Speak up or pay the consequences: Andrew Campbell

Date posted: January 13, 2023

Andrew Campbell

There are 40,000 items for consumers to choose in an average grocery store. If you want to have a say in how people make those choices, you have two options. Speak up yourself or write a cheque for somebody who is.

That was the Reader's Digest version of Andrew Campbell's message as he closed the 2023 Banff Pork Seminar Jan. 12. An engaging young farmer and communicator Campbell has carved out a solid market position in Canada as the "Fresh Air Farmer", a thinker and speaker with a strong following around a simple message: "Your story matters."

People are interested in where their food comes from more than ever in history, says Campbell. By and large we are all proud of what we do in agriculture, but we are not always at the table when conversations about food are going on. And if we are not at the table our side of the story doesn't exist.

"What happens if we don't have that trust? What do we do? What happens if we do nothing?" he asked.

So much of communications around food is packaged as black or white. Consumers are made to feel good or bad about choices. But as anyone in any part of the industry knows, agriculture and food involves a lot of grey.

Animal activists connect with people and they are good at it. They understand emotion is how people make decisions. The other thing about passionate people is that they actually do something about it. They will get in a car and drive a few hours to take part in a demonstration.

So farmers have to step up their game. Messaging is important. Facts don't matter. It is a positive that agriculture has a lot of research that verifies its position. But that alone won't win over many people.

Emotion drives more decisions than we like to think. At the end of the day we all just want to feel good about our decisions. It is human nature for people always want to win the argument but seek first to understand, then be understood.

The bottom line is farmers and the agricultural industry has to tell their story.

"If you are waiting for somebody to do that, you will be waiting a long time," says Campbell.

"If you don't want to do that talking yourself, then write a cheque to someone who will."

And make it a good one. Think as a percentage of your bottom line rather than simply a $50 or $100 cheque.

It's a big job that needs to be done.