Farmers be prepared for the media

An interesting point made this morning here in Ottawa, is that Canadian farmers need to be prepared to talk to the media.

Don’t hide, don’t be evasive, don’t say anymore than you have to, but if you are faced by a reporter or a news camera looking for comment or reaction on an industry, environmental or public health issue try to stay calm, collected  and express your views and the facts as you know them.

That was they key message during an agriculture and the media panel discussion at the Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers conference being held for the first time this week in Canada’s capital.

Dave Bisenthal, a producer who lives and farms near the once tainted water wells that served the community of Walkerton, Ontario, Kelly Daynard formerly with Ontario Cattleman’s Association and now with the Ontario Farm Animal Council, Derrick Rozdeba with Bayer Crop Science, and Tom Van Deusen a long time journalist, ag reporter and former communications manager for Don Mazinkowski, during his years as federal agriculture minister, formed the panel.

The panelist made the distinction between two basic types of media – the farm media, which for the most part understands the industry and the urban media, which generally doesn’t. Both types of media are after some type of story, but the urban media can often be more aggressive, more sensational, more invasive, and ultimately less interested in the facts and more concerned about getting some sort of headline.

Most farmers going about their daily business or producing crops or raising livestock likely won’t have extraordinary contact with the urban media, however they may suddenly find themselves in the cross hairs during major news events such as the Walkerton tainted water affair, the outbreak of BSE, H1N1, or Avian flu. They could also be approached as urban media reporters pursue hot-button stories on animal welfare, crop pesticides, or genetically modified crops.

How do you handle that?  Kelly Daynard described the Speak Up program available to Ontario producers, which offers free training to farmers to help them be better prepared in dealing with the media. Many producers who have completed the Speak Up program also make themselves available to act as spokespersons on behalf of their industry, if there are general questions from the media.

All panel members agreed, if a particularly thorny issue comes along, hiding, evading, trying to dismiss the issue, or getting angry is the wrong approach. Many reporters will ‘get’ or write some type of story whether you help them or not, so you might as well supply the facts as best you can.  Be as upfront as possible, do your best to educate the media about the issue, don’t necessarily offer any more information than is asked, and if you don’t know something, say you don’t know, and offer to find out, or refer the reporter to someone who should be able to answer the question.

Also if something aired or printed is blatantly wrong take steps to correct it with a call to the news director or a letter to the editor.

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