Why Social Media Matters. A post on X that will make a difference.

[westernvicki]

Jon Fraser @JonFraserTF with 13.8 K followers from TORONTO, Ontario,
posted this on X.

He shares a comment on the Canola, Durum wheat & lentils, Chinese Tariffs,.

We need to send a big thank you to this top account manager from Regina!

This post is amazing and hits at the heart of urbanites.

Jon Frasers post has been reposted 745 times. has 2.1 K likes and 59 bookmarks.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois shared this post. His post was shared 255 times and at the time of writing has been seen by 35K.

My top account manager is in town from Regina with her husband for the Jay's opening weekend. Her husband is a farmer who grows canola, lentils and Durham wheat on rotation. We chatted over drinks yesterday about the challenges he's facing right now. I already knew about the 100% tarrif that China has placed on canola and it hurt him because he had planned on planting canola this year. What I was surprised about was that his other two crops also have tarrifs on them. The US is the biggest purchaser of Durham wheat and it is obviously facing a 25% tariff. The one I was surprised about was lentils. The biggest market for lentils is India and guess what? India has tariffs on Canadian lentils. Farmers are the backbone of our country. Without them we become completely dependent on imported food. With all the talk of buying Canadian and becoming food independent, how can we be doing nothing to help our farmers and in the case of Chinese tariffs, our fisheries and pork producers? Madness.



Do be an ambassador on social media.

[Misterjade9]

Vicki, I am going to be the devil's advocate on this post. First I agree that getting ag's message out is important and Dr. Charlebois, Real Agriculture and others are doing a great job in that respect. However, who are these posts and retweets getting to? We all know that the algorithms send these to like minded individuals, so are we reaching the people we really need it to? It seems to me in some respects we are just preaching to the choir. Do you think the Tesla burning, Palestinian flag waving, safe consumption site crowd really give a rats ass about agriculture? Next comes agriculture's image problem with the working class urbanites whose livelihood is not directly related to agriculture. We post articles and blurbs about how tariffs, taxes and policies are hurting our profitability, which they are, and in the next post we are showing pictures of equipment and vehicles worth millions of dollars from vacation homes around the world. To me social media is a double edged sword, I am not completely sold on it.

[westernvicki]

It's a Cohen in line: The Gap where the light gets in.

How do we get our message out?

First off, we can say the same thing about the programming on MSM: it reaches the same people. Boomers mostly, and indeed the data indicates they are voting Liberal far more than youth who do not watch MSM news.

Since fake news was removed from the criminal code in 2019 and funding levels from government to main stream media increased, the level of trust has decreased, for obvious reasons.

Private media and social media are necessary for the balance of information.


Why do MSM and governments want to censor social media: to close the gap.

This particular individual has a different group of followers, so indeed, the value of getting an individual engaged with an audience out of the normal Ag. this scope is huge.

We need to net cast, always.

However, how AG communicates is a key topic: we have no voice. Which is why
I am lobbying the Ag Industry to do their communication in urban sectors. Full page ad in major newspapers telling our story: why we matter to Team Canada, as much or more than EVs.

There is a reason why the government pays media to tell their story: he who pays the piper calls the tune is not a new concept.

We need to claim our message before it is too late.

Misterjade9

[blackpowder]

My question is how many millions are we spending in Ottawa.

[15444]

Welcome to the world of cattle producers from 2003 to 2006. You'll get the same reply as we did, "that is what the income stabilization programs are for". In the end, the market will shrink and consolidate and life will go on.

[SASKFARMER]

My post on Canola had 426000 views then reposted thousands I think the message is getting out.

Nothing much from canola growers etc.

Sad I'm so pissed.

[sumdumguy]

Those useless turds.

[SASKFARMER]

They are!

[blackpowder]

Which site is that Sask?

[westernvicki]

Which site is that Sask?

Great work. Keep at it.



Some suggest we do not need any assistance, just good programs and trade! Right now, we have neither.

Given the state of our ag associations, fair to say we lack both leadership and direction. At this moment in time, we are not even beginning to find a coordinated way to define what is good ag policy. Or an ask to stabilize the sector from the Trade War.

Without comprehensive support or ag policy, this will be a perilous journey for not just farmers but for the value-added, service, equipment, and supply sector that primary producers carry.

We need a think tank. And from what we can see now, one is not coming from the representatives we now have in ag associations, from what I can see, it is going to take a cameo rising.