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by Joe Cornely

"You don't pick a fight with someone who buys ink in 50 gallon barrels." I repeat that line regularly when talking with farmers about dealing with newspapers. It's just not smart to argue with a columnist whose soapbox gets delivered to thousands of front porches every day.

So, in a display of uncommon wisdom and judgement, four of us from Farm Bureau picked a fight with the Dayton Daily News. That's the same Dayton Daily News which has a new $91 million dollar printing plant, a staff of more than 1,000 people and that circulates its opinions to 142,500 people every day. Oops.

We didn't really pick a fight. But we did willingly set ourselves up for an intellectual wrestling match by visiting its editorial writer whose printed opinions – and I'm just guessing here – weren't formed by reading the Farm Bureau policy book. Specifically, he doesn't like the way animal agriculture is governed in Ohio, and he's not real fond of Farm Bureau's involvement in the process. So off to Dayton we went.

Going into the meeting, we didn't anticipate much success; the words "beating," "head" and "wall" summed up our expectations. But the four of us – OFBF President Bob Peterson, Greene County President Jeff Spracklen, OFBF Director of Local Affairs Larry Gearhardt and I – waded in anyway. The meeting was candid, at times contentious but not without accomplishment.

Presidents Peterson and Spracklen spoke eloquently about the challenges and opportunities facing Ohio's farm families. Gearhardt persuasively debated Ohio's legislative and regulatory governance of agriculture. All three effectively articulated Farm Bureau's viewpoints and explained our organization's purpose and goals. And they conveyed strong messages about the positive contributions agriculture makes to the economy, the environment and to society. I nodded yes a lot.

As for our host, he listened intently, asked probing questions and worked diligently to clearly understand our opinions. And then he told us how wrong we were. He shared his views about Ohio's inadequate protections for citizens, disregard for the environment and improper government actions. And he made it quite clear that he believes Farm Bureau carries much of the blame for these problems. Ouch.

So, what did our 90 minutes of nearly total discord accomplish? First, I'm optimistic that familiarity will lead to civility. The editorial writer may still jab us, but perhaps in a manner that is more respectful toward reasonable differences of opinion. But most importantly, Farm Bureau's visit to the Dayton Daily News opened a dialog with an important influencer of public opinion. Author Norman Mailer said of journalists, "The first talent you need is the emotional readiness to introduce yourself to strangers and pick their brains." Agricultural advocates should aspire to that same talent. We need to communicate with and gain understanding of the people with whom we disagree. Even if it requires diving headfirst into a barrel of ink.