Translating Farm to Food: Creating a Conversation that Counts
The consumer asking about your antibiotic protocols or chemical use isn't your enemy. They're your customer. And right now, they're getting their information from someone else.
The gap between farm and food has never been wider – or louder. Farmers and agribusiness professionals are fielding questions about GMOs, animal welfare, chemicals, hormones, and sustainability from consumers, media, and policymakers who genuinely want to understand but are swimming in misinformation. The instinct is to respond with facts. Facts are necessary. But they're not sufficient – and leading with them in a charged conversation rarely works the way we hope.
Translating Farm to Food teaches agricultural communicators to lead with something more powerful than data: shared values. When farmers and agribusiness professionals learn to connect on a human level before they educate, contentious conversations become something else entirely – real connections that build the kind of trust no marketing campaign can manufacture.
Why agricultural organizations trust Michele Payn
Michele Payn, CSP – only 10% of Certified Speaking Professionals worldwide – grew up on a dairy farm and has spent 25 years helping agricultural organizations, agribusinesses, farmers, and commodity groups find their voice in the food conversation. She has worked across 25+ countries, raised $5M+ for FFA and 4-H, and authored four books endorsed by Harvard Business School's Agribusiness Program, Purdue University, and the International Food Information Council. She has hosted 140+ podcast episodes bridging farm to food. She knows this conversation from both sides of the fence – literally.
Four award-winning books · 25+ countries · 140+ podcast episodes · $5M+ raised for FFA & 4-H
Translating Farm to Food is for you if...
- Your members know their science cold but freeze – or go defensive – the moment a consumer pushes back
- Your organization needs a communication framework, not just inspiration to go have better conversations
- You want your audience equipped to handle the toughest topics: GMOs, animal welfare, antibiotics, hormones, pesticide use, and sustainability trade-offs
- You're ready to move from educating consumers to genuinely connecting with
An international award winning author, Michele can help you understand how people look at food. Food Truths from Farm to Table: 25 Surprising Ways to Shop & Eat Without Guilt addresses myths throughout the grocery store to bring clarity and common sense to the food conversation. She embedded 25 food truths throughout the book to translate how food is grown, why modern practices are used and how marketing is misleading food buyers. The book, awarded an IPPY bronze medal in medicine, health and nutrition, includes stories of 55+ contributors to translate the science of today’s agriculture on a human level.
Solutions Michele delivers through Translating Farm to Food:
- A connection-first communication framework that builds trust before it builds arguments
- Practical tools for navigating the most contentious food and farming conversations – face-to-face, on social media, and in policy settings
- Tips to distill technical issues such as animal welfare, GMOs, antibiotics, food safety, pesticides and hormones into simpler conversations
- Discussion points for specific hot-button topics tailored to your audience and sector
- Strategies for finding common ground with consumers, dietitians, journalists, and policymakers who start from a different place
- A framework for telling agriculture's story in a way that's honest, compelling, and human – not defensive, technical, or exhausted
Learning objectives for this farm-to-food talk (will vary depending upon timeframe):
After this program, attendees will be able to:
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Identify the shared values between farmers and consumers – and use them as a starting point for difficult conversations
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Respond to questions about GMOs, animal welfare, antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides without defensiveness or jargon
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Apply a hot buttons communication approach that connects before it corrects
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Adapt their message for different audiences – urban consumers, dietitians, media, and policymakers
- Walk away with a personal communication framework they can use in the next conversation they have
Not only will her lifelong passion and background in agriculture keep your audience on the edge of their seats, Michele's interactive style will get them out of their seats and talking about their experiences! This workshop or webinar is a great way to excite your audience about new and innovative ways they can use to proactively connect agriculture at a different level.
Available as: Keynote · Half-day workshop · Full-day workshop · Webinar
Dig deeper: Michele's Food Truths from Farm to Table – an IPPY Bronze Medal winner and Amazon #1 Bestseller – gives farmers and agribusiness professionals the science-backed foundation for exactly these conversations. Learn more →