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96: Why I Believe Every Cattle Producer Should Be an Advocate · CattleUSA Daily

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  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
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  the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the update
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  shaping agriculture today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
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  passionate advocate for agriculture, here to keep you
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  informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
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  episode. Welcome to another episode of
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  the Cattle USA Daily podcast. Today we are here to talk about
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  being an advocate and why every single one of you listening to
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  this need to be an advocate and why every single cattle producer
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  should be an advocate. And how when you hear the word
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  advocate, you might think something along the lines of
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  like, you need to be miked up. You need to go on television,
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  you need to be on social media, you need to do XYZ.
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  And I'm here to say that that is not accurate and actually define
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  what an advocate is and what that looks like as cattle
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  producers from a practicality standpoint of not every single
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  one of us are social media influencers or activists or
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  everything like that. And the fact that you don't need
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  a big platform to be an advocate, you just need to be
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  willing to speak. Because here's the thing, guys,
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  there's never been a more important time to have producer
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  voices at the table. And no one's going to do it
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  unless we do it for ourselves, unless we start using our voices
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  and we start speaking up. So when you hear the word
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  advocate, most of the time the word advocate gets a bad rap.
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  And that is because we associate the word advocate with someone
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  like an influencer or an activist.
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  And The thing is, is you don't need to be loud online or even
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  public facing to be an advocate. Advocacy looks different for
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  everyone. And the reality of it is, is
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  you're already doing it every single time.
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  You explain what you're doing to a neighbor, you Share your story
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  with a friend, or you connect you correct information wherever
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  you are. That is being an advocate.
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  So that gives you a really encouraging thing to be able to
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  look at your everyday lives and ask yourselves, OK, how can I
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  continue to be more and more of an advocate in my everyday life
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  as an AG producer? And here's the thing, guys, this
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  matters so, so much right now. We have got to stop sitting back
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  and letting our voices not be heard.
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  We have got to stop letting other industries, other people,
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  other situations run us over. I've had enough.
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  I have simply had enough of AG being willing to be an unheard
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  voice at the table because we have a voice that needs to be
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  heard. And The thing is, the anti beef
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  sentiment is loud. It is very loud.
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  We are way over done in the anti beef sentiment and there's way
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  more of them than there are of us.
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  And The thing is the anti beef sentiment is typically it's not
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  typically, sometimes it is very wrong.
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  It is looked at differently, it is perceived in a wrong way and
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  that makes our consumer population extremely
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  disconnected and it makes our consumer population extremely
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  confused. And so as AG producers, it is
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  important for us to look at these situations and say, I can
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  be an advocate in my everyday life.
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  I can be an advocate in my small town for the beef industry.
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  That does not mean you need to go sit on boards.
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  It does not mean that you need to go start a social media
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  following. It does not mean that you have
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  to do it the way that everyone else has always done it.
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  It means that you need to be willing to share what you do as
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  a producer and how that impacts the world, how it impacts your
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  community. And that doesn't have to be on a
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  mainstage. That can just be through
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  conversations with other people in your lives.
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  It can be through conversations around the dinner table, it can
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  be through conversations at the local coffee shop or in a
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  grocery aisle or at a local town board meeting, whatever that
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  looks like. It doesn't have to be you
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  getting on a mainstage. And when we talk about other
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  aspects of rural living, policy makers make big, big, big
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  decisions a lot of the times without input from people living
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  in it. And what I mean by that is there
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  is policy on the table every single day about AG.
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  And people are making decisions on AG who have never lived and
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  breathed agriculture, who have never lived and breathed small
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  towns. Luckily, in the state of Kansas,
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  we have a lot of policymakers at the local level, at the state
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  level who really care about their communities.
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  They're extremely plugged into rural America and what that
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  looks like. But here's the thing with that,
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  we have to continue to educate our policymakers in our rural
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  communities about our lives in agriculture, about our lives in
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  the cattle industry. And The thing is, is if we don't
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  speak up, someone else is going to speak up for us.
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  And not, not in a way that we might appreciate, not in a way
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  that might actually represent AG, not in a way that might
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  actually represent your operation.
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  Because here's the reality of it.
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  Ranching in northeast Kansas is very different than ranching in
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  southwest Kansas, which is very different than ranching in
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  central Kansas, which is very different from ranching in
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  northwest Kansas, and so on and so forth.
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  So how can we expect everyone to know everything about our local
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  communities and our local operations if we don't speak up?
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  Because it's great that we have some people speaking up, some
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  people speaking up for us in AG who actually understand AG and
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  are able to. But sometimes we need to
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  actually share that. Like Kansas doesn't necessarily
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  look like the Flint Hills all over the place, or Kansas is not
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  defined by western or eastern Kansas.
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  It looks very different and it is very diverse and we have a
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  lot of different aspects that we need to take into consideration
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  when we put policy in place, such as water policy.
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  And what that looks like in northeast Kansas is very
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  different than what that looks like in Southwest Kansas and how
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  that affects our local communities.
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  And The thing is, guys, remember, if you learn nothing
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  from this episode, remember the aspect that you don't need to be
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  a social media influencer. Advocacy can be a reality in
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  your everyday life, no matter what that looks like for you.
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  Take this as an encouragement and as a time where you can self
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  reflect and ask yourself, am I sharing enough about my
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  operation? Am I sharing enough about my
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  views on the cattle industry, on the community, on rural
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  development, on everything that surrounds agriculture and the
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  entire industry as a whole? Are you making your voice heard?
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  Are you even having conversations about it in the
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  first place? Or are you sitting on Facebook
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  reading all of the posts that everyone else is making and all
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  of the news articles and watching all the live videos and
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  all the tick tocks and that's enough?
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  Like you're like, I'm informed, like I know what's going on, but
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  you're not actually talking about it.
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  You're not actually having stimulating conversations about
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  it. You're not actually sitting down
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  and having tough conversations about it.
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  Who with people who might have a different opinion than you.
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  And if you're not doing that, then you're not growing your
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  brain. You're not growing your know how
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  in these situations to be able to continue to defend your
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  operation and what you are doing and how you're doing it and why
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  you're doing it. And the whole scheme of
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  agriculture of why you are a rancher and why you love what
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  you do and why you get up every single day to continue to share.
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  So advocacy, like I said, it can be very realistic.
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  It can be something that molds in to your everyday life.
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  So if you're looking at your life and you're saying I think I
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  can be a better advocate, here are some ways that I encourage
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  you to do so #1 sharing your story on social media if that is
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  your thing. If, if if if, if that is your
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  thing. It does not have to be the thing
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  for everyone. It can be a great place to
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  connect with a lot of people who are very disconnected from AG,
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  but it does not have to be the only place.
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  It is just the first one. And I had to say that one first
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  because it's kind of the most obvious.
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  So sharing your story on social media, if it's your thing, maybe
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  you invite a local school to your ranch.
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  I live in a rural community that loved doing things like this
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  especially. It's great if you can get young
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  kids, but you can't always get young kids to ranches just
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  because of school policy or availability or field trips or
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  things like that. Invite local FFAS to come tour
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  your ranch. They love doing that and it also
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  gives young like the next generation an opportunity to see
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  a different ranching operation, but then take it back to their
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  school. Another opportunity with schools
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  is taking your operation to them typically works a little bit
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  better than them coming to you unless you're in a situation or
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  a community where they have the availability and the time to
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  bring the kids to you to your ranching operation.
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  Just with liability and everything that doesn't always
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  work. And so if you have show cattle
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  or cattle that are halt or broke or an opportunity to if you're
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  in a rural community, you'll know what I mean.
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  But you have a field across the road and you're to set up a
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  round pin or something like that.
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  Bring your ranch to the school and invite local teachers, local
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  school boards to learn more about AG, learn more about
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  cattle through that aspect. I want you to just try talking
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  to consumers at different aspects in your lives, whether
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  that be at the grocery store, at the coffee shop, at local,
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  county or state events. Just try talking to people that
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  you wouldn't normally talk to about AG or just about their
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  lives. And then obviously you're going
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  to share about your life and that opens a great door to
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  having a great connection and sharing about your life with an
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  agriculture. I want you to be calling your
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  legislators when something is on the table.
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  If something is on the docket that is going to be impacting
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  agriculture or your operations, I want you picking up the phone
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  and I want you calling your legislators.
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  And I want you advocating for yourself and sharing your story.
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  You don't necessarily need to call your legislators and say
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  you need to be voting this way XYZ.
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  This is how it's going to impact me.
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  Sometimes you can just call your legislators and say, hey, I saw
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  this was up this week. I just wanted to share my story.
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  And sharing your story and being open to your legislators point
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  of view and questions opens a much broader door than you ever
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  would have thought possible on anything else.
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  And now you can be a point of contact for that legislative
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  staffers team where they can then call you and ask you
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  questions as well. Because so often and legislative
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  aspects look different whether you're a state or county,
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  whether you're state, county or national.
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  So if you're like, if something's on in your county,
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  that looks very different than if it's on in your state, and
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  that looks very different than if it's on at a national level.
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  So when I say staffers, that's when I'm talking to national
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  level because not always do our state legislators have staffers.
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  They might have a secretary, they might have one or two
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  people working in their office, depending on the person.
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  And so take that with a grain of salt, but either your legislator
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  or the staffers will then have a person and point of contact who
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  they can get a hold of and just get to know who is a rancher and
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  who lives the AG life every single day.
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  And I want you with all of these things, be ready for the
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  question. So why do you do it that way?
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  Ask yourself throughout your day-to-day life, all the time,
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  why? Why are we doing it this way?
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  Why am I going about it this way?
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  Why am I doing sustainability this way?
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  Why am I doing cuts this way? Why am I selling my cattle this
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  way? Just be ready to answer the
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  question of why? Because everyone is going to
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  have it in some way, shape or form and know that there is a
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  massive ripple effect that is coming.
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  When you start talking about AG, you never ever know who is
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  listening. It could be neighbors, it could
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  be consumers, it could be kids. You never know who's listening
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  to you in the ripple effect of correcting one person or sharing
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  your story with one person can be immense.
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  One story, one conversation, one correction.
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  It all builds momentum. And it is what is vital to
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  continue to build AG and build a sustainable population of people
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  who know about agriculture and who understand that what we are
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  doing is providing for a sustainable and a healthy
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  industry and a healthy future and a healthy America.
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  The thing about advocacy is it is a legacy.
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  It is showing up up for the future of the industry, not just
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  showing up for the industry today.
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  You're showing up for the industry for 15 years down the
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  road. I'm not saying that you're
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  signing up to be an advocate for 15 years.
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  I'm saying that you are signing up to be the person that is
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  going to continue to let that catapult go and let that
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  momentum continue to build for the next 15 years by
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  conversations that you are having today.
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  You are qualified. You are needed if you believe in
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  what you do. It is time to start telling
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  people why. So I encourage all of you guys,
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  please go out, Share your story today, start a conversation and
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  just open a door, whether it's a post, a phone call, or running
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  into someone in the gas station and just sharing more about your
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  life. It all counts and you all have a
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  story that is worth sharing. Thank you guys so much for
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  listening to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
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  I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
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  And as always, like subscribe, rate review, go check out our
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  newsletter link down below. I haven't plugged that for a
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  little bit. Make sure you go check that out
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  and see what we have in store for our daily newsletter that we
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  send your way. As always, thank you for
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  listening and we'll see you all next time on another episode.
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  Have a good one y'all.