You may or may not know that there is a passionate debate brewing the world-over on the subject of food–who has it, how to grow it, which approach is best to feed our burgeoning population. There are many who argue the facts, or at least the facts as they see them. Individuals and groups who have succeeded at gaining share of mind, however, have gone beyond facts. The successful work to gather hearts and minds. Their’s is a classic and well-informed approach to reputation management.

Last week I attended a presentation by Michele Payn-Knoper from Cause Matters Corp. Michele calls herself an “agvocate,” a term I believe she coined. Her presentation was about using social media to spread the word that farmers (producers as the industry calls them) are decent, hard-working people who passionately believe they are doing a good job at producing safe, affordable, nutritious food. Too often, attempts are made to spread that message with graphs and statistics. Michele’s call to action is for farmers to reach out via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs and the like to make a personal connection with consumers.

Good idea.

You can read a little about Michele and her approach at a blog produced by the United Soybean  Board. It’s fair to tell you Charleston|Orwig helps them with this blog. Regardless, the message this recent post conveys is all Michele. She’s taking a smart approach.