By Jacqueline McCloskey, Chief Executive of Fair Oaks Farms
As fewer Americans have a personal connection to farming, agriculture faces a new responsibility: not only producing food responsibly, but also building and maintaining trust with the people we feed.
For farmers, that means opening the door to honest conversations about how food is produced, why decisions are made and how agriculture continues to evolve.
Trust Is Now Part of the Farmer’s Job
American agriculture has been extraordinarily successful. A relatively small number of people can produce the food that allows everyone else to be free to pursue their own professions, passions, and lives. But that success has created an unintended consequence: distance.
A century ago, far more Americans knew a farmer. Farmers were relatives, neighbors, and members of the community. People did not need an advertising campaign to understand agriculture because openness, familiarity, and proximity created understanding — and understanding created trust.
Today, that proximity and openness have disappeared. As American agriculture has become more productive and consolidated, fewer people have a personal connection to those who grow their food.
The inherent trust that previous generations of farmers enjoyed with the public cannot simply be assumed anymore.
That changes the job.
Producing safe, nutritious food while responsibly stewarding land, water, and animals remains the foundation of farming. But modern agriculture carries another responsibility: stewarding the relationship with the people we feed.
This is not marketing.
Marketing asks people to believe a message, while authentic communication allows people to know the farmers behind the work. Consumers should be able to ask how their food is produced, why decisions are made, and how agriculture continues to improve.
Trust cannot be outsourced to an advertising firm, and silence is no longer neutral. It creates a vacuum, and vacuums are filled.
If farmers do not participate in the conversation, others will define agriculture for us. Some will do so thoughtfully. Others will use incomplete information, misleading claims, or outright damaging falsehoods.
In an era when artificial intelligence can create remarkably convincing false images, videos, and narratives, simply hoping the truth will prevail is not a viable strategy.
The stakes extend beyond public perception.
Public sentiment eventually influences elections, policy, and regulation. We have watched agricultural industries in other countries struggle under policies shaped in part by a widening divide between food producers and the public.
Even within our borders, we can see an example in California’s Proposition 12. Public concern about animal housing ultimately became policy that changed production requirements for farmers well beyond California’s borders.
The lesson is not that consumers were wrong to have concerns, or that better communication would have guaranteed agreement. The lesson is that farmers need to be part of these conversations before public sentiment becomes public policy.
That responsibility begins with helping consumers understand what we do and why, but it cannot end there.
If consumers understand our practices and still have concerns, we have an equal responsibility to listen — to understand what they value and determine where we can adapt or find common ground.
Authentic communication cannot be one way.
Stronger relationships between farmers and consumers give us the opportunity to work through disagreements together before regulation becomes the primary way consumers express what they expect from agriculture.
The responsibility to build that relationship now belongs to every farmer.
Authentic communication can no longer be left to someone else. There is no single prescription for rebuilding that connection, and farmers should not expect our industry organizations to speak for us.
Their greatest value is helping farmers become better, more authentic communicators — giving us the tools, training, and opportunities to participate in these conversations ourselves.
For one farmer, that might mean hosting occasional farm tours. For another, it might mean visiting classrooms, participating in community conversations, sharing daily life through social media or simply answering questions openly and honestly.
Not every farmer needs to become a public speaker, content creator, or tourism operator. But every farmer can find an authentic way to participate.
The goal is not to convince consumers to accept everything we say or to prevent them from questioning agriculture.
In fact, it is the opposite.
We need to build enough familiarity and trust that when consumers encounter a claim, image, or story about agriculture that does not reflect the reality they have come to know, their first response is curiosity rather than blind belief.
We want them to ask, “Is that really true?” — and to have already created a pathway for them to find the answer from a farmer’s voice they trust.
The future of American agriculture will depend not only on how well we produce food, but on whether we earn and maintain the trust of the people we feed.
About Jacqueline McCloskey
Jacqueline McCloskey is Chief Executive of Fair Oaks Farms in Northwest Indiana, one of the largest agritourism destinations in the United States. She began working at the farm, founded by her parents, Mike and Sue McCloskey, at age nine, scooping ice cream during the summers, and has since worked in nearly every corner of the organization.