about what they do. “The agriculture industry needs women like you stepping up and making a difference,” she said.

It doesn’t even have to be in a group; Lohr related the story of her friend, who rallied an entire school to collect $19,000 for the American Cancer Society by offering to shave her head if they only raised $10,000. A single person, she said, matters.

“We might be the only person that someone who does not understand agriculture comes in contact with,” she said, adding they need to show non-farmers that those in ag care about them, with clear, passionate messages.

Her pumpkin and sweet corn farm hosts 20,000 visitors annually, 3,000 of who are kindergartners – and most don’t come from ag backgrounds. Lohr said she tries to make sure each one leaves with respect for the farm and what farmers do, as well as basic education.

She related stories about non-ag kids seeing tagged cattle and trough feeders for the first time, joking that she should write a book with these and many similar stories: “Ma’am, why did you leave that price tag in that cow’s ear?” and “Don’t you know what that is, you dummy? It’s a urinal for the cows!”

Speaker Wanda Dodson, another native Kentuckian, retired from nutrition and food science at Mississippi State University in 2004 and returned to her family farm. Part of her work for KWIA and the Kentucky Extension Homemakers Assoc. involves traveling to help rural women and children in other countries.

In other parts of the world, particularly Africa, Dodson said women are increasing in agriculture but haven’t yet developed a “voice” to catch up. This summer she and other Homemakers went to a village in Ghana in western Africa, to assess the progress of The Kentucky Academy – an 80-student kindergarten in Adjeikrom Village funded in part by the Homemakers. The group contributed money for tables and chairs, electricity for fans and lights, teacher desks and a lunch prep center.

Dodson explained in the village, women are the chief producers and marketers of food – mainly okra and black-eyed peas – except for cocoa, which is still a male-dominated industry. (In fact, Cadbury-Schweppes and the Peace Corps are in the village to finance and help with a $75 million agritourism project and teach the residents more about business.)

Last year, the Homemakers traveled to the West Bank – claimed by Palestine and Israel – to work with Palestinian farmers in their olive groves and vineyards in Jenin.

Part of the work, Dodson said, was to help women find opportunities in agriculture outside traditional roles of childcare and housekeeping.

Jean-Marie Lawson, corporate marketing manager of Hartland Equipment – a John Deere dealership in four Kentucky cities – offered a review of basic marketing practices for women at the conference. For a few years, Hartland has hosted an annual Kentucky Farm Women Field Day, and Lawson co-anchors a local weekly radio program, “The Jean-Marie and Joe Show” on WKCT 930 AM.

The major points she advised were for owners to always take the chance to promote their business clearly and quickly. In a tough economy there’s the tendency to “try to be all things to all people” in the hope of reeling in a little business from a lot of efforts. But, “you actually stand a better chance of getting and keeping business if you focus on your customer and what benefits them,” Lawson said.

To that end, she said to make sure marketing and advertising focuses more on the customer’s point of view than the business owner’s – and to make sure they understand not why you are better, but why they should think you are better than your competitors. One way is to build an e-mail list and send out a regular newsletter with notices of sales as well as helpful tips and freebies of value for customers.

Lawson also reviewed traditional methods of advertising – newspapers, magazines, radio, television, direct marketing, fliers – and listed the benefits of each. She suggested the benefits of new media such as Internet radio, Facebook, Twitter and a business website … and touched briefly on one very old medium: Painting one’s business name and number on the sides of barns exposed to high-traffic roads.