Progress report for SW21-928
Project Information
Diverse Western agricultural stakeholders have identified the need to increase public understanding of why sustainable agriculture matters, how it works, what the challenges are, and how society can support sustainable approaches. For example, improving consumer education is a stated priority in at least seven Pest Management Strategic Plans for western crops. Likewise, the California Alternatives to Chlorpyrifos Work Group identified a need to develop shared language around agriculture, environmental protection, and community health.
Our project will help meet these needs. We approach communications dilemmas by analyzing the deeply embedded mindsets that shape public thinking, rather than relying on surface-level messaging techniques. Over the last six years, the Farming and Food Narrative Project (FFNP) has developed a social science research base that sheds new light on why long-standing communications challenges in sustainable agriculture persist, and how to resolve them. With support from WSARE, we seek to extend this research, answering the following questions:
- What conversational strategies or arguments do ordinary people in the Western region use to resist new information or scientifically-informed perspectives?
- What communication tools and strategies effectively work to overcome such resistance?
To ensure that findings are optimally useful in the western U.S., our project’s outreach and dissemination design depends on close collaboration with stakeholders. Project leaders will engage with Western growers and practitioners to pinpoint current needs and challenges in explaining and elevating sustainable agriculture. Communications strategists and educators will use what we learn to design communication trainings and build a toolkit of communication resources.
Research findings will be reported in a highly-accessible strategic brief that highlights the key communications shifts that will elevate public understanding and support. This brief, and the related toolkit, will be made publicly available and will be disseminated widely through the Farming & Food Narrative’s distribution list and other digital venues.
By supporting research that confirms and adapts national recommendations for use in the West, this project leverages more than $600,000 in investments from previous funders of FFNP work and aligns it with the goals of WSARE. Expected outputs include:
- A research-based set of effective communications recommendations, including new narrative elements, that work to explain and elevate sustainable agriculture in the West;
- Refined training modules that equip a variety of agricultural stakeholders to communicate more effectively with multiple audiences;
- A digital toolkit that translates project recommendations into formats requested by sustainable agriculture stakeholders in the West.
We expect this project to have both immediate outcomes and long-term impacts. During the short-term, we expect to see changes in participants’ communications knowledge and practices. In the medium-term, we expect those changes in communication practices to be shared among participant's networks, which over the long-term, will build public support for policies that support sustainable agriculture, and will increase consumer demand for sustainably-grown products. Fresh policy approaches will enhance economic, environmental, and social outcomes by providing farmers with more operational capacity to adopt sustainable practices.
Objective 1 (Research): Complete Qualitative Frame Testing by conducting four peer review sessions in the West (2021-22).
This objective involves the final efficacy testing of new narrative elements in an interactive group setting, including the testing for “stickiness” during person-to-person transmission. We will conduct four separate peer discourse sessions (similar to focus groups) in western states during 2021-22, including two with rural-leaning audiences, and two with urban-leaning audiences. These sessions aim to answer the following questions:
- What conversational strategies or arguments do ordinary people in the western region use to resist new information or scientifically-informed perspectives?
- What communication tools and strategies effectively work to overcome such resistance?
Objective 2 (Research): Develop a Reframing Toolkit including new narrative elements, guidelines for their use, a variety of digital support materials/tools, and a series of trainings, both virtual and in-person (2022-2024).
During 2022-2023, for use in 2023-2024, FrameWorks and the project team will develop a “Reframing Toolkit," a combination of FrameWorks-designed digital resources plus FFNP training tools and events. This toolkit will include: guidelines for communicators; new narrative elements for organizational websites and written materials; an introductory webinar; curriculum for a 1.5-day intensive "Innovative Agricultural Communication Workshop" targeted to agricultural communicators; and an interactive, community of practice focused around real-time communication challenges.
Objective 3 (Education): Conduct two in-person, 1.5-day communication workshops in Oregon and California, with follow-up meeting and workshops held remotely (2023-2024).
We will co-design a 1.5-day intensive workshop for ~50 agricultural communicators, who will influence their own stakeholder networks. Two workshops will be held in-person, one each in Oregon and California with ~25 people. Follow-up activities may include a virtual workshop held 8-12 months later to test 'stickiness' of the concepts, or an interactive list serve, or a community of practice (will depend on participant feedback).
Objective 4 (Education): Disseminate research results and communication tools to a diverse audience of farming and food practitioners--growers, university professionals and organizational communicators in NGOs, government agencies, and businesses-- in the western region during 2023-2024, via a mix of on-line, hard copy, and in-person strategies, trainings, and events.
This objective will transform research conclusions and learnings into a variety of training tools and guides that will be useful to the field of farming and food communicators. A series of web-based, hard copy, and in-person guides and trainings will be developed and disseminated.
Cooperators
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Technical Advisor
- (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor
Research
The Qualitative Frame Testing process will identify which narrative frames have the best chance of entering the public discourse, how various group identities shape thinking on the topic of sustainable agriculture, and will identify potential strategies for opening up a productive conversation across groups.
The framing tools and science-translation strategies developed by FrameWorks and the WSARE project team will be adopted by a targeted audience who wish to increase the public understanding of sustainable agriculture.
Figure 1. Research components in the reframing process.
Objective 1: Complete Qualitative Frame Testing by conducting four peer review sessions in the West (2021-22).
This objective involved the final efficacy testing of new narrative elements in an interactive group setting, including the testing for “stickiness” during person-to-person transmission. Peer discourse sessions (similar to focus groups) are a qualitative approach to explore the common patterns of talking that people use in social settings, and how they negotiate and move among these patterned ways of talking. These sessions aimed to answer the following questions:
- What conversational strategies or arguments do ordinary people in the western region use to resist new information or scientifically informed perspectives?
- What communication tools and strategies effectively work to overcome such resistance?
We conducted four (4), 120-minute peer discourse sessions using virtual platforms between May 11 and May 13, 2022. Each session included six (6) participants and a moderator. The participants were members of the public from rural, urban, and suburban areas in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. We purposefully excluded participants who worked professionally related to agriculture. These sessions began with open-ended discussions about farming followed by moderator-introduced framed passages — or “primes” — designed to influence the ensuing discussion in specific ways. The sessions involved group exercises in which participants broke out into smaller groups tasked with designing a plan to address some part of the larger issue of farming.
Transcripts and video from the peer discourse sessions were analyzed using a cognitive analysis process that examines the ways people think about a topic, their patterns of reasoning, the connections they make to other issues, and the devices they use to resist new information. This method surfaces themes and trends, affords an exploration of how well new frames help to reshape thinking, and it identifies those frames that have the best chance of entering the public discourse.
Completion of the qualitative frame testing was the final step before the creation of the final research report, “Reframing Farming: Strategies for expanding thinking about agriculture”, which is a resource in the Reframing Toolkit (Objective 2).
Objective 2: Develop a Reframing Toolkit including new narrative elements, guidelines for their use, a variety of digital support materials/tools, and a series of trainings, both virtual and in-person (2023-2024).
The WSARE project team (OSU and Red Tomato) worked closely with the FrameWorks Institute to develop a “Reframing Toolkit" to be used for the educational and dissemination components of the project. We held monthly meetings (Red Tomato, OSU, FrameWorks) from 2021 through September 2023 to collaboratively develop a combination of digital resources, training tools and events, and an online community of practice that make up the 'Reframing Toolkit'.
Development of digital resources
The FrameWorks team led the development of the multimedia digital resource bank for this toolkit, which included materials such as slides, handouts, instructional videos, “quick-start” guides that orient users to key framing shifts, and multiple examples of framing strategies applied to communications. The specific tools that FrameWorks developed were determined in collaboration with stakeholders and the project team, to ensure they included the types of "job aids" (in communications, this is a resource that can be used as a reminder of important points), communication types, and issue foci that are most relevant and useful to the field. Stakeholder input beyond the project team was gathered in several ways: i) through a short needs assessment survey in Spring 2023 (https://beav.es/ShN); ii) feedback gathered from participants of the July 2023 Innovative Agricultural Communication Workshops (see Objective 3); and ii) a focus group conducted with workshop participants. The focus group was conducted online in September 2023 with a panel of seven agricultural sector professionals from the Western region who attended the Communication workshops in July 2023. The panel was convened to review a draft of the toolkit and provide feedback and input, and was moderated by Julie Sweetland of FrameWorks. Participants included growers, agricultural scientists, trade association representatives, and sustainable agricultural advocates working in nonprofit organizations. The group’s feedback led to more examples with greater relevance to the Western region and the addition of more resources to support outreach and education through traditional and social media.
This is longstanding methodology for FrameWorks, which generally produces 3-5 toolkits a year on a variety of social issues, each one accessed thousands of times. Two toolkit examples are listed below for reference:
- https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/toolkit/reframing-family-school-and-community-engagement/
- https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/toolkit/reframing-oral-health/
To complement and make best use of the tools described above, the team also worked together to develop:
(i) a set of pre-recorded modules presented by FrameWorks that became the standard introduction to the project and framing, the strategic frame analysis methodology, the research results, results application, and how to learn more (see Objective 4). These modules were created over many months of back and forth between FrameWorks and the WSARE project team, ensuring that our feedback was incorporated into the final versions. The purpose of these modules was to serve as durable resources available for the public through the website, and as segments that can be used in live webinars;
(ii) curriculum for a 1.5-day, intensive workshop for agricultural communicators and key influencers who work in agriculture and interact regularly with the public (Objective 3). The project team met monthly with FrameWorks (Jess Moyer) and Create|Act (working within Red Tomato) from January 2023 - July 2023 to develop a learning objectives, an agenda, and presentation content for the workshops. Questions answered by workshop registrants also helped inform the content and focus of the workshop presentations and activities. The curriculum was focused on delivering information about the project and its results, concepts of framing and re-framing, cultural models, and recommended new frames and framing strategies;
(iii) an interactive, community of practice focused around solutions to real-time communications challenges. The decision to form a community of practice following the July 2023 workshops was based on feedback received from participants who filled out a workshop evaluation. The format for the community of practice was developed during regular meetings between Red Tomato, OSU, and Create|Act from August - October 2023.
Justification of research delay:
The iterative process used in Strategic Frame Analysis results in a very strong product, but improvements made on earlier steps can cause delays in later steps. The first three steps in the prescriptive research portion of this project (Reframe Candidates, On-The-Street/On-Line Interviews, and Controlled Experiments) were significantly slowed down due to revisions, resulting in a delayed start for the Qualitative Frame Testing (Objective 1, originally scheduled for fall 2021). FrameWorks researchers engaged in extensive discussions and review/revisions processes with the Farming and Food Narrative Project (FFNP) Core Team to make sure the Reframe Candidates were the right ones, and were supported by all the earlier work in the descriptive portion of the project. The engagement and revisions impeded our timeline, but not our research.
The prescriptive research process began in fall 2020 with an articulation of the goals and tasks for specific framing strategies. The goal was to establish 8-10 candidate frames to be tested through qualitative and quantitative research for efficacy. Our collaborative, multi-disciplinary process added time to this step, but the additional time spent proved worthwhile. The FFNP’s Core Team did not approve the candidate frames that FrameWorks presented in November and December 2020. This caused FrameWorks to hit 'pause' and reevaluate, and ultimately make changes in the research team. As applied communications researchers, FrameWorks’ researchers consider time to clarify and sharpen the intended goals and outcomes to be time well-spent. For instance, we improved on an initial goal of building public understanding of sustainable farming practices by re-articulating the objective to build public understanding of sustainable farming dilemmas. This elevated the sophistication of the subsequent candidate framing strategies. The initial version of the objective would have led us to try to do a better job of explaining discrete farming practices like crop rotation or cover crops – a worthwhile tactic, but something that our Core Team members know has already been tried, and hasn’t had the desired “breakthrough” effect with the public. Now, the framing strategies we are pursuing will focus on helping people understand the tensions and competing considerations that constrain the widespread adoption of sustainable farming practices. In the end, this level of attention to detail ensured that the recommended strategy truly breaks new communication ground.
By May 2021, FrameWorks was ready to test a series of candidate metaphors and examples in framing experiments with the general public. The COVID-19 pandemic and related shelter-in-place orders required FrameWorks to significantly retool its research methods to find alternatives to face-to-face interviews and focus groups. This resulted in a redesign and testing of On-Line Interview (instead of On-The-Street) and focus group formats which worked well, replacing face-to-face interviews during the life of this project. The first round of On-Line Interviews were inconclusive, and FrameWorks made some changes before conducting the interviews again, which also delayed the timeline. The Controlled Experiments, from which results will be used to for the Qualitative Frame Testing, were not completed until March 2022 (original timeline was summer 2021).
- Comparing the economic pressures on farmers to walking a tightrope had significant effects. Participants who were exposed to this metaphor-based message were more likely than the control group (which read no message) to rank farming as a profession that is essential to society and to agree that current policies make it more difficult for farmers to adopt environmentally-friendly practices.
- Explaining IPM by using the example of crop rotation led to more support for environmentally sustainable policies. A similar explanation that used the example of pest monitoring and trapping had little effect on attitudes or policy support.
- Explaining the policies that historically have presented barriers to farm ownership for women and people of color led to significant increases in support for more expansive programs and funding for these groups.
- There were no statistically significant interactions between responses and the following demographic categories: political affiliation; urban/rural residency; residency in a farming community. Despite the lack of significant effects, we can see some directional differences between people who live in a farming community and those who do not. People who live in a farming community, overall, have higher levels of understanding and support for sustainable agriculture policies. This means that messaging may encounter a “ceiling effect.” People who do not live in a farming community are more likely to shift their thinking in response to messaging, but this “malleability” also poses the risk of “backfire effects” in which messages move thinking in an undesirable direction.
Objective 1: Qualitative Frame Testing (peer discourse sessions)
Results from the peer discourse sessions shaped the final six recommended framing strategies that were published in the December 2022 “Reframing Farming” report:
- Start with farming, not food: When we start conversations about farming with the theme of food, the issue quickly narrows to individual safety or eating experience. When we evoke people’s direct experiences with food, we also prompt them to think only like consumers. A consumerist mindset brings with it a focus on personal choice and increased attention to risk, rather than on broader systems and public choices. This helps to explain why, in focus groups, talk about food quickly led to expressions of concern about “pesticides and GMOs” and, at times, devolved into conspiracy theories.
- Make the story about interconnection: People readily agree that farming is vital to society; we don’t need to spend precious communications energy convincing them that it matters. We do, however, need to remind people why it’s an issue that deserves more public attention. In focus groups, explanations that demonstrated that different aspects of farming are interconnected were highly effective at steering people toward the complexity of farming.
- Show how adjusting farming practices and policies can contribute to the type of communities we want: Farming is often far out on the horizon in public thinking and public discourse. Even if people think about farming at all, they tend not to think of it as integral, necessary parts of their lives. In focus groups, lifting up community-farm connections was highly effective in shifting thinking away from picturing farming as an isolated sector and toward a view of farming as integrated into, and affected by, everyone’s lives and decisions.
- Talk about the tightrope that farms must cross: Compare the risky, complex decision making involved in farming to the process of crossing a tightrope. In focus groups, people responded to the metaphor as a good explanation of concepts that were familiar – like the fact that family farms are struggling – and used it to deepen their understanding of the external causes and possible solutions.
- Tell science-rich stories about innovative practices on farms: Show how innovative, scientifically informed practices are being implemented on diverse types of farms. In focus groups, people gravitated to specific examples of innovative practices – like cover crops, crop rotation, and IPM tactics such as “specially designed traps for insects that harm crops” – and described them as “interesting” and “fascinating.” Offering science-rich explanations was particularly effective in helping people to articulate how they would like farms to conduct themselves and how they would like the farming system to operate. When people begin to reason through on-farm challenges themselves, this helps disrupt oversimplified, “good/bad” thinking about farming practices.
- Speak directly to historical and contemporary inequities: Embrace and cultivate opportunities to acknowledge that historical inequities in terms of race, class, and gender have an impact on the present reality and future of farming issues. The framing research found evidence that connecting farming to the push for racial and gender equity boosted public understanding and support in important ways. In small-group sessions, for example, people expressed genuine surprise when hearing about topics like the history of discriminatory lending in agriculture. While focus group participants were generally not familiar with the ways in which women and people of color in farming have faced unfair policies and unjust practices, they readily agreed that farming policies should seek to correct historical injustices and reflect a sense of respect and equality for all.
Objective 2: Reframing Toolkit
Final Recommended Framing Strategies
The final report for the 'Reframing Farming' project - the larger project under which this WSARE Project fits - was completed in December 2022. The report, “Reframing Farming: Strategies for expanding thinking about agriculture”, is hosted on the Farming and Food Narrative Project website and is a part of the Reframing Toolkit. (Note: the writing of the actual report was not funded by WSARE, but WSARE did fund the Peer Discourse Sessions portion of the research leading to the results).
Digital Resources
The final 'Reframing Farming: A Communications Toolkit,' developed by FrameWorks Institute in partnership with the WSARE project team, was completed in March of 2024. As mentioned above, holding a focus group with west coast agricultural communicators ensured it met the needs of the intended audience before the Toolkit was finalized. Specific tools included "Talking Points," "Structuring Science-Rich Stories," and "Sample Social Media Posts." The toolkit is open access, and can be found on the Farming and Food Narrative Project's website.
We created a three-minute video that serves as an introduction to the project and brief explanation of "why sustainable agriculture needs framing". This video features a well-known farmer, and was used as promotional material for the July 2023 workshops. The video has also been used to promote the overall project. The video is currently hosted on the Farming and Food Narrative Project Website (https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/western-sare) and YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM0hJkfGv8o)
The FrameWorks Institute created a set of 10 pre-recorded modules, the first wave of which were completed in May 2023 and the remainder completed in March 2024. These modules were an essential part of the introductory webinar delivered to attendees of the CA and OR workshops. These modules will continue to live on the FFNP website and be a resource for communicators looking for new tools to add to their toolbox.
In additional to the tools in the toolkit, FrameWorks also developed digital resource "quick-start" guides that were used in the July 2023 workshops (see Objective 3), to assist attendees in applying reframing strategies and techniques in their own work. The Quickstart guides can be found on the project website here.
Webinars
We developed a 90-minute webinar format, that was delivered two times to different networks. This webinar can be tailored to geographic and sectoral context that gives greater value to attendees, providing immediate findings that can inform their work in addition to generating long term interest and value in the Project’s final communication tools. The feedback we received encouraged us that not only is this research timely, but it is also valuable, and attendees expressed interest in learning more and utilizing findings in their day-to-day work. We also used some of FrameWorks's pre-recorded modules during a webinar presented in June 2023.
Workshop Curriculum
The 1.5-day interactive workshop curriculum was created for a group of ~50 participants, 25 per workshop. The workshop objectives were to: i) Create an understanding of framing; ii) Build the capacity to identify re-framing opportunities; iii) Develop participants ability to use core framing strategies; and iv) Build connection and relationships across a community of farming advocates.
Community of Practice
In response to July 2023 workshop participant's evaluation feedback, we held monthly virtual meetings called Reframing Practice Sessions from October 2023 to November 2024. The objectives of the practice sessions were to assist workshop attendees with ongoing communication binds, and to give them a space for applying both the FrameWorks reframing strategies and the concept of reframing as a strategy. More explanation provided in Objective 3.
Research Outcomes
To build a broader constituency for more sustainable agriculture, communications must spark a sense of collective responsibility, build a deeper understanding of the realities and challenges of farming, and connect farming to society and vice versa.
The six recommended framing strategies below offer ways to do this:
1. Start with farming, not food: When we start conversations about farming with the theme of food, the issue quickly narrows to individual safety or eating experience. On the other hand, when we enter conversations about farming through other issues – especially community vibrancy or environmental concerns – people can and will begin to grapple with the complexity of farming.
2. Make the story about interconnection: People readily agree that farming is vital to society; we don’t need to spend precious communications energy convincing them that it matters. We do, however, need to remind people why it’s an issue that deserves more public attention.
3. Show how adjusting farming practices and policies can contribute to the type of communities we want: Farming is often far out on the horizon in public thinking and public discourse. Even if people think about farming at all, they tend not to think of it as integral, necessary parts of their lives. Use framing to bring it closer and connect it to the communities where people live and the ideals that that people believe society should uphold.
4. Talk about the tightrope that farms must cross: Compare the risky, complex decision making involved in farming to the process of crossing a tightrope. Use the metaphor to center farmers’ perspectives without zooming in on stories of specific individuals, which can activate the public’s tendency to romanticize farmers.
5. Tell science-rich stories about innovative practices on farms: Show how innovative, scientifically informed practices are being implemented on diverse types of farms. Explain the ways in which farmers develop, test, and adopt evidence-based practices to solve specific dilemmas that arise from their context.
6. Speak directly to historical and contemporary inequities: The erasure of farmers of color and women farmers from media coverage and agricultural communications is both striking and important. Farming is part of society, and therefore current societal realities must be reflected in communication about agriculture. Embrace and cultivate opportunities to acknowledge that historical inequities in terms of race, class, and gender have an impact on the present reality and future of farming issues.
More in-depth recommendations can be found in the "Reframing Farming" report: https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/_files/ugd/e1dfa0_698e8f35c82b4adeb0b69401001e60d6.pdf
Education and Outreach
Participation Summary:
Objective 3 (Education): Conduct two in-depth, 1.5-day workshops in Oregon and California (2023) with thought leaders who work in agriculture and interact regularly with the public (farmers, agricultural professionals, and organizational communicators), with follow-up meetings and workshops held remotely (2023-2024).
Our original plan was to design a 1-day intensive workshop in the form of a “train-the-trainers seminar”, and offer it three times in 2023-2024. However, in finalizing the reframing recommendations and working with the material, we realized that a train-the-trainer seminar was not the best approach to make this training successful. Instead, we focused on recruiting "thought leaders" who worked directly in the realm of agricultural communication (whether as farmers, advocates, ag educators, etc.) for an "Innovative Agricultural Communication Workshop". We created a curriculum for a 1.5-day workshop in partnership with FrameWorks Institute and facilitation and design consultant Create|Act (working within Red Tomato). The workshops were held in Newport, Oregon and Pacific Grove, California in July 2023.
The WSARE project team was very dedicated to recruiting appropriate participants for the July 2023 workshops. Workshop participants had to meet at least two criteria: i) their work involved the agricultural sector; and ii) communication with the public was part of their work. We made use of our own professionals networks, our Advisory Committee, other Farming and Food Narrative Project partners, and media outlets (Capital Press and Oregon Seed Growers Newsletter) to target potential workshop participants. Outreach was focused in Oregon and California because that is where the workshops were to be held, but it was not limited to only two states. We decided on a capacity of 20-25 people for each workshop, and wanted to cover meals and one-night stay for workshop participants. We anticipated a large interest in the workshops; and therefore we started with having potential participants fill out an application. The application included three questions upon which we scored the different applicants: i) How would you describe your role in the agricultural sector? (I.e. farmer, advocate, trade association, etc.); ii) What is the focus of your communication work and who is your audience?; and iii) Why are you interested in this workshop? What are you hoping to learn?
We received 68 applications in total and accepted 26 participants to each of the workshop locations. Once accepted, the participants filled out a registration form in which we collected additional information about their interests in Agricultural Communication and Reframing, to help structure the workshops. In the end, we ended up with 24 workshop participants in each location.
The workshop objectives were to: i) Create an understanding of framing; ii) Build the capacity to identify re-framing opportunities; iii) Develop participants ability to use core framing strategies; and iv) Build connection and relationships across a community of farming advocates. Participants brought their own communication materials to work on, and shared their most pressing communication challenges. The workshops included a series of presentations by Jess Moyer (FrameWorks), Clare Sullivan (OSU), and Kelsey Gosch and Michael Rozyne (Red Tomato); and individual and group activities. Participants were challenged to apply the framing recommendations they learned directly at the workshop to their own work and that of other workshop participants. At the end of the workshop, participants provided feedback via an evaluation, which included their opinion on "next steps" for the project.
Reframing Practice Sessions (monthly)
Most participants were interested in continuing the learning about Reframing within a community of practice. In response to the interest to stay connected, we launched monthly Reframing Practice Sessions in October 2023. The Practice Sessions were virtual, 1-hour long meetings that were held in a case clinic format. One communicator shared a particular communication piece or initiative they were working on, in which they were running into a challenge and were looking for some feedback. They then turned off their video and listened while the rest of the group discussed approaches to reframing the piece to help connect with the intended audience. Monthly sessions had an attendance of 10-20 participants (not including project team). We held 13 session in total from fall 2023 through fall 2024.
Final Workshop
In consultation with eight of the core 'Reframing Practice Session' participants, we planned a final virtual event to bring the arc of the WSARE-funded Reframing Farming Workshops and Reframing Practice Sessions to an end. The 3-hour virtual workshop was open to anyone who attended the summer 2023 workshops, the monthly Reframing Practice Sessions, or worked with an organization whose members were involved in the reframing trainings.
The workshop objectives were:
- To reflect on how framing as a strategy has shifted how people do their work (provide case studies of applying framing as a strategy; building the picture of what framing application looks like in practice)
- To provide resources - where to access information as participants continue to do their work
- To share what work/initiatives people will take going forward
The 3-hour virtual event, titled "Reframing Communications: Reflecting on our work and celebrating our progress," was held on November 20th, 2024 with 26 attendees and the 4 workshop organizers. The workshop included a review of content from the original reframing workshops, a reflection on how attendees have utilized reframing over the last year and a half, and a presentation of 3 case studies on how reframing strategies have been deployed and their impact. The case study presentations were delivered by (i) the Alliance on Food and Farming, (ii) Red Tomato, and (iii) a small group of the cohort participants who previously shared during Reframing Practice Sessions.
New resources from FrameWorks--the communications toolkit and a series of video modules--were also made available to the cohort after the final workshop and are located on the project website.
Objective 4 (Education): Disseminate research results and communication tools to a diverse audience of farming and food practitioners--growers, university professionals and organizational communicators in NGOs, government agencies, and businesses-- in the western region during 2023-2024, via a mix of on-line, hard copy, and in-person strategies, trainings, and events.
As results and tools were created (Objective 1 & 2), they were shared via newsletter updates, posted to the project website, and presented at various events.
Webinar: We presented an introductory webinar (90 minutes in length) to a diverse and mostly Western audience of farm and food professionals on April 30, 2021. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjGPOPCd9Gcsz6jARmQvBQSoB86IK5Y7/view?usp=sharing)
Presentation: A virtual presentation was given to the National IPM Coordinating Committee on October 19, 2021 on the Farming and Food Narrative Project, including future plans for the WSARE project.
Webinar: We presented an introductory webinar on the Farming and Food Narrative Project, the Northeast growing realities and communication challenges that spurred on the creation of the Project, and the FrameWorks findings to date on January 5, 2022 through the Southern IPM Center. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBMAWtu-HRA)
Webpage creation: The WSARE Project webpage was created in 2023 and is now hosted on the Farming and Food Narrative Project website: https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/western-sare
Final Report: The final report for the larger project was published December 2022, "Reframing Farming: Strategies for expanding thinking about agriculture" (https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/_files/ugd/e1dfa0_698e8f35c82b4adeb0b69401001e60d6.pdf). The report was shared with the FFNP listserve and is posted on the FFNP website.
Promotional Video: A short video was created in April 2023 to introduce the Farming and Food Narrative Project and explain "why sustainable agriculture needs framing" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM0hJkfGv8o). The video is posted on the FFNP YouTube channel and webpage.
Webinar: The WSARE project team delivered an introductory webinar to the workshop attendees prior to the workshops on June 3rd, 2023. The purpose of this workshop was to familiarize attendees with the concept of framing and why it matters so that the focus of the workshop would be the application ofr the FrameWorks reframing strategies. The webinar recording can be found on the project's website and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihwF4jKk5S0).
Worksheets: This set of worksheets, also called "quick start" guides, was developed by FrameWorks Institute for use at the Innovative Agricultural Communications Workshops in Newport, Oregon and Pacific Grove, California. Worksheets were created to aid communicators in the application of FFNP recommended framing strategies to public-facing messages, either during or after the writing stage. These tools are meant to be applied and overlayed together in communication pieces--by deploying multiple framing strategies in concert, communicators strengthen the publics understanding of the complexity of farming. The worksheets are housed on the WSARE Project's website: https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/western-sare.
Toolkit: FrameWorks developed the final "Reframing Farming: A Communications Toolkit." This toolkit draws from original FrameWorks research on framing strategies that are effective in building public understanding of crop farming in the U.S. It is intended for agricultural professionals who focus on crop farming practices and the ways in which farming connects to other social issues. The list of tools includes:
- What Are We Framing?
- Quick Start Guide to Reframing Farming Frames to Avoid
- Talking Points
- Keeping Conversations on Track “Tightrope”
- Structuring Science-Rich Stories
- Talking About Pesticides
- Talking About Inequities
- Depicting the Diversity of Farming Sample Letter to the Editor
- Sample Social Media Posts
- Pitching Journalists
- Related Resources
The toolkit is housed on the Farming and Food Narrative Project's website on the resource tab: https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/resources.
Video Modules: FrameWorks developed a set of videos to help guide communicators through the process of framing. Researcher Julie Sweetland presents in the following modules, all grounded in existing the FFNP research:
- Episode 1: Why Farming Needs Framing (15 minutes)
- Episode 2: Finding New Frames for Farming (25 minutes)
- Episode 3: A Map of Mental Models (21 minutes)
- Episode 4: Watch Out For Traps (15 minutes)
- Episode 5 | Recommendation 1: Start with farming, not food.
- Episode 6 | Recommendation 2: Make the story about interconnection. (9
minutes) - Episode 7 | Recommendation 3: Tell science-rich stories. (12 minutes)
- Episode 8 | Recommendation 4: Talk about the tightrope that farms must
cross. (9min) - Episode 9 | Recommendation 5: Connect farming and communities. (6
minutes) - Episode 10 | Recommendation 6: Speak directly to inequities. (8 minutes)
These modules are housed on the Farming and Food Narrative Project's website on the resource tab: https://www.farmingandfoodnarrative.org/resources.
Presentation: an hour-long in-person presentation was delivered at the 2024 Annual EcoCertified Grower meeting in Hudson Valley, NY on Wednesday February 28. The presentation was delivered to a network of 40 apple and peach growers, extension workers, scientists, and nonprofits on what framing is, why it matters, and how to use the 6 reframing strategies to better connect with eaters.
Presentation: a presentation was delivered at the 2024 GreenWave Kelp Farmers Convention in Kodiak, Alaska, on Saturday, May 18. The presentation, “Reframing Farming: Effective Communications for a Public Audience”, was delivered to 23 Atlantic and Pacific coast small and mid-size kelp farmers + NGO advocates and scientists.
Presentation: a 45-minute presentation was delivered at the 2024 Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in June, 2024. The presentation was titled, "Using Social Science to Communicate More Effectively: Research, Public Understanding of Farming, and Reframing Your Messages", and was presented by Jim Farrar (UC IPM and project advisor). The group was communication professionals at universities, and especially in colleges of agriculture. (60 attendees) ACE 2024 Farrar
Presentation: a 30-minute presentation to the western state IPM coordinators (IPM program academics from western state land-grant universities) at the WERA 1017 meeting on September 8, 2023 in Homer, Alaska. WERA 1017 is the “Coordination of Integrated Pest Management Research and Extension/Educational Programs for the Western States and Pacific Basin Territories” project. The presentation was titled, “Talking with the Public about Pests and Pesticides”, and was presented by Jim Farrar (UC IPM and project advisor). (25 attendees)
Presentation: following the WERA 1017 presentation, the Alaska IPM coordinator requested that Jim Farrar present at the Alaska Certified Pesticide Applicator meeting. On March 14, 2024, Jim presented “Talking with the Public about Pests and Pesticides” to 51 participants at the Alaska Pesticide Applicator meeting.
Objective 3:
In-Person Workshops
At the close of the July 2023 workshops, the project team conducted a survey to understand the impact of the workshop. Of the 40 workshop attendees who returned the survey,
- 38 reported the event "Improved my awareness of the topics covered" (1 reported not applicable)
- 40 reported the event "Provided new knowledge "
- 37 reported the event "Provided new skills"
- 28 reported the event "Modified my opinions and/or attitudes" (3 reported not applicable)
- 39 reported that they were going to use some aspect of this project in their work going forward.
The project team also conducted a pre- and post-survey to understand how, on a scale of 1-10, the workshop impacted attendees understanding of framing, their capacity to identify re-framing opportunities, their ability to use core framing strategies, and their connection to other agricultural stakeholders around communication/messaging. Attendees reported increases in all areas across the board:
| Workshop Objectives | Pre-workshop rating (ave.) | Post-workshop rating (ave.) | Difference (ave.) |
| Create a better understanding of framing | 5.5 | 8.1 | 2.6 |
| Build the capacity to identify re-framing opportunities | 4.6 | 7.9 | 3.3 |
| Develop the ability to use core framing strategies | 4.4 | 7.8 | 3.4 |
| Build connection to other agricultural stakeholders around communication/messaging | 5.9 | 7.5 | 1.7 |
Participants by and large left positive feedback on the experience:
- "Great experience though it was hard work! I really appreciated so many things: the challenge of understanding how to identify and navigate around cultural models, and meeting/hearing from other agricultural professionals, learning new perspectives."
- "It was pleasantly intense. On-the-spot thinking and crafting and thinking not a place I'm used to operating in, but feel the format, activities, etc. encouraged development of those skills."
- "The workshop about communications helped me become a better, clearer, more thoughtful communicator!"
- "SO grateful to all for choosing "ag" as the next big topic that needs reframing."
- "Great job selecting participants, good food, time of event, just right."
Reframing Practice Sessions
Since the summer 2023 workshops, the project team held monthly Reframing Practice Sessions (RPCs) through the project's close in which attendees got to build their "reframing" muscle. A survey was deployed in February 2024 to understand if attendees were seeing value in the meetings and how the project team could generate more value. Of the 13 respondents, 10 said yes, the were finding value in the monthly sessions (2 said undecided, 1 didn't answer). For how respondents could get more value, answers included:
- "I like the idea of follow up on how projects are going, folks who have presented can come back a few months later and update on how it's going, lessons learned, how different strategies worked. Real examples of the implementation of strategies is helpful for the rest of us to put them into action."
- "Some way to check back with participants who shared previously; what did they do with the feedback they got?"
- "Each session employs new and different yet tried and true techniques. I trust the team to keep them coming!"
The following reflection from a Reframing Practice Session participant after they shared at a monthly practice session really highlights the impact of our regular follow-up meetings:
"I don’t know what you were hoping in terms of the numbers or types of people you would reach and if you are pleased with how it has turned out? I can say that for this one person it has been life-changing. I am still on a learning curve with learning to use my passion along with some restraint in order to be more effective. Your help since July along with the feedback from people this morning has had a real impact."
Final Workshop
Participants of the final virtual workshop were asked to fill out a survey at the end of the meeting using a tool that had the same questions from the 2023 in-person workshop evaluation. The intention was so see how the reframing sessions supported the cohort in retaining information from the workshop and how it grew or maintained social networks and relationships. There were 26 people in attendance (not including organizers), of which 10 people completed the evaluation. Respondents were asked how, on a scale of 1-10, the workshop impacted attendees understanding of framing, their capacity to identify re-framing opportunities, their ability to use core framing strategies, and their connection to other agricultural stakeholders around communication/messaging. Below are the results from the survey that concluded the Reframing Farming project with the cohort:
| Follow-up on Workshop Objectives | Post-workshop ratings (ave.) collected 7/23 |
Final Event Rating (ave.) collected 11/24 |
Difference |
| How much do you see reframing as an important part of your work going forward? | -- | 7.8 | -- |
| How would you rate your understanding of framing? | 8.1 | 7.7 | -0.4 |
| How would you rate your capacity to identify re-framing opportunities? | 7.9 | 7.7 | -0.2 |
| How would you rate your ability to use core framing strategies? | 7.8 | 7.7 | -0.1 |
| How would you rate your connection to other agricultural stakeholders around communication/messaging? | 7.5 | 7.8 | 0.3 |
While the number of respondents were fewer than the participants in the workshop, the retention of workshop content and network connection stayed relatively the same, with the largest difference in their understanding of framing. Additional reflections included:
- "I really like the concepts and the fact they are research based. That makes me want to work harder to utilize it."
- "It's informed some of my writing but hasn't been front and center. Remembering the tightrope metaphor has been particularly helpful."
- "Reframing will be an important 'sounding board' going forward, a way to assess if what I'm doing is working. Whenever a message isn't getting through, I can go back to the strategies and pivot."
- "I used [reframing strategies/reframing as a strategy] on everything I wrote. Probably more difficult when speaking."
- "All the strategies and approaches are key to excellent storytelling, also critical reflection. While not always able to implement or incorporate all, they help build richer, more inclusive narratives -- or at least make you think about steps to accomplish them"
Final feedback on the whole project included:
- "Thank you for this project! It really stretched my brain and gave me a lot of ideas about how we can improve our ag communications!"
- "As a farmer, I really appreciated this. We want to tell our story, but it is so important to understand that how we tell that story will impact our effectiveness. There is no point in just putting a bunch of "stuff" out there, if it will not matter to anyone. So thank you!"
- "I learned a lot and have rerouted my ag communications to the public, which feels more effective, although that is hard to measure. I felt support from the team throughout the whole grant and from the participants which has been important over the last year."
Objective 4 - Dissemination
Dissemination of project results and concepts through virtual and in-person presentations occurred throughout the life of the project. The received critical feedback from our first introductory webinar (April 30, 2021) that really encouraged us we were on the right track. The feedback we received encouraged us that not only is this research timely, but it is also valuable, and attendees expressed interest in learning more and utilizing findings in their day-to-day work: “Overall, the summary points as to what the gaps in thinking on farming were an eye-opener for me,” “the presentation and tips on good messaging was incredibly helpful - already putting into action!” Most importantly, all feedback indicated that participants are sharing the reports and research findings with others in their organization or business, and with others in the field.
After the summer 2023 in-person workshops, the project team received numerous requests for follow-up presentations or trainings. While we do not have specific feedback results from the presentations that were given, the continued request for presentations is a result in itself that shows the impact of our research and trainings. Michael Rozyne was invited to Alaska to present at the Kelp Farmers Convention, and our project team was invited to present for agricultural communicators at the 2024 Association for Communication Excellence conference (ACE). Following Jim Farrar's (project advisor) presentation to IPM coordinators at the annual WERA 1017 event in 2023, he was invited to present on the same topic at the Alaska Certified Pesticide Applicator meeting in 2024.
Education and Outreach Outcomes
Take responsibility for the full journey through to practice: From our education and outreach activities we learned that an effective process to "improve the lives of people by providing research-based information and educational programs," (this is the mission of the Cooperative Extension System) involves more than having quality information and a channel for reaching an audience. If the outcome we want involves a behavior change, we have to take responsibility for the full journey from research to message crafting to dissemination to practice. Communication starts with framing at the outset to gain audience members' true attention, and avoid triggering their minds to shutdown. Knowing audience members' mental models about farming and the specific content helps with initial framing. The audience then needs some way to make sense of the information by connecting it to, and understanding it within, the context of their own farm, their own life. This can be accomplished through stories and case studies of farms and people who have applied the research results, and their experience, both positive and negative. The learning outcome is fully achieved when audience members put recommendations into practice, and share their results with others.
Capacity built among individual participants. Roughly a third of the 50 participants in our two summer workshops in Oregon and California also participated in the monthly practice sessions during Fall 2023-Fall 2024. It was illuminating to watch their confidence and skillset escalate from session to session as participants practiced framing in their own work. The critical review conversations that would follow one person's presentation of their practice piece helped everyone understand why a particular framing effort succeeded or failed to get through to the audience, and how the presenter could experiment with other approaches in their next effort.
Capacity built at Red Tomato. In addition to building capacity in the individual participants in the project's workshops, one major Education and Outreach Outcome of this project has been to build the capacity of Red Tomato's Farming and Food Narrative Project to continue training and sharing the learning from this project with agricultural communicators nationwide. On March 5, Red Tomato will conduct a 3-hour seminar at the 11th International IPM Symposium in San Diego, CA. On April 29-30, in Des Moines, Iowa, Red Tomato will conduct a 1-1/2 day seminar that is co-sponsored by North Central SARE, North Central IPM Center, and Practical Farmers of Iowa. All the outputs and tools of this project will be useful and adaptable to a variety of audiences.
Another major outcome has been to build the capacity of the Red Tomato communications, marketing, and sales staff to do more effective communications on behalf of our network of 40 fruit and vegetable growers, both at a national level for our EcoCertified tree fruit growers, and at a regional level for our vegetable growers. For example, we now offer 30-minute trainings, free, to retail produce staff on "How to Talk Eco Plain and Simple." And we offer similar training for orchard employees who meet their customers in a Pick-Your-Own setting, or in a farmstand or farmer's market. We structure these trainings around the 3 common questions that people seem to always ask first: What's Eco mean?; Is it organic?; and Do they spray?
Impact on stakeholders' understanding. Stakeholders in agricultural sustainability--farmers, agricultural scientists, and agricultural communicators--tend to be focused on fixing problems associated with farming practices, in fields such as soil health, crop health, pest management, pollinator protection, water conservation, climate resilience, etc. Their expertise and research is first and foremost in the life sciences, and sometimes economics.
Stakeholders involved in the Farming & Food Narrative Project during its 9-year span 2016-2024 (the last 4 of which included the WSARE project), signed on for a transdisciplinary project in which social scientists were researching and leading, and agricultural scientists and farmers were collaborating, and providing valuable context and experience. The premise was (and is) that informed policy-makers, and an informed public are essential ingredients in an effort to build a sustainable food system.
The lion's share of participants who were drawn to our project joined with a general sense, a gut feeling, that (i) the public understands little about farming and sustainability, (ii) that some aspects of agriculture and the food industry have an image problem, and that (iii) we need help from social scientists and those with expertise in communications in order to advance the cause of sustainable agriculture. Participants in our SARE project, through learning, reflection, and practice, were able to deepen their understanding of the power of effective framing and communications. They learned the particulars of what average Americans think and know about farms and farming and sustainability (their dominant mental models); they learned why some messages fail and confuse and shutdown an audience; they learned specific ways to frame messages more likely to engage an audience, and how to connect the heart of their communications into those frames; and they learned the value of the "soft" social sciences in building a sustainable agriculture.
- Communication/reframing tools and strategies
Communication/reframing tools and strategies