The Texas Alliance for Water Conservation recently hosted its fifth-annual Water College here in Lubbock. In a slight departure from the event’s traditional conservation theme, TAWC staff asked me to give a presentation on the China sorghum saga. I jumped at the chance, excited to talk about the unbelievable 2018 experienced by the U.S. sorghum industry.

My presentation began with a shameless plug. As soon as the title slide left the screen, the audience of several hundred was staring at my social media handles and usernames: @SorghumDuff, my Twitter handle; john.nolan.duff, my Facebook username; and @duffsorghum, my Instagram handle. “Follow me” I urged them as I held up my phone, animatedly. I promised them there would be a point to the exercise, and I assured them I wasn’t simply using the platform for self-promotion. Then, I dove in.

As my presentation neared its crescendo, I advanced to the slide that made my point. On it was an image of one of President Donald Trump’s tweets from May 13. This tweet made headlines, informing the world of a deal between President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. The deal would bring the Chinese multinational telecommunications firm ZTE Corporation back into the U.S. market in order to mitigate job losses in China.

In typical Chinese fashion, this olive branch was matched with an olive branch, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Commerce’s anti-dumping probe against the U.S. sorghum industry was terminated four days later, on May 17.

My point was the complexion of a historic trade case that had unfolded over 98 days, setting many precedents and determining the fate of the second-largest U.S. agricultural export to China along the way, was completely changed by a single tweet in just four days. Sure, it wasn’t just any tweet. After all, it came from the president’s account. However, the situation speaks to the power of the new methods of communication available to us.

All the platforms I referenced in my presentation are free. Think about it: Messages are being pushed out to millions of people on platforms like Twitter — and it costs nothing!

I encourage each and every one of you — whether you farm or not — to find new ways to engage and tell the story of American agriculture. World history is now hinging on events unfolding on Twitter, and we must be in a position to share our story in a way that sheds light on the positive things we’re doing.

I’m not advocating spin. U.S. farmers are the longest-tenured and most-effective environmental stewards on Earth. It’s the truth — tell it! U.S. agricultural commodities are the safest, most cost-effective available. It’s the truth — tell it!

Please don’t misunderstand. You don’t need to live-tweet your preparation of a healthy breakfast that uses eggs gathered from your own hens to be effective. You don’t have to document every minute in pictures on Instagram, either. And you don’t need 57.5 million Twitter followers like President Trump does tracking the event. Many people who aren’t overly active on social media — and I was one of them until recently — think the mountain is just too tall to climb. Trust me; it’s not.

When I returned to my seat after my presentation at the Water College, I looked at my phone to discover over a dozen new follows and friend requests that resulted from my plug. People are hungry for information. They’re hungry to engage. Give them what they want. Engage them. You won’t be sorry, and American agriculture will never be the same.

Duff is a strategic business director for National Sorghum Producers. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or find him on Twitter @sorghumduff.