As a farmer, no one is more passionate, caring, or committed to humane care and safe food than you! Today, only 2% of the population raise food. Today’s consumers are more and more removed from the farm. Summertime provides a lot of great opportunities to share your passion and the story of safe food.
For some, telling the story of pork can seem stressful or intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are some tips on how to tell your story from the HEART.
- Preparation- Know your WHY. Have a prep conversation with your spouse on why you love farming. What specifically keeps you going day after day? People will recognize your heartfelt passion.
- What do you have in common? People are interested in values that you share with them. When you value the same thing, they trust you.
Here are some common shared values people relate to:
- Compassion: “Be kind to animals”
- Responsibility: “Protect Environment”
- Respect: “Humane Treatment”
- Fairness: “Balance the needs of people, animals and the planet”
- Trust: “Be honest”
- Word choice – Some words can come off as harsh or negative. Word choice stimulates emotion, and emotion drives trust and ultimately decisions on food choices. Make a habit of always using consumer friendly words. Pigs instead of hogs. Farmer instead of producer. Stall instead of crate. Market instead of slaughter. Repurposed instead of cull.
- Keep your emotions in check. Never argue, respect their choice ask them to respect yours.
- Admitting you do not know: We do not know everything, and that is okay. IF you do not know the answer, refer to where they could find the answer, such as pork.org website.
- Find a place to connect. Share your passion for pigs. Last summer alone PIPESTONE had 48 days of sharing our story through various Pipestone Discovery Barns and fair venues.
Below is a list of our Pipestone Discovery Barn locations for the summer of 2019. Contact Alicia Mogler if you are interested in volunteering, or just stop by to check it out!
Clinton Country Fair– DeWitt, IA: July 17-21
Rock County Fair– Luverne, MN: July 24-27
Pipestone County Fair– Pipestone, MN: July 31- Aug 3
Lincoln County Fair– Tyler, MN: Aug 1-4
Sioux Empire Fair– Sioux Falls, SD: Aug 2-10
Lyon County Fair– Marshall, MN: Aug 7-11
South Dakota State Fair– Huron, SD: Aug 28-Sept 2
Alicia Mogler
1300 S Hwy 75
Pipestone, MN 56164
alicia.mogler@pipestone.com
Cell: 507-215-2695
Office: 508-528-7061
We hope these tips will prove helpful for you as you engage; or just having a conversation at your neighborhood barbeque. The last tip I will leave you with is to be yourself! The reason why they are there is because they want to talk to you (a real-life farmer!) it won’t take them long to realize the passion you have for animal care, and providing them a safe and nutritious pork product.