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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
IPM Enhancement Grants |
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Project Title:
The Farming and Food Narrative Project - Southern Region |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: NC Lead Organization: NC State University |
| Undesignated Funding: $29,981 |
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Start Date: Mar-01-2019 End Date: Feb-28-2020 |
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Summary:
The general public does not have a good understanding of farming practices or the benefits of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). In fact, the national conversation about farming practices in relation to food—in the media, on campuses, in supermarkets, between growers and customers, among advocates, policymakers, and the public—is stuck. It is reduced to oversimplified versions of good versus bad, organic versus conventional, and quickly becomes polarized. Different sides each show up with experts in tow and we get dueling science. Methods that are hard to explain, such as IPM, are left out, even though they’ve been proven effective.
Scientists, environmentalists, and farmers have worked hard to educate the public about IPM for fifty years. However, they often make facts and technical language the center of their story, and these messages rarely get through. Humans are “fast and frugal thinkers” whose brains resist reason. When presented with facts that don’t fit existing understandings, the mind is apt to stick with prior beliefs, rather than going to the trouble of reorganizing itself. The fact goes, and the pre-existing assumption stays. There is a need to reframe the narrative about sustainable farming systems so that it includes IPM as a natural and necessary component. A unified, simple, effective narrative will educate the general public and policymakers on the value and need for public funding of IPM research and extension. In The Farming & Food Narrative Project—Southern Region, we develop a more effective approach to talking to the public about farming and IPM. The project uses Strategic Frame Analysis®, an approach pioneered by the FrameWorks Institute. Since 1999, this proven method has been applied to numerous scientific topics, such as early brain development and marine conservation, with notable effects on public understanding. Strategic Frame Analysis begins by analyzing public thinking, mapping the mental models the public uses to make sense of an issue. Then, researchers design and test “reframes”—messaging elements such as metaphors—for their ability to lessen misconceptions and orient people toward evidence. These tools are tested with individuals, with groups, and with a nationally representative sample. This project is the strategic marriage of a national research effort Farming & Food Narrative Project (FFNP) and a specific region (Southern Region). The national approach is necessary to accomplish and fund the broad objectives of a 5-year communications research agenda. The active participation of scientists, farmers, and farm/food organizations from the southern region is necessary to ensure that the project’s outputs—new narrative elements; tools for training and implementation; and a plan for dissemination—are useful and applicable to a wide variety of farms, crops, farmers, scientists and citizens in all states of the southern region. Objectives: 1. Objectives under Strategic Framing Research 1a. Output: Presentation of research results to date—Expert Perspective; Cultural Models; Map the Gaps Report—to the WG and to potential Comm. Partners via meetings and webinars. 1a. Outcome: WG members and candidate Comm. Partners understand the research methodology, the initial results, are able to think about their own communications challenges through the lens of framing and cognition science, and are better prepared to help shape the project plan and dissemination strategy. 1b. Output: Completion of a Media & Field Frame Analysis analyzing the effects of how mass media, social media, advocacy groups, and agricultural scientists communicate about farming practices. 1b. Outcome: Working Group members understand the dominant frames communicated by the media and the field; see how they overlap or differ, and how they shape the Cultural Models held by the U.S. public; and imagine what it means for the project dissemination strategy. 1c. Output: Initiation of a Finding the Frame Study to develop and test candidate reframes (metaphors, examples, etc.) for communicating more effectively about farming. 1c. Outcome: Overall project focus switches from analysis of current realities to solution generation (new frames) and testing; Working Group focus pivots to dissemination in anticipation of final research results. 2. Objectives under Working Group Activity 2a. Output: Monthly Core Team phone meetings. 2a. Outcome: The Core Team reviews research reports, stays abreast of all project activity, has influence over decisions, and actively recruits Comm. Partners. 2b. Output: Monthly IPM Voice Board phone meetings. 2b. Outcome: Board members review research reports, stay abreast of all project activity, advise project direction, and play a role in naming and recruiting communication partners. 2c. Output: Identify, invite, recruit participation of diverse potential Comm Partners from the Southern region; diverse by profession, crop, and race. 2c. Outcome: New Communication Partners representing a broad scope of stakeholders in the Southern Region agree to initial participation; some choose to become engaged with, and increase their commitment to project activities and goals. 2d. Output: 2d. Outreach and orientation webinar(s) for potential Southern Region Communication Partners. 2d. Outcome: Some Southern region Comm. Partners become engaged with the project purpose and its outputs; participate in discussions and make a commitment to ongoing participation in Working Group. 2e. Output: In-person national meeting in Wash. D.C. Winter 2020 and/or southern regional meeting in 2019/20. 2e. Outcome: Deeper personal connections and trust among participants leading to a higher quality planning process, and an assertion of Southern priorities in the project’s ongoing work. |
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