Building Consumer Confidence in Today’s Farming

Farmer Laura Nielson takes matters, as well as a camera, into her own hands

After uncovering disappointing results from an Internet search for videos about agriculture, Laura Nielson decided to take matters into her own hands. A third-generation farmer from South Dakota, Nielson, shown in the photo with her young neice, started a YouTube channel on the Internet to educate others about modern soybean farming and other aspects of American agriculture.

“So many Americans are growing up miles from the farm, there is an increasing disconnect between consumers and the people who grow their food,” says Nielson. “If I can give people a glimpse into what my family and I do every day to provide a safe and healthy product, I hope I can help them understand and trust where food comes from.”

Through her YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/therealfarmgirl, Nielson offers a look at life on her farm, where together with her dad and uncle, she raises 3,300 acres of corn, soybeans and hay. They also milk 430 dairy cows and raise replacement heifers. With 260,000 views, Nielson’s two-minute video segments bring the farm to the Internet audience.

The informational videos, shot with a hand-held camera, feature a variety of topics from calving to soybean harvest. Nielson’s efforts have been featured by farm broadcasters and ag publications, but she does not want her work to stop there. Nielson volunteered to be a spokeswoman for the CommonGround™ program.

The soybean and corn checkoffs, through the United Soybean Board and the National Corn Growers Association, partnered to create CommonGround in order to reach consumers with the truth about today’s farming. The program features farm women sharing stories with city and suburban audiences while highlighting shared values and concerns of farm families and consumers.

CommonGround aims to tell the true story about food: that thanks to American farmers, U.S. families enjoy the safest, healthiest and most affordable food choices in the world. “My involvement in CommonGround allows my voice to be amplified to new levels,” Nielson says. “In addition my farm responsibilities, it is my duty to share my experiences, which hopefully resonate with consumers more than a fact or statistic.”

CommonGround participants plan to spread the facts and tell their personal stories using traditional media such as urban radio talk shows. They also seek to reach the younger, more tech-savvy audiences using digital and social media. Currently, several state soybean and corn organizations actively participate in the farmer-driven CommonGround program, which will continue to expand to additional states and urban markets to tell the story of today’s farming.