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- Farmers Must Find Ways
to Tell Media the ‘Good Story’
- Farmers must find opportunities to tell the positive side of pesticide issues to the news media and explain the benefits of agriculture’s access to crop protection tools if those tools are going to continue to be available.
That was the conclusion of an issue conference at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 84th annual convention in Tampa, Fla. Titled “Science in the Media: Fact vs. Fiction,” the conference compared positive and negative news coverage of pesticide issues over the last five years.
The volume of negative stories far outweighs the positive ones, according to conference moderator Ken Gordon, external communications manager for Syngenta Crop Protection. Farmers have to tell their side of the story to tip the scale back, he said. Otherwise, the result can be legislation and regulations that make it harder for farmers to produce the food, fiber and fuel that the nation needs.
“Media scare stories” can result in battles over endangered species issues and the loss of key crop protection tools for farmers, said Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation.
“Getting a measure on the statewide ballot (in Oregon) requires relatively few signatures and bad science can be used to support bad ideas that eventually become law and affect farmers and other landowners,” Bushue said. “What we support is sound, verifiable science that is subject to adequate review.”
Gordon outlined a pattern that he said leads to new laws and regulations that are not scientifically sound. New research, which has not been peer reviewed, often generates doomsday headlines and “extensive free media,” he said. Those headlines are followed by millions of dollars worth of paid advertising by organizations with deep pockets and an agenda of taking away the tools farmers need to protect their crops from damaging pests, competing weeds and destructive fungi and diseases.
“Farmers and farm groups don’t have that kind of money,” Gordon said.
Even if erroneous news reports are later retracted because certain study results cannot be replicated, farmers and the crop protection industry “are stuck with the bad laws and regulations” that stem from those studies, Gordon explained. As an example, he cited news reports stemming from studies in the 1990s that linked atrazine, a common weed killer, to cancer in humans. The Environmental Protection Agency’s own scientific advisory panel later debunked the claim, saying that “atrazine is not likely to be carcinogenic in humans.” Atrazine is one of several organophosphate pesticides that the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing for re-registration under the Food Quality Protection Act.
Gordon said that farmers have to hold the news media accountable. If farmers work to tell agriculture’s story, it can sometimes turn a negative story into a positive one he added.
“When a story is inaccurate, follow up quickly,” Gordon advised. “And we can’t forget that our urban neighbors don’t necessarily understand agriculture. We have to help educate them.”
Fortunately for farmers, efforts like the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, which sponsors agricultural education projects, helps ensure that consumers can make informed choices about what to believe and what not to believe based on a real understanding of farming.
“We need to support those efforts,” Gordon said.
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