It’s not enough to be a farmer these days–you need to be an AgVocate, as well. Turns out farmers feel misunderstood, and they are turning to social media as a way to tell everyone what good guys they are. The AgChat Foundation is here to help with that!
The goal of the AgChat Foundation is simple: help farmers and ranchers use social media to tell their stories to the 98.5 percent of the population not engaged in the production of food, feed, fuel and fiber.
The foundation will be helping the beleaguered 1.5% of the population it serves by providing technology training, funding adagvocacy campaigns, performing data analysis, and offering scholarships to allow farmers to make full use of social media.
I’m going to give the farmers some free advice! First, post your FAQ on the site, instead of providing it as a pdf, because that’s a goddamn pain. Second, your FAQ is fucking confusing! What the hell is a “weekly moderated conversation on Twitter?”
My biggest question is always, “Who’s paying for this?” Here’s what the FAQ says:
Michele Payn-Knoper, principal of Cause Matters Corp., Lebanon, Ind., founded #AgChat and #FoodChat in April 2009 as a part of her work to build stronger connections between the farm gate and consumer plate. Fast growth and pundit participation led Payn-Knoper to involve a wide variety of volunteers to support the community, many of which have become directors of the AgChat Foundation.
Michele Payn-Koper, it turns out, is a marketer, Certified Professional Speaker, blogger, and a champion for farmers and agribusiness. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. I am interested that Cause Matters is not a 501c3 but a privately held corporation, which means we can’t find out who is funding it. Similarly, there is no indication as to how AgChat is founded–the URL is registered to a PO Box in the Cayman Islands.
The Board of Directors (also a pdf) lists farmers and several “agribusiness liasons.” Hmmm. I have a call into Ms. Payn-Kooper, and we will see what she says. I’m all for grass roots organizing, but this looks to me like something shady is fertilizing the grass here.
Thanks for the note about the AgChat Foundation. Just for clarification, this is a separate entity. Per my email response to you, my firm is a privately held family business. The AgChat Foundation is completely separate, with it’s own Board of Directors (I’m one of 13). The foundation is a registered Indiana not-for-profit seeking 501c3 status. If you check out the Foundation, you’ll see most of the board is involved in farming (as I am, away from my business) – including organic farms, large ranches and local food people. The funding efforts are designed to attract a variety of grassroots and business involvement – and will be listed on the new AgChat website, which you are welcome to visit at http://agchat.org. It’s a diverse, vibrant community.
So, uh… where’s the funding coming from again? Grassroots & business involvement? This is too vague for me, el meatball.