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#realpigfarming – Thomas Titus: your farm, your story

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Education Lifestyle Showpig News

To celebrate National Pork Month, fondly known as PORKtober, the Showpig.com team is catching up with some “agvocates” to learn how we can all better represent the swine industry. This week we have tips from Thomas Titus of Elkhart, Illinois. Thomas operates Tri Pork Inc as well as a purebred showpig operation, RBC Chesters. He is former Face of Farming and Ranching for the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance as well as a #realpigfarming advocate for the National Pork Board giving tips on how to best build impactful consumer relationships.

So there I was in a back seat of a Yellow Cab in New York City on the way to a salon dinner to talk about how we care for our animals and land. However, the important conversation was not with the dieticians, chefs or food influencers, it was with Shishko, the NYC cab driver who did not know a farmer, but cared about where his food comes from and was looking for more than an answer from Google. Consumers like Shishko, are not looking for a professor or scientist, they are looking for someone just like you who. Someone who has an undeniable passion for animal care. No matter your background, upbringing or exposure to agriculture, we  all have a common bond to each and every person we encounter. WE ALL LOVE FOOD, and in the spirit of Porktober here are 4 tips to consider when taking that scary dive into food conversations!

  1. IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE: When it deals with food, it is not hard to find a common bond with anyone you meet whether you are on a plane, in a grocery store, at a ball game, or in my case, the back of a NYC cab. These conversations can literally happen anywhere and sometimes it means stepping outside of that comfort zone and as someone is looking over a package of Hormone Free pork (hint *all pork is raised without the use of hormones for growing pigs*) stepping in and talking about how your raise your pigs, and that all pork is raised hormone free.

  2. PICK YOUR SANDBOX: A picture may not be worth a thousand words online, but it sure could be worth 1000 likes or shares! Pictures of students with their projects are extremely impactful when telling your story, and since the advent of social media, the ability to connect with food lovers across the globe has made having conversations about how we grow and raise food much easier. If social media is not your thing, a good old face-to-face conversation or inviting a school, civic organization or your local health professional out to the farm is EXTREMELY effective.

  3. BE YOURSELF: This sounds pretty simple, but it really can be rather scary when one may think they have little of a common bond with the average millennial consumer. In reality, the LARGE majority of non-ag consumers are interested in the mundane tasks that we do each and every day to care for our animals, the types of barns we use, what the pigs eat, how many babies they have in a litter, etc. It’s simple stuff. One unique feed additive we use on our farm contains essential oils, chili powders, oregano along with other organically derived ingredients, and it is always a hit when talking about our pig diets.

  4. YOUR FARM YOUR STORY: There is not one person that is able to better tell your story than you. You do not have to be a full-time farmer, raise thousands of pigs or farm thousands of acres to be an expert about someone else’s production practices. When in conversation, you are the expert. You know the most about how you care for your animals, and your passion for why you do what you do will shine!

As we are still in the early stages of filling the barn for the upcoming spring show season, if you keep these simple steps in mind, the next time you are in line at a major for a pork sandwich and you hear a question about how pigs are cared for do not hesitate to step up to the plate and share your #realpigfarming story!