As Americans become further removed from our nation's farming heritage and farmer numbers continue to decline, Minnesota Soybean is working to create awareness and build understanding about the business of farming today. To do that, two new regional communications specialists are joining with Minnesota Soybean to help farmers tell the real story about how they care about the land, the water and their animals.

Minnesota Soybean Takes Communication To County Level

The R.E.A.L. Story campaign, which stands for Responsible, Ethical Agriculture for Life, offers a personalized approach to helping  the non-farm audience better understand the Minnesota farmers who feed and fuel their state, nation and world, create jobs and sustain our natural resources. Wendi Wendt and Nora Nolden will be filling these roles by traveling to counties around the state to support farmer communications.

Nora, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, will be providing communication support to Southeastern Minnesota counties. Nora served as an agriculture intern for U-M Extension as well as a communications intern for the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee.

Wendi Wendt, a graduate of South Dakota State University, is originally from Minnesota and grew up on a family farm. She has industry experience through an agronomy scout internship with Cargill, a marketing internship with CHS and more recently worked as a marketing coordinator for SGS North America where she managed communications around their quality testing lab for agricultural crops, feedstuff and soil. She will be supporting Southwest Minnesota.

The regional communications specialists will work directly with farmers to become part of the discussion on current issues by helping them to share their unique farming experiences Theses beliefs are communicated through virtual farm tours, local events, social media, advertising and more.

Positive, farmer initiated communication in Minnesota's counties is crucial to helping consumers trust that farmers share the same values and priorities. The regional communication specialists are an important part in making that happen.

MSR&PC is an elected board of 15 soybean farmers from across Minnesota. The Council invests the checkoff funds of Minnesota soybean farmers into research, marketing education and commercialization programs to increase demand for soybean products and thereby improve the profitability of Minnesota soybean farmers. The organization sponsors a communication program called Responsible, Ethical Agriculture for Life, The R.E.A.L Story to help non-farm audiences better understand today's farming.

Source: MSR&PC