21 pages, via online journal, How an agricultural organization handles the way the media reports a crisis can have an impact on the public’s perceptions of the organization, and sometimes the industry as a whole. The popularity of social media outlets as a venue for disseminating and gathering information and news makes the use of social media surrounding agricultural crises an important topic to investigate (Glynn, Huge, & Hoffman 2012; Hermida, 2010). A qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the use of social media tools during an agricultural crisis. The participants – communications directors, social media managers, and individuals with a close connection to the crisis under study – reported that social media was a major component of their communication efforts surrounding each crisis. Participants felt social media was very effective in these situations and had a major impact on their communication efforts. Although no participants reported using a structured social media strategy or crisis communication plan, they stated a need for such guidelines in the agricultural industry. From the data analyzed in this study, a model for using social media during a crisis situation, aimed specifically for use by those in the agricultural industry, was developed. This project was funded through the USDA's Beginning Farmers & Ranchers Project.
7 pgs., In the last couple of decades, nonprofit organizations have worked to advance the voices of American farm women. Using the internet and social media, they advocate for farm women to have a larger voice in local and national agricultural policymaking. The Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN; https://wfan.org/), is one of these nonprofit organizations (Women, Food, and Agriculture Network, 2019b). Based in Iowa, it offers a variety of programs to encourage farm women to continue farming and to consider pursuing elective office for a stronger female voice in American agriculture (Sachs et al., 2016). Historically, the American woman’s contribution to feeding the country and the world has received recognition only during times of national emergency. For example, during World War II, the U. S. Secretary of Agriculture turned to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Extension Service to create a recruitment program for women to assist with food production. As early as April 1943, the U.S. Congress approved funding for The Farm Labor Supply Appropriation Act. The program became known as the Women’s Land Army (WLA; The Farm Labor Supply Appropriation Act of 1943). The program, operational between 1943 and 1947, called on American women to work on abandoned farms during World War II. Lucrative defense-related jobs were luring farmers from their fields, creating a need for farm laborers. The WLA was administered by the USDA and implemented at the state level by the USDA Extension Service. By 1945, one and a half million non-farm women had been recruited for farm jobs, and WLA membership had risen to almost two million women (Rasmussen, 1951, pp. 148–149). During the last decades of the 20th century, social and economic change had encouraged more women, including farm women, to become politically active. It was not until 1978, when the USDA began collecting data on the gender of the principal farm operators (the USDA term to describe the decision-makers), that women’s role in American farming was confirmed with statistics. According to the USDA Census in 2017, women as principal producers on the farm are slowly growing in number (U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2020, Table 52). These numbers also reflect the first time multiple (two or more) primary producers were reported in the USDA Census of Agriculture (U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2020, Table 47).
