The Farmer and the Uber

This week I am in Washington D.C. I am in our nation’s capital on business but there is no other place that fascinates me as much. Trust me there is no way I could live here but for three or four days I really enjoy this city and all the hub bub and hustle around it. This week was also spring break, so it was extra chaotic. On a side note, as a former youth development professional, I cannot imagine taking a group of kids to D.C. God Bless those who are brave enough.

As I was moving about the city one day I called an Uber. Uber has become my preferred method of travel in big cities. All I need to know is the name of the place I want to go, and the driver will take me there, charge it to my credit card I am on my way, relatively hassle free. It is a great system and I find the cars to be cleaner and the drivers to be friendlier.

For those of you who might not know, Uber is a company that has an app for your smart phone. They coordinate with private drivers to pickup riders and take them to their chosen destination. The drivers agree to have clean cars and Uber takes care of the payments. It is a simple, easy to use system and I really enjoy it.

Most Uber drivers are not full-time drivers but rather people who have full time jobs in another field. One of my favorite things to do is to ask my driver what they do for a living and often that leads to some interesting conversations. Two of my all-time favorites were the retired school maintenance director who was raising enough money to celebrate his fifty-year wedding anniversary in Las Vegas. Of course, there was also the psychiatrist who drove Uber because she liked to analyze her customers. I have always kind of wondered what she got from me. I probably don’t want to know.

My driver this day in D.C. was an event planner. He explained he liked to drive in the daytime because he didn’t have to deal with drunks and his work schedule allowed for it. We had a nice discussion about what he did and then he asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a farmer from Kansas. He pondered that for a second and responded with something I will never forget.

He said, “a farmer, well I like to eat, so I guess I am a fan of yours”. We laughed about it for a second and compared our pot bellies and mutual appreciation for food. Then we passed a McDonalds and he pointed to it and said, “there are a lot of other people who are your fans and just don’t know it.” His response kind of stunned me for a second. Very rarely do you come across someone who has no connection to ag, even remotely, who really get it.

I thanked him for his appreciation and told him that his recognition meant a lot to me. I think too often those of us in ag have this us against them mentality when it comes to our consumers. This random conversation proves something I have always suspected. Most of our customers, consumers, want to like us and still have respect for farmers and ranchers.

Too often it is the squeaky wheels that we hear, and it sometimes seems like the whole world does not understand what we do and is against our way of life. It seems like we are fighting an uphill battle and a negative public perception. While that might be true in some cases and we always need to be on guard and work to correct negative perceptions, we also need to understand that the public probably sees us in a positive light. The Uber driver I met was just one random person with absolutely no tie to agriculture in any way, except that he liked to eat and recognized where his food came from.

I am quite sure he had no idea how I did my job or how his food was grown. He didn’t seem to care, and I suspect he is more like most consumers. Those are the people we need to target, educate and make sure they understand what we do. The best thing is it is easy. He was quite happy to have a conversation with me, he trusted me instantly and believed what I had to tell him. Unfortunately, it was a short trip and I did not have much time to talk to him.

The bottom line is that we should understand that farmers and ranchers are seen favorably by most of our consumers and more importantly they want to trust us. While we need to continue to work to dispel the false information we also need to convey a positive message to the masses of people who are our supporters whether they know it or not and want to like us. Because in the end, if you ate today, you are a fan of farmers and ranchers.