Literally, agvocacy is the word combination of advocacy and agriculture, but more importantly advocacy is an initiative. It is the positive promotion of the agriculture industry and efforts to combat public misconceptions and corporate propaganda that negatively impact the hard-working Americans that sustain our food source. To me, agvocacy highlights the necessity for public relations in the agricultural sector. Many American’s have become so immensely detached from agriculture that they have no idea where their food comes from or how it is obtained. This ignorance allows for radical groups such as PETA and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to contaminate the publics view of the agriculture industry with falsifications of topics such as animal welfare, land stewardship, slaughter practices and factory farming operations. These lies have lead to inaccurate publicly accepted beliefs that are not legitimate regarding the industry as a whole. Unfortunately, the movement to correct these fallacies is limited. If the 1% of Americans that maintain our food source via farming decided to park their tractors and pick up a megaphone to advocate their livelihoods, national and international food sources would be jeopardized.

For me, this indicates the necessity for agricultural public relations. A public relations associate aims to bring their organization closer to the public to create harmony and promote a positive reputation. Through agricultural literacy initiatives, public awareness and understanding is attainable. Using public relations tactics such as social media reach, ag literacy events and awareness campaigns, the immense communication gap between the industry and the public can be bridged thus creating a harmonious relationship between Americans and their food source.