Donnie Smith took a selfie before getting on stage in front of thousands of future farmers Thursday.
Smith, chief executive of Tyson Foods and the keynote speaker at the National Future Farmers of America Convention and Expo in Louisville, then took a few seconds to tweet.
"Now I'm just going to guess that tonight your teachers told you that whatever you do, put your phone away and pay attention," he said. "Uh-uh. Just the opposite. I want everybody to get your phone out. Get your phone out. Turn 'em on. Light 'em up. It's a whole new day."
He told the convention's more than 60,000 attendees to share their experiences with agriculture on Twitter using the "myAGstory" hashtag. Smith devoted his 20-minute speech to telling the students that their voices would be heard online. Video of his speech was made available Friday.
"I want you to send up that hashtag to everyone you know," said Smith. "We're going to get that hashtag to trend tonight."
Trend it did. The hashtag was the most-talked-about category of conversation on Twitter that evening.
Smith's speech to the young farmers coincided with a discussion at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville on modern food production. Social media tends to support small farmers while decrying big agricultural operations.
"What we tend to have is a very polarized debate with these two armed camps equally suspicious of one another shouting past each other," said Charlie Arnot, chief executive of The Center for Food Integrity.
Arnot spoke to students and faculty Thursday at the John W. Tyson Building. He said science -- even if it's on the side of many agricultural companies -- isn't going to convince many that the modern food system is safe.
The Center for Food Integrity's mission is "to build consumer trust and confidence in today's food system." Its board members include employees of Tyson, Monsanto, the World Wildlife Fund and various universities.
Instead of showing consumers scientific studies, Arnot said people respond better to companies that show they share the same ethics as consumers.
"Because we give people information about science and economics, we can increase their knowledge, but we may do very little to influence how they feel and what they believe," he said. "People are much more likely to make decisions based on how they feel and believe than simply what they know."
In addition to regulatory and legislative control, Arnot said food companies must now also contend with "social control." He spoke about Vani Hari, author of the Food Babe blog, who successfully lobbied Subway to remove azodicarbonamide -- a dough conditioner -- from its bread.
The chemical substance has been approved by the FDA, but the World Health Organization linked the substance to asthma and respiratory issues when it's handled in large quantities in a raw form. Only low concentrations are allowed in food.
During his speech, Smith decried the roles uninformed bloggers play in conversations about food but said the thousands of students in the audience could be a more informed alternative.
"I want to prove to you that you have one of the most powerful voices in the world," he said.
Krista Cupp, spokesman for Tyson Foods, said that over the last year, the company has invited bloggers to tour the company from farm to plate. Tyson hopes to target anyone who pays attention to social media, she said.
"At the end of the day, people have jobs. They have lives. The average American is three generations removed from the farm," Cupp said. "No one wants to hear from the company. They want to hear from people."
In his speech, Smith said the future of farming depends on farmers sharing their opinions. Otherwise, those who haven't experienced agriculture will shape the conversation, he said.
"We have the technology to feed 10 billion people on this plant. The only question is whether or not we're going to be able to use it," Smith said. "So I want to tell you tonight, our greatest challenge in my mind is not how to grow more food, it's how to grow consumer confidence."
Business on 11/01/2014