Working together to educate consumers

Last week, we headed up to the AFACT annual summit in Minneapolis. AFACT stands for American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology. This nonprofit agricultural education organization is made up of agricultural producers along with industry supporters. They are working to educate the food chain, especially those in the grocery sector, about modern agricultural technologies that have come under attack in recent years. Topics like animal welfare, BST, antibiotics, and GMO crops were all topics of discussion. The second annual summit was host to speakers like dairy and poultry producers from California who discussed how Proposition 2 will affect their farms. The summit also welcomed Alex Avery, director of research and education at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Food Issues, who discussed the sustainability of modern agricultural practices. Beyond listening to speakers, attendees learned more about the organization and took part in small group discussions on what more can be done to educate consumers while working side by side will all of agriculture.

Monty Miller, a member of the AFACT leadership team, shared some of the group’s efforts in online education. He highlighted a Moodle page (an internet-based learning website) that was used to pilot an online course to educate consumers about food production technologies. Miller believes that education of consumers and improving their science literacy is essential today. “Five to ten years ago we had a choice. Its not a choice anymore, it’s what we have to do,” Miller said.