Observation Mode: A Few Thoughts on the Second Weekly #Agchat

As many of you know, there's a weekly discussion on Twitter about all things ag. The conversation, #agchat, occurs every Tuesday evening and the two hours one spends there are alternately fascinating and dizzying (imagine Facebook status updates occurring at the rate of about one new update a second). If you're not currently participating, our previous post explains how to join the conversation next Tuesday evening.

The purpose of this post, however, is to share a few observations about what occurred last night. While several of our associates participated (@MarksKiosk, @CaseyMars20 and @BrittSU), I decided to keep our @FieldAssignment account in observation mode, affording me time to form an overall impression that can best be summarized in three words:

• Pride From producers and growers to industry professionals there was an overall sense that agriculture, with all its challenges and struggles, was exactly what they wanted to be doing (and should be doing) with their lives. One tweeter managed to squeeze in a few comments between chores; another referenced 17-hour days.
• Passion As you might expect, opinions were all over the map, but most of the points themselves were articulated clearly and succinctly (the latter would, of course, be due to the 140-character limit that Twitter imposes on each tweet).
• Transparency There was an often-expressed wish among those tweeting for people in the city to see and experience life in the country.

We applaud the efforts of those using social media to let the world see this pride and passion. See you at #agchat next week.

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