Who do Americans trust? Farmers

By Brianna Smith

What is something in our lives that takes years to build, only seconds to break, and then forever to repair? No, I am not talking about that one piece of equipment that reliably breaks down each fall. I am talking about trust.

Trust in food production and farming has been a hot topic for as long as I can remember. I served as our county’s beef ambassador nearly 15 years ago and remember getting training from the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association on how to build consumer trust and educate people about beef production.

I grew up alongside the rise of social media and influencers who had it out for production agriculture. It was trendy to make agriculture look bad, as seen in the marketing campaigns of several restaurant chains in the early 2010s. So, like many of you, I had the opinion that the general public does not really trust farmers.

However, the data says I am just plain wrong.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has been tracking public trust in farmers since 2019 using national polling. Recently, AFBF released an article that says farmers have consistently been in the top three professions when it comes to public trust, right alongside doctors and nurses.

Even more surprising to me, trust in farmers has remained at 80% or higher since the organization began tracking it. That certainly does not match the picture we sometimes get from scrolling through social media.

But there is an important distinction. People may trust farmers without necessarily understanding farming. According to Farm Bureau, 98% of Americans have no direct connection to a farm, and while people overwhelmingly trust the people producing their food, that trust does not always extend to individual farming practices.

That is where I think agriculture has an opportunity.

Maybe we need to stop approaching conversations with consumers as if we are starting from a place of distrust. Most people aren’t waiting to catch farmers doing something wrong. They simply don’t know why we do what we do. I think this also applies to our legislators and policy-drivers.

Farm Bureau’s polling found that when people have an opportunity to interact with farmers, trust increases nearly 20%. In an age of artificial intelligence, influencers and endless information competing for our attention, people still value hearing directly from another person.

We don’t have to convince everyone to become an expert in agriculture. We don’t even have to convince everyone to agree with every farming practice. But we should give them the opportunity to understand why those practices exist and hear it directly from the people who use them.

For years, those of us in agriculture have been told that we need to build trust with consumers, and I think we are reaping the benefits of all that work that has been sowed.

The trust is there. Our job now is to make sure we don’t lose it.