Partner with a winner

Agriculture groups partner with Cardinals to promote Safe at the Plate

You can’t do better than partner up with the St. Louis Cardinals. Well, maybe that’s not quite true. You can do better if that partnership occurs while the Cardinals are in the process of winning the division title. And then they follow it up by winning the World Series.

I’m happy to say MFA Incorporated gets to share a small part of that glory because of our participation in a pro-agriculture ad campaign with the Cardinals last season.
Although last year’s season will be hard to top, I’m proud to announce we’re again actively participating in the promotional efforts with the Cardinals. Repeat, anyone?

This partnership is being coordinated by Missouri Farmers Care. This is the third year of an ongoing campaign to communicate positive messages on agriculture and the U.S. food supply to today’s consumers.
Missouri Farmers Care is a collection of all the state’s major commodity organizations, as well as MFA Oil Company, Missouri Farm Bureau, FSC Financial and other related industries. Agriculture doesn’t need benchwarmers. We need our all-stars in the game. Check out agriculture’s lineup at www.MissouriFarmersCare.com.

I continue to encourage all MFA members to communicate agriculture’s positive messages to friends and relatives who are far removed from our farms and ranches. Personal is better. It’s a matter of survival. Too many powerful groups are functionally anti-agriculture and politically active.

MFA Incorporated is proudly participating in the efforts. Missouri Farmers Care is coordinating everyone’s efforts. Those efforts are not simply limited to radio ads. Also part of the campaign are influencer panels where, prior to the game, we bring to the table chefs, dieticians and a group of mom bloggers. Mom bloggers are women who have internet journals where they discuss items of interest—food being a major subject.
Each of those groups has influence with consumers on today’s food supply, and Missouri Farmers Care will bring them to St. Louis for face-to-face meetings with farmers and ranchers. Agriculture needs allies. We have nothing to hide and everything to gain by including informed people in the discussion of what it is all of us do every day to deliver wholesome foods to keep American families healthy and nourished.

Highlighting the efforts are videos played in-game on the giant monitor in the stadium. At least four farm and ranch families will be featured as part of the campaign. Those attending the Cardinals’ games will be treated to a video farm tour of successful operations including corn, dairy, pork, soybeans and beef.

I’d like to extend my personal thanks to the families who’ve agreed to participate in the videos. All of us thank you for your efforts to promote modern agriculture.

At the web address above, you’ll find today’s agriculture is well represented in this effort, listing members from throughout agriculture, although the Cardinals’ effort is funded by a select number of organizations.
As I’ve noted before, MFA Incorporated’s trade territory extends well outside of Missouri. We don’t mean to shortchange those other states, but we’re a founding member of Missouri Farmers Care and see it as an excellent template for other efforts.

The Cardinals aren’t simply a Missouri team. They draw in fans in multiple states. In fact, many other states are beginning to bring agriculture’s message to the consumers nationwide through another organization called Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. Learn more about that organization at www.usfraonline.org. Missouri Farmers Care is also participating in that worthwhile effort.

In true cooperative fashion, all of us are able to afford such an elaborate ad and educational campaign by combining budgets and placing an order for a campaign that far exceeds what any of us can afford individually.

After all, the Cardinals radio network and in-stadium audience approach 300,000 consumers per game. Add in the other portions of the campaign and you quickly get an effective program structured to meet and exceed consumer expectations.

Agriculture cannot ignore the fact that social policy will determine agricultural policy. If we in agriculture cannot convince the public that our policies and practices are in the public’s best interest, the public will change the regulatory policies to agriculture’s detriment.

Keep foremost in mind all of us have seen the destructive and divisive policies promoted by extremist advocacy groups who want to destroy traditional agriculture. That’s not paranoia; that’s a rational look at the policies proposed by groups the media treats as mainstream.

Bill Streeter is president and CEO of MFA Incorporated.