SOCIAL AGVOCATE
By Jess Campbell
ADVOCATING FOR AGVOCATES
If you’re looking for a new way to sing the dairy
industry’s praises, try using social media
ook for the little blue cow. When
standing next to a stranger by the
dairy cooler, I will usually take the
opportunity to mention our industry’s
recognizable symbol and see if the person
knows what I’m talking about. Some people know what the symbol means but many
don’t. If anything, mentioning it starts a
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people—consumers and farmers—about
Canadian dairy, whether it’s about your
work as a farmer, how your farm operates
or the products you produce. A great way
to have these conversations is through
social media.
Agvocating doesn’t have to be
complicated or time-consuming; it is what
conversation and gives me the chance to
help the person learn more about our industry and why it’s important to support it.
Mentioning the little blue cow is one of the
ways I choose to be an agvocate.
The word agvocate is the combination
of advocate and agriculture. An agvocate is
a person who advocates for agriculture in
a meaningful, respectful way. Agvocating
helps dispel myths about agriculture and
ensure consumers have solid information
to help make good decisions about the
foods they eat.
If you are passionate about our industry,
you can become an agvocate. Let me be
clear; you don’t get a badge or anything
for being an agvocate. Acting as an
agvocate means having conversations with
you make of it. If sharing a photo of your
cows once or twice a week is what you’re
comfortable with, that’s great. If you want
to find consumers who have questions to
which you can provide answers, fantastic.
As long as you are having meaningful,
respectful conversations about the
industry, you’re an agvocate.
I agvocate using my personal Facebook
account, keeping an eye on industry news
and articles, and sharing those articles
so my online friends can see them, too.
If you follow me on Instagram, you will
see photos of cows and the farm, but
may also see my kids and latest baking
achievements. Having not been raised
on a farm, I also blog about farm life as
a young mom, wife and woman and how
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much I learn each day from being part of
our third-generation operation. I enjoy
contributing to the conversation so I’ve
chosen tools I’m comfortable using to do
just that.
Not everyone needs to or should be
an agvocate. If scrolling through Twitter
and responding to Tweets isn’t for you
then don’t do it. Similarly, if you get too
passionate when explaining your views
to others then agvocating probably isn’t
for you. And that’s okay. You can still