Felfies help people understand where their food comes from
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Version 0 of 1. In 2013, Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year was "selfie". Their official definition was "A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." My personal definition of the word is: photos my younger cousins take while looking like ducks sitting in cars are posting on Instagram all the time. My cousins are sick of me quacking at them. I tell them I will quit when they do. While I think that we have all seen enough Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian poses with her butt selfies, I'll admit, seeing a glimpse of the lives of Pope Francis, the First Family, and NASA astronauts via their selfies, is pretty cool (certain questionable instances aside).<br /> <br />While no one is surprised to see Hollywood starlets posting their selfies, some might be surprised to see a Kansas cattle rancher or Indiana popcorn grower posing theirs, but they are. It's time to meet the "felfie" or "farmer selfie". <br />According to market research, more than half of farmers today are rocking smart phones. Those phones have cameras, and if we have learned anything from Hollywood, a camera means you must take photos of yourself. A camera with an Internet connection means you must take selfies. While the felfie seems to have started in the UK, (farmingselfie.com) it's becoming a popular trend in America and beyond. But before you start thinking that America's farmers and ranchers are snapping photos of themselves while singing "You're so vain" to the cows, remember the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. The felfie provides what many urban people are searching for: a view of where their food starts. Farmers are taking to social media in droves and you'll find their mugshots on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Their photos show the world their farms and day to day lives. My own felfie below comes from a night last week in our freestall dairy barn when it was a nippy -35F (-37C) in our part of Wisconsin. There are good conversations going on in the comments underneath photos or on Twitter with people getting answers to their food and farm questions straight from the source. As ag blogger Ryan Goodman said about the felfie on his blog: It's actually a pretty great way for farmers to mesh with a pop-culture movement and make a few connections that lead to a little advocacy. Adding a bit of personality to our messages helps build those relationships. The felfie isn't just a product of having smart phones, it's also a product of having an all consuming job where you are mostly working alone. Snapping a photo of yourself doing something interesting to share with the world creates a fun and helpful circle for farmers to share what they love doing with others who are passionate about food and the environment. Don't get me wrong, I love my cows – they are part of my family – but it's good to have some interaction with folks with opposable thumbs, too. As farmers continue to embrace technology – some of the latest moves include Wi-Fi and GPS in tractors and drones above fields to check crops – nobody should be surprised to see the 2% of our population that grows our food pop up in our social media feeds. I encourage you to do a search on Instagram or Twitter for #felfie and connect with some of the farmers, ranchers and agriculture professionals that are out there. Not only will you get to see a view that's different from your own neighborhood, you'll find a source of information as close to the dirt your food is grown in as you can get. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |