MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS ADVOCACY THROUGH MEDIA RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA.
SOCIAL MEDIA Western Growers continues to leverage the power of social media to reach consumers with key messages in support of industry policy priorities. In 2022, the Communications Department developed and cross-promoted the following videos: Immigration Reform and Food Inflation – Calls on the U.S. Senate to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act to alleviate the industry’s labor shortage and help lower food prices. Water for Farms Video Series – Five documentary short videos that give first-hand accounts of how the drought is hurting California farmers and impacting consumers. Next-Generation Agtech Robots Video Series – Three-part series that provides an inside look at cutting-edge weeding and harvesting technologies that aim to ease the industry’s ongoing labor shortage. Real Farmers Care – Timed with Thanksgiving, demonstrates the care Western Growers members put into growing the food that is consumed during the holiday season. Taken together, these videos garnered a reach of more than 9 million social media users and earned an additional 7 million potential viewers through placements in traditional media outlets.
The Communications Department aims to use media relations and social media strategies to create public support for the policy and political interests of Western Growers, our members and the broader fresh produce industry. Last year brought opportunities to influence consumer and policymaker perceptions on a host of familiar issues, such as drought and labor supply, and to forge new ground on topics like agtech and food safety.
MEDIA RELATIONS Through dedicated and disciplined media relations efforts, Western Growers earned a potential audience of more than 9 billion in mainstream and industry news outlets in 2022, an increase of more than 400 percent over 2021. The Communications Department fielded nearly 200 media requests from digital, print and broadcast media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, Reuters, Univision, Associated Press and NBC Nightly News. Additionally, more than 40 press releases were distributed on behalf of the Western Growers Family of Companies. Major stories included the ongoing drought in the Western states, “bumblebees are fish” endangered species ruling by the California Supreme Court, fertilizer shortages and the war in Ukraine, and chronic labor shortages due to the lack of immigration reform.
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