Agricultural News
NCBA's Daren Williams Says MBA Program is All About Creating Grassroots Promotion for Beef
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:48:56 CDT
In an effort to better educate consumers, members of the beef community are being trained to share positive - and accurate - facts about their industry. Daren Williams, senior executive director of communications for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says the Masters of Beef Advocacy program is actually modeled after a political campaign strategy.
"I got my career start working on Sen. Bob Dole's 1988 presidential campaign," he says. "We (NCBA) kind of stole this idea of building a grassroots network - state by state, county by county - where we would have advocates on the ground well-equipped to discuss any of the issues with their neighbors or the media."
Supported by the National Beef Checkoff, the MBA is a set of online courses created to empower producers to engage consumers about production practices, food safety and dietary guidelines.
Graduates of the MBA program are then encouraged to connect with consumers across the country via social media. The variety of social media platforms available today - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blogs - makes it possible for this growing network of more than 8,000 advocates to effectively communicate with the public and respond when issues arise.
Williams says Oklahoma is leading the nation in the number of MBA graduates thanks to strong partnerships with the Oklahoma Beef Council and the Oklahoma FFA Association, which helped pilot a classroom edition of the MBA program that is now offered to students nationwide.
"We've got to change the tenor of the conversation to how we are going to work together to meet the challenge to feed a growing world population with high quality food people can afford," he says. "There's huge potential to get all of those young agriculturalists equipped to engage in this conversation."
Interested in earning your MBA? Visit the Masters of Beef Advocacy website to learn more.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Daren Williams during his recent trip to Oklahoma City. Hear more about the NCBA's Masters of Beef Advocacy program during the latest Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
Williams will also join Hays for the weekly In the Field segment on KWTV News9 in the Oklahoma City area on Saturday morning at 6:40 a.m.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
