Dealing with Haters and Internet Trolls

Whenever you write about something controversial, you open yourself up to haters and internet trolls.

I want to make it clear, however, that these are two different groups.  Readers who respectfully disagree (we're going to call them "haters" for sake of simplicity) deserve a different response than trolls, who are not respectful and not open to dialogue.

My friend, Janice, has had experience dealing with both, and she recently gave a presentation at Austin's SXSW conference detailing the best way to respond when haters and trolls show up.

Read her blog post here.

#h8erprep #truth #sxsw pic.twitter.com/IGxyJGuwSq
— Jessi Odenbach (@JessiO) March 13, 2015

read more "Dealing with Haters and Internet Trolls"

Our Audience

My high school English teacher taught me to consider my audience whenever writing. We need to do the same thing when we are sharing our farm stories.

Our audience:

- Is not stupid or ignorant. Most people who are skeptical of today’s farming methods are educated.
- Is motivated by emotion. And unfortunately for us, fear is a very strong emotion, and one that the media uses frequently to sell a story.
- Is part of the “moderate middle.” Food Babe is not part of our audience. Vegan activists are not part of our audience.
- Lives in urban and rural areas. I find that many people in rural areas remember what it was like when their parents or grandparents were farming, and want modern farming to look the same.
- Trusts farmers and ranchers, but does not trust “Big Ag.”
- Does not know that 93% of farms in the US are family farms.
- Needs to know that even though farms look different, farmers’ values have not changed.

read more "Our Audience"