The Rural Voice, 2006-02, Page 26GETTING PAST PRESS
It's essential to keep urban consumer'
politicians informed about agriculture but holy ,do
a;'
you get past a main -stream media
that just doesn't care?
Keith Rouisto
With an increasingly
urbanized population the
problem for farmers is that
politicians respond to public opinion
and if the public isn't getting
information on farm and rural issues
from the dominant media outlets,
politicians may not give those issues
much weight.
That's the challenge for the media
relations officers with Ontario's farm
organizations as they try to get the
message out.
Gary Struthers, Media Relations
Co-ordinator, with Ontario
Federation of Agriculture says it's
difficult to get the attention of the .
urban media unless there's a crisis. If
there's an outbreak of some disease
"they'll be all over it like flies on a
manure pile" but trying to talk to
them about farm income issues will
get little attention, he says.
Crystal MacKay, now executive
director with OFAC but previously
with Ontario Pork, says she once
complained to a city reporter that
farmers just couldn't get their good
news stories published. The reporter
replied "Thousands of planes take off
safely from Pearson International
Airport every day and we don't cover
it."
Nearly every media relations
person with a farming commodity
has a favourite horror story to tell.
Lianne Appleby, communications
manager for the Ontario Cattlement's
Association, recalls the Beef
Farmers' Awareness Day held at
Queen's Park last June with a beef
barbecue for MPPs and the press
gallery. The event, by chance,
22 THE RURAL VOICE
coincided with the release of Karla
Homolka from prison and when
Appleby asked one press gallery
reporter is there was any chance the
barbecue would get some mention in
the media he told her if she could
arrange to have Homolka trampled
by a herd of mad cows, they might
get coverage.
The importance of the need for
urban coverage was also
demonstrated that day during one of
a series of meetings with MPPs. A
suburban MPP told farmers he didn't
realize there still was a problem for
beef farmers with BSE because there
had been nothing in the media.
OFA officials have met with the
editorial boards of Toronto's three
largest newspapers, The Toronto
Star, The Globe and Mail and The
National Post in an effort to break
down these barriers, Struthers says.
"They'll talk to you but it's like what
you say is not sinking in."
The sad fact is, Kelly Daynard,
• program manager with the Ontario
Farm Animal Council told farmers
attending Grey -Bruce Farmers' Week
in Elmwood in January, that surveys
show 80 per cent of the residents of
Ontario don't want to learn about
agriculture. Urban residents are
influenced by a steady stream of
Walt Disney movies and cartoons to
see animals as cute and cuddly and
talking.
• But the good news, Daynard said,
is that surveys show farmers are the
second most trusted profession after
doctors. Farmers are viewed as hard-
working stewards of the land, she
said.
Daynard was with OCA during
the Walkerton water crisis. In the
case of a big story like that the media
wanted to talk to real farmers, she
said. Thankfully Ontario had a great
spokesman in the form of OCA
president Stan Eby of Kincardine at
the time.
One good news story that did get
coverage this year was the Faces of
Farming calendar which MacKay
brought with her to OFAC from her
days at Ontario Pork. The fact that
local farmers were pictured generated
stories in several regional, daily
newspapers like The Kitchener -
Waterloo Record.
There are other happy stories
occasionally, Appleby says. One
Kitchener radio station regularly calls
her to get updates on the situation in
the beef industry.
Despite disappointment, the media
directors keep trying to open
communications. Appleby wants to
create media kits to be sent out to the
urban media outlets welcoming
reporters to contact her if they need
information. That need was made
evident by a CBC program called
Frankensteer which appeared on The
Passionate Eye and on CBC
Newsworld dealing with frightening
scenarios around the use of
antibiotics and hormones in beef.
While some of the facts were
accurate some weren't, Appleby
says, and she invited CBC in future
to contact her to get correct
information.
In general, though,
communications directors are left
trying to find ways to connect with
urban consumers and politicians
without the normal pipeline of the
media. OFAC has come up with
some creative ways of bypassing
mass media.
One of the tools of reaching both
the media and the public has been
farmissues.com, OFAC's website
that provides information for
everything from kids doing research
projects to teachers to the media.
That site gets 50,000 contacts a
month. OFAC also helps provide
photos for the media to illustrate their
articles in this day when bio -security
is a concern preventing
photographers free access to
livestock facilities.
OFAC also organized three media