By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH

Indiana Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has joined with 13 other states in CommonGround, a program designed to give farm women the opportunity to talk to the food-buying public about farming and how their food is grown.

CommonGround started early last year in five pilot states, including Indiana, Iowa and Kentucky. More recently the program has been offered in nine additional states, including Ohio. The program was developed nationally by the United Soybean Board and the National Corn Growers Assoc.

In Ohio, it’s coordinated by the Ohio Soybean Council (OSC) and the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Assoc. An Ohio farmer, one of three spokeswomen for CommonGround in the state, believes the program can lead to more understanding and trust between farmers and consumers.

“When people are unaware of something, they’re almost afraid of it,” said Rachel Heimerl, of Licking County. “They put up this defense and attack it. It’s important to connect with the public so people are trusting of farmers. It’s important for them to see that farmers are united and that we’re doing our best for consumers.

“If people lose trust in the American farmer, they might have a tendency to want to bring in products from out of the country. They’re not going to get as good a product.”

In each state, the spokeswomen are volunteers. The coordinating organizations don’t tell them what to say, said Jennifer R. Coleman, communications director for OSC.

“We provide a platform for these volunteers to go out and tell their stories,” she noted. “They represent various sizes and types of farms.”

Programming for 2012 is in the planning stages, Coleman said. A conference with other spokeswomen from across the country is scheduled for next month in South Carolina.

Heimerl is the office manager for her family’s farm. The family – her husband, his parents and his brothers – raises hogs, cattle, soybeans and corn. “My main goal is to connect consumers to farming because so many people are removed from the farm,” she explained.

“We’re also a large farming operation, and there are people who think we’re not really a family farm but a corporate company, which isn’t the case. I want to convey that we’re all still family farmers. I’m also a mother and consumer, just like them. I eat the products just like they do.”

The program is geared toward women because they tend to be the food buyers in a family and they worry about where that food comes from, Heimerl stated.

“It’s important that we explain why we do what we do as farmers,” she said. “We should explain why we keep hogs in the barns and why we don’t allow the public inside for safety and security. One reason we’ve had problems is farmers in the past have turned away and not said anything or explained why we do things.”

Gretchen Mossbarger, a CommonGround volunteer from Ross County, hopes to focus on food safety and general farm practices during her time as spokeswoman.

“Everyone wants the right information,” she noted. “All they need is someone to talk to and to listen to them. I’m not preaching on the corner. I’m just having conversations, just talking about their concerns.”

Mossbarger, the third generation to work on her family farm, owns and operates a soybean and wheat seed production farm.

“Farmers are such a small percentage of the public,” she said. “It’s important to explain agriculture to the public because if a law is up for a vote and the public doesn’t understand, they could vote in a way that hurts agriculture. It could cause prices to go up and that could hurt our industry.”

In preparing for presentations and in talking to the other spokeswomen, Mossbarger, who doesn’t raise animals, has learned much about animal practices, such as containment and the use of antibiotics.

“I’m learning there are many questions and concerns out there,” she said. “For example, people are concerned about the use of GMOs (genetically modified crops). It’s a scary term. I do raise GMOs on our farm. They’re a quicker way to get new varieties out in the marketplace.”

Improving the level of trust the public has in agricultural products is important to Kristin Reese, a CommonGround spokeswoman from Fairfield County. Reese and her husband raise sheep, meat chickens, laying hens, rabbits, alfalfa and grass hay. She is also a real estate agent and runs a catering company.

“We need to connect food with farmers,” she said. “We need to explain the way we do things on our farms. I think, honestly, that people just don’t know the truth. We have to work on consumer confidence and show them that we’re doing everything we can to make a safe, healthy product.

“If you can explain to people that keeping an animal clean and healthy, well-fed and in good condition is important to the farmer, you hope people will leave the conversation feeling secure,” she added. “We have to tell our stories so people will understand.”

Telling those stories is Reese’s primary goal in her role as spokeswoman.

“There is no script. It’s kind of risky to turn us loose,” she said, laughing. “But these are things affecting our livelihoods. When we see these things that could have a negative connotation on agriculture, we can speak up and say what we know to be true. When you love what you do, it’s very easy to tell the truth.”