For the last 20 years, I’ve covered a lot of consumer outreach efforts from farm groups. From bringing the wheat harvest to downtown New York City to in-store sampling of convenience products, and everything in between.

And in those two decades, I’ve listened to farmers in meetings lament that their messages to consumers about how their food is produced were falling on disinterested ears. I heard it all. From “People were spoiled with full grocery shelves and ample selections,” to “No one cooks at home anymore” and “Everyone believes a fad diet, but they don’t believe a farmer.”

The tried-and-true marketing methods of the last 60 years weren’t reaching the consumers of today and tomorrow.

Well, friends, it took a pandemic, but suddenly there’s consumer interest in what farmers and ranchers have to say about how the food gets from the farm to the table.

As my dad would say, “You’ve got to butter your bread while it’s hot.”

#BreadFest

Normally, in an odd-numbered year, more than 6,000 home bakers and fans of gluten would be crowding the main hall at a hotel in Manhattan, Kan., for the National Festival of Breads, including me. This contest, sponsored by Kansas Wheat, King Arthur Flour and Red Star Yeast, is the only one of its kind in the nation that targets home bakers.

You know, those folks that wheat growers have tried to target?

This year, though, COVID-19 changed the plan. It’s ironic. Last year we saw more interest in home baking from this nation’s consumers than I’d ever seen in my lifetime. I couldn’t buy yeast in Dodge City, Kan., at the height of the pandemic, and retail-size flour packages were scarce. I had friends sharing sourdough starters via Facebook buy-sell-trade pages, for crying out loud!

If there was ever a year for Bread Fest to strike with the farmer message, and for it to land on open minds, it would be this one.

Change of plans

However, there’s always a catch with every opportunity. Because of pandemic precautions, it was decided months ago that the festival would go virtual.

So, no finalists in their mini kitchens, filling a ballroom with the smell of baking bread. No wheat farmers volunteering their time to answer attendee questions. No bread samples.

Instead, fans of gluten can sit in their living rooms around the globe and watch the proceedings over the official National Festival of Breads Facebook page without having to travel to Manhattan.

It’s not the marketing tactic farmers might be used to, but it’s a rare chance for them to parlay their promotional investment of time and resources into a larger platform for the wheat farmer message.

Turning consumers into allies

Farmers have this rare window where the people who scrambled for 5-pound bags of flour last April spent a year rediscovering the joy of baking bread in their pandemic kitchens. And they want to know more — now — and they’re open to learning over a virtual platform.

These new bakers are interested in wheat’s nutritional value, how farmers grow the crop, the challenges farmers face, and how they can improve their own home baking skills. And they’d like to hear from the people who raise the crop themselves.

Opportunities like this don’t come along every day, and certainly not if you’re less than 2% of the population, like farmers are today. Going forward, as farm bills are written, and farm and climate change policy is debated and up for votes, farmers are going to need those home bakers on their side.

Turning consumers into allies for farm issues requires farmers to butter that slice of bread now, while it’s fresh from the oven.

Learn more at nfb2021.com.