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Bowl gives corn farmers opportunity for story
Published Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 05:58 PM
Over the last two years, the Nebraska Corn Board has implemented programs to let consumers know that corn ethanol did not create higher food costs last year and that farmers and ranchers today are a prime example of “Sustaining Innovation”. “This year’s Sustaining Innovation message has been clear: Farmers are growing more corn on fewer acres with fewer inputs, and they can deliver enough corn for feed, food and fuel,” said Alan Tiemann, a farmer from Seward and chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board. “This is a message we’ve shared in multiple ways and will continue to share, including via the radio during the Dec. 30 Holiday Bowl.” As a component of its campaigns, the board contracted with the Husker Sports Network to tell farmers’ stories during University of Nebraska football and baseball games. Other agriculture groups and agribusinesses have used this avenue, and after the Nebraska Corn Board looked at the demographics and ran the numbers, Tiemann said the campaign scored good points – with farmers who were in the fields listening to games and with consumers who have been visiting www.NebraskaCorn.org. “Part of the board’s mission is promotion and education, and this year, especially, required some serious education. Movies like Food Inc. and King Corn, along with some articles in magazines like TIME painted farmers and ranchers as industrialized, corporate, non-family run operations who show no compassion for the land or animals. That image could not be further from the truth,” said Don Hutchens, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board. A few other facts used in the Husker Sports Network campaign include: · Corn farmers grow five times more corn than in the 1930s on 20 percent less land. · Family farmers grow 90 percent of the nation’s corn crop. · In the last two decades, the energy needed to produce a bushel of corn has decreased 37 percent at the same time farmers have cut emissions 30 percent. · American farmers slashed the fertilizer needed to grow a bushel of corn 36 percent in just three decades. “Agriculture has a great story to tell, but we need more ag activism to tell the story and we need consumers that know the real facts and personal stories of today’s farmers and ranchers,” Hutchens said. “Farmers are innovators. They are on the front line of technology and are the envy of the rest of the world in food, fiber and now fuel production. The response from listeners has been extremely supportive and they like the uniqueness of the ads.”

© 2008 The Nebraska Rural Radio Association. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Leaderboard: Panhandle Coop