Podcast Episode 126: Modern Farming, Skepticism & Storytelling– Janice Person

Food and Farming: Difficult Conversations & Respectful Dialogues Online and Offline

Oftentimes we think we need to be heard more than we need to listen.”

Food brings people together for everything from celebrations to mourning – and feeds the soul for meaningful connection. It can help harness great power in our communities, but in today’s world we are too often letting dietary differences shift us into polarized positions.

Food is far too important to let buzzwords lead the conversation.And while misinformation may be unintentional, disinformation is deliberate and manipulative. In order to engage in more productive conversations, we need to 1) learn to listen better in order to find common ground, 2) employ storytelling to share important information and create a sense of wonder, and 3) be truly respectful of others’ thoughts and feelings.

Janice Person

I’ve gained a reputation for being able to hear people out and find common ground even when they seem to really disagree with me. And that’s critical in today’s online world where people may not come straight out and say some of the things that are going on. Better to listen more and assume less.”

Janice Person is a city girl from Memphis who had the chance to get to know agriculture in college and has never looked back. Her journey in agriculture has included working at farm magazines, a PR company, a small seed business and Monsanto Company, now Bayer AG. She is a member of the company’s stakeholder engagement team doing outreach online connecting farmers and thegeneral public to increase understanding of who the food on their plates was grown. Janice is one of those people who frequently shares her love of food on social media across channels as JPlovesCOTTON. She he also shares photos of the people who have helped grow it. She has two blogs which include her passion for food and farm — JPlovesLIFE.com and HundredPercentCotton.com. She has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Phillips University in Enid, OK and a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Memphis. St. Louis is home now and Janice loves traveling and the new food experiences it opens up.

When I listen to people talk about food, it’s really easy to want to react. Instead, I find that asking people three questions to seek to understand their position allows us to have a much more productive conversation.”

Resources:

Janice: Website| Blog | Twitter | Instagram| LinkedIn

Janice’s LinkedIn post about primary sources on farming

Ag Book Club Website | Twitter| #AgBookClub

Bayer Crop Science: Website | Twitter

Science Needs Story – Randy Olson: Books | Website

What the Farm podcast

Shark Farmer podcast

Future of Ag podcast

Healthy Under Pressure podcast with Amber Pankonin

Related Episodes:

Communicating Science in a Modern Media Environment – Sound Bites Podcast #100 with Dietram Scheufele

Critical Thinking & Behavior Change – Sound Bites Podcast #108 with Dr. Jason Riis

Digging Into Soil Health, Weed Control & Glyphosate – Sound Bites Podcast #98 with Jennie Schmidt

Get Melissa’s Sound Science Toolkit here!

Partnership with AADE

Sound Bites is partnering with the American Association of Diabetes Educators! Stay tuned for updates on the podcast, blog and newsletter!

• AADE released new pediatric guidance and resources for diabetes care for parents and caregivers of children/adolescents with diabetes. Learn more at DiabetesEducator.org/pediatric and DiabetesEducator.org/ChildrenWithDiabetes
• Find out how population health can support the role of the diabetes care team in a ‘new perspectives on practice’ paper from AADE. Access this and other resources at DiabetesEducator.org/PopulationHealth.

Music by Dave Birk

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