Computer and Defend

Borrowed from Amanda Nolz, BEEF Magazine Blogger

I recently ran across an article in the San Jose Mercury News entitled, Farmers Defend Way of Life With Facebook, Twitter”. The article was written by Associated Press writer Julianna Barbassa, and I thought it would be a good one to share with all of you. Below is an excerpt.


“When a video of dairy cows being punched and prodded with pitchforks was recently released by an animal rights group, it made the rounds on YouTube and generated the expected angry responses. But it also raised a flurry of outrage from another corner of the Internet: Farmers fought back, blogging, tweeting, uploading their own videos and chatting on Facebook to defend their industry and explain that the abuse did not represent their practices. Growers aren’t usually thought of as a wired, social-networking bunch. But frustration at being the targets of tech-wise environmental or animal rights groups has inspired them to get involved with social media and answer in kind.”


Have you used social media to share your story? Have you responded to a negative article, video or online conversation about agriculture lately? If we all spend a few minutes at the end of the day correcting the online errors about agriculture, we will finally be able to connect consumers to producers and regain the trust from our customers that we undoubtedly deserve.