What is an #Agnerd & how can you be one? Or maybe you are?

I worked so hard as a late elementary school student and then as a teenager to be “cool”. 

I wasn’t always successful at my attempt to be “cool” but I certainly didn’t know or think I was a nerd.

 Now as a professional, mom of three, wife in my 30’s, I have been labeled an “#agnerd” on Twitter. (The pound sign with a word after it, is called a hash tag on Twitter.)

Funny how things change because I now relish in being an “agnerd”. 

While I don’t talk about it often on this blog, when I am not home on the prairie, I am traveling, working in marketing communications with agribusiness, food and farming companies and coalitions like the Know A California Farmer outreach effort.

Add in the facts I am immersed in agriculture on the North Dakota prairie with my husband’s family business being supported by farmers and ranchers daily and my parents, grandparents, siblings and cousins farming, agriculture is not just my job. It’s a part of the daily fabric of my life.

Aside from being a mom, where my food comes from, how it is raised, who is raising it, farming practices, all forms of food production and processing, food products and how they are marketed and communicated from farm to plate are my passions. Then I immersed myself into digital technology and started using more social media tools a few years ago. Social media became a passion…or an healthy addiction my husband might say.

Those passions along with my work have led me to meeting fellow farmers as well as those working in agribusiness and food industries.

Each of us have a shared passion for agriculture.
And we all met through social media outlets. Sharing our stories through social media is another common passion.

By planes (no trains) and automobiles, I was able to meet up with a group of these social media friends last night in Sacramento. We have gotten to know one another by sharing short bits together on Twitter, reading blogs, joining common efforts, associations, coalitions and participating in online conversations like #agchat on Twitter.

But last night we set aside social media…other than a few “tweets” and photo sharing.
We went around the table and told “in real life” stories. It was tremendously fun, inspiring and empowering to hear each of person share.

We come from non-ag backgrounds and backgrounds of dairy and hog farms, beef ranches, grain farms, almonds and walnut “ranches” (that’s a California term). I always thought ranches were for animals. But Brent the “Aamond” (also a California thing…leaving out the “l” in almond) calls himself a farmer…with “aamond ranches”. Yes I learn technicalities from these agnerds.

We each have unique backgrounds that have brought us to our careers and passions in life. City kids, country kids, farm kids. Some of us are moms and dads. Some are married and others are single. We are different.

Despite our differences in circumstances and geographies what I also learned is the common passion and intense interest we have in farming, food and empowering others to share their stories and connecting those stories to you, consumers…anyone who buys food and eats.

Together we all are proudly #agnerds, advocating for agriculture, helping farmers and ranchers stories be told, sharing with most any group to understand where your food comes from and using most any outlet available to us.

We will always use traditional forms of communicating, speaking to one on one, to groups and associations but the greatest advantage and growth for advocating for agriculture is through technology.

Agnerds embrace technology and use it to tell our stories. It brings out the #agnerd in each of us.

And while I was thought it wasn’t “cool” to be a “nerd”, today there isn’t anything I embrace more other than being a mother than being an advocate for agriculture, connecting that passion into my professional work and personal role as a mom of three children.

I am an #agnerd mom. I fully admit, it’s cool to be a nerd.

If you love farmers, agriculture…and the abundant choices of food you have to eat, you can be an advocate just like these people I have met. Learn, inquiry, share. You might find yourself as an #agnerd. It’s not an exclusive group. It’s an inclusive growing group of individuals who use technology to share about farming and food. It all starts with engaging with others, being empowered to tell your story while learning and listening to others’ stories.

What’s your #agnerd question you would like to ask a farmer?