After just two months of project launch, the Real Pork Trust Consortium (RPTC) team headed to the Leman Swine Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 17th. National Pork Board Chief Operating Officer, Jerry Flint, and the project director of the Real Pork Trust Consortium, Dr. Nick Gabler (Iowa State University) shared why the development of the RPTC was supported by the National Pork Board and where the team is headed in the next five years.
RPTC members from five universities including Dr. Alexa Lamm, Dr. Shuyang Qu, Dr. Fally Masambuka-Kanchewa, Dr. Michael Retalick, Dr. Katie Sanders, Dr. Derrick Coble, and Dr. Pedro Urriola brought their graduate students to engage with conference participants about the importance of communicating with diverse audiences about the science behind pork production and pork as a product.
Dr. Alexa Lamm presented to a room full of swine producers, veterinarians and pork communicators about the current state of agricultural communications. She also offered tips for increasing trust with diverse audiences using specific strategies including using audience-specific messages, meeting people on the platforms they use, and collaborating with trusted sources to deliver information
The RPTC researchers and their group of trained agricultural communication graduate students from the University of Georgia, Iowa State University and North Carolina State University conducted listening sessions with participants. Conversations covered the concerns consumers care about most when it comes to eating pork and pork production methods, how participants’ currently communicate with the public, and the biggest training needs of producers to be able to communicate more effectively. The data will be analyzed and used to inform future RPTC research and communication efforts . Stay tuned for the results!