Farmers Feed US Surpasses One Million Registrations

Kansas City, MO. (Sept. 27, 2010) – A mere 14 months after the initial program launch in July of 2009, Farmers Feed US, which offers consumers the opportunity to engage with the farmers who produce their food, has surpassed more than one million consumer registrations. That’s more than one million times that a consumer has engaged with a farmer through short online videos, and learned something about how they produce safe, nutritious, and affordable food.

Those one million registrations have been driven by consumers in the eight states that have hosted Farmers Feed US “free groceries for a year*” sweepstakes to-date. In addition to this initial program launch sweepstakes, commodity groups in three of those states, Missouri, Iowa, and Ohio, have coordinated a second consumer-focused sweepstakes, offering another round of promotion and public exposure.

And across those eight states, a breadth of agriculture has been showcased. In fact, 14 different commodity groups, and 60 different farmers have been featured, presenting many different production methods and farm sizes.

“Consumers are taking a greater interest in how their food is produced. The Farmers Feed US sweepstakes is a great opportunity for agricultural groups to offer that information, while increasing consumer trust in the food system, in a format that is unique and engaging,” said Terry Fleck, executive director of the Center for Food Integrity.

In addition to showing great interest in the sweepstakes, consumers have also offered favorable impressions of the site and the farmers that are featured on it. In fact, based on the responses of 3,016 consumers who registered and then were asked to respond to a brief survey, their perception of those farmers and agriculture has actually been enhanced by the information offered on the site. Here is their feedback to the four questions asked of them:

1. How informed were you about agriculture in [your state] prior to visiting FarmersFeedUS.org?

7.4 percent “not at all informed”

11.5 percent “not informed”

44.2 percent “somewhat informed”

21.2 percent “somewhat well informed”

15.8 percent “well informed”

2. I found the information about agriculture in [my state] on this site:

92.3 percent found the site to be “very informative” (48.9 percent) or “somewhat informative” (43.4 percent).

3. I found the farmers featured on this site to be approachable, knowledgeable and the kind of people I want producing my food.

A very strong 95.7 percent either “strongly agree” (80.4 percent) or “somewhat agree” (15.2 percent) with this statement.

4. The information on this site enhanced my perception of agriculture and farmers in [my state].

Finally, acknowledging that their perception of agriculture in the state improved following a visit to the site, 92.9 percent either “strongly agree” (65.6 percent) or “somewhat agree” (27.3 percent) with this statement.

Source: The Center for Food Integrity