Relationships are King

handshake

"Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons arriving at Dulles from London - he's in town for the Global Food Security Symposium."

The above phrase was taken from one of my morning agriculture tipsheets that I receive every day in an attempt to keep up with what's going on in the industry. It immediately caught my attention and sparked what I think is a pretty valid question in our current climate.

Why in the world is some dude from a band at the Global Food Security Symposium?My answer sprang to mind fairly quickly. How do we operate in agriculture? On relationships. For my own family, we do business with people we have relationships with, and I know it's no different for many other agricultural businesses. Our dairy nutritionist, our pharmaceutical rep, board members of ag organizations with whom my parents have served, fellow dairymen, our feed grower, and many more all came to my wedding, because they aren't just business relationships, but personal relationships. A lot of those people are just like family; in fact, I view our nutritionist as a combination of big brother and second dad. All of the above observations led me to an interesting revelation. We conduct our business in agriculture based on relationships, but we've forgotten to tend to the relationships with the people who eat what we grow. 

The band dude I mentioned in the first paragraph? It's likely that he was invited to a food security symposium because he's got a big following, and people feel like they have a relationship with him. Even though he has no bearing on agriculture, no stake in it besides the fact that he eats, they trust him.

Hmmm.....trust.That's a word that gets thrown around a lot in the conferences, seminars, and regular get-togethers of ag folk. Consumer trust is eroding in the American farmer. How do we build consumer trust? Why don't consumers trust us?

I'll make the argument that it's because we haven't built or maintained relationships with the folks we're privileged to feed. We've forgotten that these people are...people. And people thrive on relationships. Forget "educating the consumer". Forget "telling your story".

Instead, let's just focus on trying to rebuild the relationships that we seem to have forgotten matter. Start a conversation with someone who seems unsure of themselves near the dairy case. Ask the child in the cart what her favorite flavor of yogurt is. Talk to the person next to you in the pew at church. Strike up a conversation with your coworker. Heck, invite your millennial cousins over for a barbecue this summer on the farm.

Of all the relationships we agriculturists have, the absolute most important one we have is the one we share with the people who buy what we grow. Without them, we'd all be looking for jobs.