What Brad Greenway Does to Set the Record Straight
July 19, 2010
“I understand why some producers don’t want to talk about how well they run their operations,” explains Brad Greenway, System shareholder and National Pork Board member. “It sounds too much like tooting your own horn.” This South Dakota producer says setting the record straight is now vitally important—even if it means building yourself up to strangers and friends.
“We’re all consumers. The crop farmer down the road may know nothing about what you do,” Brad continues. This spring, representatives of all U.S. ag commodity organizations met together for the first time to consider beaming a unified message toward consumers. Pork Board representatives believe different segments of agriculture shouldn’t work against each other.
And although pork is most important to you, Brad hopes you realize where it ranks with shoppers. “Your neighbors are eating beef first and chicken second,” he points out. Maybe you shouldn’t be surprised if they look more favorably on cattle producers.
Maybe they’re hoping you’ll act more neighborly. When Brad and his wife, Peggy, decided to put up their grow-finishing barn two years ago, they reached out to everyone who lives nearby. “My wife is a city girl who said, ‘There is no way I’m going to have people first learn what we plan to do when they read the notice of a zoning hearing!’”
Brad, Peggy, and Dr. Luke Minion visited neighbors and answered questions one-to-one. “It was so much better for them to hear our explanations in their own homes, before the zoning meeting. Sure, you won’t convince everybody that way, but I prefer personal conversations to discussions in front of a crowd.”
“Luke and Gordon (Dr. Gordon Spronk) have always been a big help when I need to communicate what we’re all about.” And Brad has done plenty of communicating on behalf of the pork industry.
In his role as an on-call ambassador for Operation Main Street, a Pork Board project, Brad stands before civic groups to display the very human side of pork production. He’s addressed 68 groups so far. Some audiences deliver “softball questions” but others—dieticians or county commissioners—expect him to provide more complex answers. “Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know. Don’t be afraid to say you’ll talk to Luke or Gordon and get back to them.”
Everywhere he goes, Brad meets consumers looking for answers. On behalf of his family farm—and yours—he’s always prepared to set the record straight.
When You’re Ready to Share Your Story - Here’s What Brad Greenway Suggests
Start talking.
- Start close to home. If you hear mis-information being spread in your local coffee shop, join the conversation and let the truth be known.
- If you’re not shy in front of a group, volunteer for Operation Main Street. Personalize a basic PowerPoint presentation with photos of your family and your pigs. The idea is to give family farms a face and a voice.
Make yourself available.
- Everybody likes to complain about the media, but who makes an effort to tell local reporters the true story? Call the editor of your local paper and volunteer your expertise. Say something like, “If pork production is in the news, I’d be glad to provide you background information.” Folks at your nearest TV or radio station also have airtime to fill; why not help them fill it with your version of the story?
Be more social.
- Work social media in your favor. Brad says, “My wife has a Facebook page, and she puts photos from inside our barns on it. During one major snowstorm last winter, her city friends commented, ‘The pigs look really comfortable!’”
- Be proud of what you do and the way you treat your livestock. If you can Twitter, supply friends with updates on your life and your work.
Request an audit.
- While it’s great that 60,000 producers are PQA Plus certified, that’s only the first step. “Request a site assessment. We all need to do it because inviting an expert to look inside our operation will give us more clout,” Brad Greenway insists. “It’s not enough to tell consumers, ‘Yeah, we’re on it.’ We need to prove we can be open.”
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