The Alliance to Feed the Future has announced that Diana Prichard is the second recipient of its Communicator of the Year Award. The award, given in collaboration this year with the American Meat Institute, recognizes effective and innovative new voices that are enhancing the public dialogue about modern food production through multi-channel communications, including social media.
Prichard, a farmer and mom who owns a small farrow-to-finish hog operation in the heart of Michigan’s farm country, was bestowed the honor on December 10th at the 16th Farm Journal Forum at the Loews Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Growing up in rural Mid-Michigan, Prichard is now a first-generation hog farmer, as well as a freelance writer, photographer, speaker, and filmmaker.
Prichard says that her interest in communicating about agriculture stems from her own experiences building a farm. “When you’re selling products directly to consumers, you have this constant line of communication open with them about what messages they’re getting about food. From the very earliest days, people were asking us to guide them. I always felt like I had a responsibility to provide answers that were true to the best of my ability. I turned to writing to distill what I was learning in farming simply because it was the most natural for me.”
Prichard adds, “Most people in the farming industry were born farmers and are learning to become communicators. I was born a communicator and am learning to become a farmer. For reasons that often allude even me, I’ve been accepted and welcomed to the farming community as if I were always here. To me, that acceptance, like this award, really speaks to the premium the agriculture industry places on open dialogue.”
Prichard’s communications work has been featured by national media outlets and online communities such as CNN, MSNBC’s iVillage, and Modern Farmer Magazine, and she has made media appearances on CNN Radio and From Scratch Magazine, among others. She has traveled internationally to report on agriculture, food security, nutrition, and policy in Africa and the Middle East. In addition, Prichard offers her perspective as a farmer in her role as co-host of The Postmodern Farmer Show, a farm-centric podcast that debuted at #3 in food podcasts on iTunes in early 2014. She is also the author of the children’s book, The Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen (Little Pickle Press, 2013), designed for families to engage in a balanced farm-to-fork dialogue.
Prichard, who is the creator and author of the popular Righteous Bacon blog says, “I do value social media, but I think it is even more important to make sure we’re challenging people – whether it’s using social media or talking one-on-one – to think outside the box. It takes all types of interaction and we have to be wise about encouraging people to work to their strengths.”
“This Communicator of the Year Award aims to showcase those who are committed to facilitating a better understanding of modern agriculture and doing so in a way that resonates with consumers,” said David Schmidt, president and CEO of the International Food Information Council, which coordinates the Alliance. “We are excited to honor Diana, and we look forward to working with her to help enhance the dialogue about modern food production.”