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Consumers still have positive view of farmers

Agriculture has suffered its share of hits in the past year. Food prices and animal welfare issues come to mind. But the annual survey of consumer attitudes conducted by theUnited Soybean Board shows consumers, in general, still have a very positive view of farmers.

The survey, which took place in February, surveyed a random sample of one-thousand registered voters with characteristics representative of the U.S. population. Vanessa Kummer ofColfax, North Dakota chairs USB’s communications committee.

“It was good to see that the American consumer has a very positive view of farmers—in fact, 95 percent of them do,” says Kummer. “When it comes to animal agriculture, the number is a little lower—butit’s still at 78 percent, which I think is a very good number.”

Another part of the survey dealt with consumer attitudes about animal confinement. After hearing that anti-confinement legislation could force Americans to get their milk, eggs and meat from foreignproducers, 78 percent of consumers said they would oppose that type of legislation.

“People really want to buy their food locally. They want to buy food that’s been raised locally,” Kummer says. “The soybean checkoff feels strongly that we need to maintainand protect our animal livestock industry. And I think the trend for ‘eat local, buy local’ works right into that.”

Another interesting number, according to Kummer—nearly 90 percent of those surveyed said they do not see farmers as a major reason for food priceincreases.

Kummer says the survey is an important tool that helps the soybean checkoff develop effective messaging to promote soybeans and animal agriculture.