Recently, one of my sons, who is a writer, asked me if I could write one of my articles about the upcoming Southwest Washington Writers Conference. He is active in the club and wanted me to help spread the word to writers and those who want to be writers.
I told him I could not — my articles are written to support agriculture.
Then, I started thinking about my reason for writing articles and my underlying beliefs. I write to promote agriculture. I write to expose people who have no agricultural background to the truth about agriculture. I write about people in agriculture who I respect. One of my foundational beliefs (and one that makes it harder for me to write my articles) is that you need to know who you are writing for, or speaking to, in order to truly connect and find common ground or areas of mutual needs.
I actually spoke recently on that topic at an agriculture organization’s training retreat I attended.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt that some of us in agriculture need some help in learning how to speak, and write, on behalf of agriculture. The world is full of misinformation about all topics, and agriculture is no exception.
Several years ago, I convinced the board of directors of a county agriculture organization to let me host a tour of agriculture specifically for legislators, congressmen, other elected officials, agency leads, etc. The entire purpose, my goal, was to expose them to family farms and show them the impact their decisions have on the lives of farm and ranch families and thereby all people who are affected by agriculture (that is everybody who eats food). My goal was to expose them to the truth about agriculture in Lewis County specifically, but also in all of Washington and even beyond.
I have people who forward things to me because they know I do not spend much time on the internet and they want me to see it, or even ask my opinion on something. A few of those items stay etched in my brain. One in particular was “an influencer” who apparently thinks quite highly of herself (the impression I got from watching and listening to her) and feels she has a message to improve the health of those who watch and believe her podcasts.
She feels her influence is positive and important. I beg to differ.
She is spreading erroneous information — she is damaging the very people she purports to be helping. She is an advocate for people being vegan. Let me state up front (I think it is important you know who I am and where I am coming from), I eat a lot of meat and dairy products. I have no problem with people who chose to eat otherwise. But I must admit I spent a tough week when my vegan niece stayed with me and I agreed to eat whatever it was that she wanted to prepare — not worth fixing two different meals for just two people. The end of her visit came and I was very happy to be able to chew on a good chunk of beef.
So, back to our vegan influencer.
The video I watched was her explaining about the types of eggs that vegans can and cannot eat. Wait. Vegans can’t eat eggs. Well, briefly, her explanation was that people could eat brown organic eggs because they were vegan. However, vegan people could not eat white eggs because they are dinosaur eggs and they (the dinosaurs) are carnivorous, therefore the eggs are not vegan.
Oh my gosh.
A vegan, by definition, cannot eat eggs. Period. It does not matter if the chickens (layers of brown organic eggs) are vegan or not. The birds may be vegan, but their eggs are not. And just because the eggs are organic, that does not mean that the chickens were vegan (only vegetarian diet). As for the dinosaur eggs — well, I am not going to waste my time debunking that one.
My whole point here is that people who have no accurate knowledge of, no exposure to, agriculture are out there spreading misinformation, and sometimes what even they know to be outright lies about agriculture.
So, the solution is for those of us in agriculture to get out there and spread our story. We need to tell the truth about agriculture. We need to paint accurate pictures of agriculture through our words (written or spoken), our podcasts, social media posts, etc. That is a lot to ask of many farmers and ranchers. Most tend to be individuals who just want to do their job and be left alone. They are not comfortable being “a public speaker” (or writer).
So, I might suggest that there are some of us in agriculture who could benefit by attending the Southwest Washington Writers Conference that is being held at Centralia College Sept. 12-13. Maybe some of us could improve our ability to spread the word about agriculture.
Early registration has passed, but if you want to possibly improve your writing skills, whether it be for agriculture or for one of many genres — fiction, romance, historical, sci-fi, memoir — what are you waiting for?
For more information, go to southwestwashingtonwriters.com.
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Maureen Harkcom grew up on a Lewis County dairy and operated a beef and native hay operation and developed an equine competition facility. She can be reached by email at maureen.harkcom@gmail.com.
