ILLINOIS FARM FAMILIES MONSANTO TOUR YIELDED RESULTS

Tricia Braid

Jun 08, 2015  |  Today's News

Illinois Farm Families, with additional support provided by Illinois Corn Marketing Board, recently invited Chicago-area moms that have participated in the IFF farm tour program to visit the Monsanto Biotechnology Research Center. At the end of the day, not all the moms were totally on board with GMOs and biotechnology, but all reported that they left feeling much more comfortable with the science and the people behind the scenes.

Here are some of the responses we received:

“There is an almost paralyzing fear in our country about the quality of our food supply. Experiencing the biotechnology process from start to finish illustrates the brilliance of human ingenuity and dispels fear.”

“I now know exactly how and why GMOs were created and that they have been tested extensively to be sure they are safe when used in our food supply.”

“The ability to be an eye witness for what the Monsanto employees are working on and where their company is going was tremendous.”

So how do we get more people to have this type of experience? The IFF website, www.watchusgrow.org is the best opportunity for a virtual farm experience. We also use social media to share these moms’ thoughts.

Our online outreach is summed up for April as:

462,791 – Total number of impressions based on promoted Pinterest content,

329,034 – Facebook users who have seen IFF content through advertising efforts,

213,897 – Average monthly viewers on Pinterest, up from 79,690 last month,

6,621 – Facebook page “Likes”,

1,391 – Twitter followers.

Remember, you can also participate in Illinois Farm Families. If you’d like to learn more about the communications training for farmers, please contact Tricia Braid at tbraid@ilcorn.org.