Used to be, ‘reporters’ wrote news, and ‘activists’ wrote noise. We in the Ag industry seemed to assume the output from the two groups lived in two separate places, visible only to their own, very different, audiences. I’m not sure that was ever the case; I’m certain it’s not the case now. And this is key for us Ag communicators.
The public conversation around the tools of modern Ag is heating up and shifting. The media landscape is full of new players and old players with new channels and tactics. How does any agribusiness begin to consider its Communications in such a fluid environment?
Answer: One step at a time.
Ag communicators need to dust off our talking points on that favorite term of ours, ‘sound science.’ What do we mean by it? That question will come into focus increasingly in the time ahead, as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin shifts the agency’s mission to affordable-energy extraction and approving new chemicals.
I’m not going to link to it here, but if you’re so inclined, look up a story in The Wall Street Journal titled, What Can Conquer the Superweeds? Bayer and Others Turn to AI (07/17/2024).I’m going to discuss it as an example of successfully pitching a proactive innovation story. It took almost one year between my initial pitch to WSJ reporter Patrick Thomas and the day the story ran. It also took the following: