It will be spring, sooner or later, and with it will come the opportunity to have discussions for the choices you make on your corn farm. Consumers remain very interested in where their food comes from but even more so, they’re interested in how that food is produced. Illinois Farm Families, the collaborative consumer outreach effort that is supported by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, along with Illinois Beef Association, Illinois Pork Producers Association, Illinois Soybean Association, Midwest Dairy, and the Illinois Farm Bureau, created a consumer-ready fact sheet that you may find useful.

The fact-sheet is available for download here.

We recommend that in these conversations, whether they be in person or online in social media forums, that you remember that choices are generally made based on a personal relationship and emotions.

There are many approaches to growing crops and raising animals, and they all result in safe food. Growing and raising food is complex. So is navigating all the choices at the grocery store. Organic, conventional or something in the middle, different farming methods can be confusing. Conventional and organic farming methods are two different ways to grow crops and raise animals that both result in safe food.

If you’re interested in diving into some communications training during the weeks leading up to #plant19, contact Tricia Braid at IL Corn ( tbraid@ilcorn.org ) to be connected to some online training modules.