Let’s get real. In the Ag industry, it doesn’t matter how awesome, stupendous, fantastic, earth-shattering (well, maybe this one) your product is…if nobody buys it, it’s trash.

The shelf-life of all-natural, preservative-free AG products is pretty damn short. That means producers need to find buyers - pronto. 

Fresh fruits and vegetables have a short shelf life. And every day they aren't eaten is a loss in nutritional quality.
We can sell, give away, or add value to the production of our farms and ranches. When we share it, the world becomes a better place.

But where do we hang out trying to sell our products and services? In the silo - our AG silo, full of our friends who all agree our products are awesome, but they can only consume so much. And overconsumption - isn’t that a problem?

We have to fan out, find out where people are hanging out, let them know REAL ag products exist. Let folks feel real leather, whip out that belt, fold it over itself, and make that great crack sound to get attention!

Leather belts from the harvest of a regenerative ranch are a sign the entire cow has been honored. ID 343701840 © Sergey Klopotov | Dreamstime.com

Announce to the world, “Yes, it’s made from a cow! Yes, and we had kickass steaks on the grill, with asparagus and potatoes from our garden last night!”

Then when folks look at you as if they’ve never heard of a garden. You say, "You don’t know what a garden is? Here, let’s stroll around here and pull up a radish, pick a tomato…taste”. City folks think food magically appears at the store. What if they knew how to prepare the fruit on the abandoned cherry trees in their local park? What if they knew how to beat the deer to the wild raspberries? 

Hand out recipes and DIY. Most people will try it once, find out it takes skill - and guess what? They’ve just learned YOU HAVE THE SKILL.

Why are we all hanging around our social media, hoping for a nibble on a headline we thought was cool? Why not actually meet people, in the street, in the school parking lot, at the park? Give them something you’ve produced and just say, try it, you might like it. And then walk away. (To cover your butt, leave your label or business card on it with the ingredient list)

Ancient grains are more nutritious than our hybrid wheat and corn. The genetic breeding of our modern crops gives them longer shelf-life at the cost of flavor and nutritional profile.

Has anyone tried this with beef jerky sticks, rustic bread, ancient grain crackers, or a real leather rawhide dog chew? Has anyone woven pieces of fabric from industrial hemp, dyed them with natural colors, washed them to bring out all the softness, and then handed them away at a local event? Unless you follow the “rules” none of this is FDA-approved but...? So? Are you poisoning anyone? You’re giving them a bit of nutrition and joy. And no business insurance policy will cover this behavior - too risky. But this is what we do all the time when we try something new, we test it on our families! Think of those strangers as long-lost cousins.

None of this marketing requires my expertise as a marketing agency. But it does require your ability to step out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself and your product. Isn’t that the first step? For AG to be flexible in the face of the one constant? The never-ending CHANGE.

CHANGE. THE CONSUMER. YOU IN AG

That’s the triad. And it doesn’t need big finance or angel investors. It doesn’t need the World Economic Forum backing or fancy studies. It needs guts and conviction that what you have is the best and it’s good for our planet and people, and you deserve a profit.

Look in the mirror. What do you see? If it’s someone fired up and ready to change the world for the better - then go out and do it!

You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need to “figure out” the rules. Who says there are rules? Whose rules? 

The consumer is the AG industry’s most powerful ally. It’s sure not the government. It’s not the big CPGs. It’s folks just like you - except not anything like you. But they want the same things you want deep inside. They want to be healthy, wealthy, and live to an old age to say they’re “wise.” And those values are deep, broad, and vague. It’s up to you to decide if you’ll embrace the consumer as your ally. 

When you make friends with those people who don’t even have a clue what you’re about, you build strength. It’s like when the sun shines on the pond on a cold day and steam rises, it begins with a tiny beam and hint of fog, then pretty soon you can’t see the pond for the dense fog. Those are your customers amassing.

The fog is an allegory for the amassing of your customers. Neither you nor they know how the story will end. And that's where the excitement is.
We stand and look at the unknown, the brave will step into it and see what's on the other side. Is that you?

Walk into the unseeable, the unknown, because you have answers. And you have friends. 

Let me know what you've done and how it went. Remember back in school the teacher always said your question was probably on a lot of other people's minds? If you raised your hand, you were the brave one - unafraid to look foolish.

This is the time for raising our collective hands for the sake of the earth, our fellow inhabitants, and our own self-worth.

If you need a bit of confidence boosting, give me a shout. I'm old enough to have weathered many a storm and live to talk about it.