Picking Your Crop & Planting the Seed

The Women’s Agriculture Summit was hosted by the Johnson County CattleWomen in Buffalo, Wyo. in late January. They had great inspirational speakers who spoke about a common theme of getting your agriculture story out before the anti-agriculture movement does.

RealRancher Connie Lohse of Kaycee and other women attend the 1st annual Women's Agriculture Summit in Buffalo, Wyo. Photo from Wyoming Women's Summit's Facebook page.

The main point I took from the summit was to “pick your crop and plant the seed.” This isn’t corn, alfalfa or any other normal crop; we’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and many other outlets of social media. The seeds for your crop will come from your agriculture experiences and knowledge. The crop will only grow by sharing that knowledge with others.

The agriculture community has a tendency to be a quiet, out-of-the-way kind of people. Unfortunately, those traits are not helping us fight against the anti-agriculture movement, which is trying to ruin our agriculture futures daily. It is time to speak out truthfully, purposefully and with dignity!

Jody Lamp from Billings, Mont. discussed social media in advocating for agriculture at the 1st Annual Women's Agriculture Summit in Buffalo, Wyo. — Jody Lamp from Billings, Mont. discussed social media in advocating for agriculture at the Women's Agriculture Summit. Photo from Women's Agriculture Summit's Facebook page.

During the summit I learned from speaker Jody Lamp of Billings, Montana that anti-agriculture organizations are using social media to its fullest.

Here are the numbers of fans listed for three anti-agriculture organizations on Facebook alone:
1. Human Society of the United States (HSUS) has 500,000 Facebook fans
2. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has 950,000 Facebook fans
3. Greenpeace has 76,000 facebook fans

Here is an equation to remember: “Anti-agriculture + Social Media = Negative Influence.” Lets change that equation as an agriculture community to “Truth + Social Media = Positive Influence.” We can only change this equation by getting everyone’s story out, young or old. Let us plant the seeds while utilizing every generation’s strengths and knowledge to accomplish this goal.

Women from across Wyoming and beyond attended the 1st Annual Women's Agriculture Summit in Buffalo, Wyo. Photo from Women's Agriculture Summit's Facebook page.

Remember agriculture feeds the world so it is up to the agriculture community to keep it strong! Use your story with purpose and collaboration with agriculture communities and your truth will prevail.

From RealRancher Kari Bousman – Boulder, Wyo.