PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

USE SHARED RURAL VALUES TO CRAFT YOUR MESSAGE

Effective communication requires not only facts but leveraging the values people share to resonate across race, class, age, gender, and place. The best messages follow the VPSA model: Values, Problem, Solution, Action. First, we unite along shared values to introduce the issue, then demonstrate the collectively-held problem, name the solution to the problem, and finally, when appropriate, leave with a call to action joining you to solve the problem. This formula keeps our messages concise while disarming opponents who seek to divide us. To get you started, here are three rural values that are particularly relevant for communicating with rural constituents about environmental stewardship:

VALUE: SELF-DETERMINATION

• Framing: Rural Americans care about policies that regulate CAFOs because they value local self-determination. Rural communities want the power to make their own decisions about important issues affecting their communities. They do not want faraway corporations or government officials making decisions that will impact the land they grew up on, the water they drink, or the air they breathe.
• Example Statement: (Value) Hardworking rural Americans must be able to make their own decisions about issues that will impact their futures. (Problem) For years, agribusiness firms have pressured legislators to shift decision-making about siteing industrial-scale farm operations to the state, leaving local governments without a say. (Solution) State legislators must listen to family farmers and rural communities and draft a bill to give county governments a binding recommendation in the CAFO permit approval process.
• Example Talking Points
  • Rural people know their communities best. They must have the final say on whether a new or expanded industrial-scale livestock operation is appropriate for their county.
  • When it comes to expanding large-scale livestock operations that could pollute our communities, decisions should be made by local governments, not at a corporate conference table.

VALUE: SECURITY

• Framing: Rural Americans value security, which is closely connected with a healthy environment. Pollution that threatens the land, water, air, and health compounds the stress of shrinking political power, inadequate healthcare, and narrowing economic opportunities. Progressive policy approaches to environmental protection can help establish the sense of stability and security that rural families need.
• Example Statement: (Value) The safety and security of our communities is a top priority of hardworking rural Americans. (Problem) As an American, I should be able to trust that the water that comes from my faucet is safe to drink, but predatory fracking leases sold by outside energy companies put our community’s water in danger. (Solution) A fracking moratorium bill will protect families by keeping hazardous waste out of our water supply. .
• Example Talking Points:
  • Local families, not Ag CEOs, are the ones who are ingesting the chemical contamination from CAFO farming in our local water supply. That’s why it’s those local families who should decide on local CAFO zoning and ordinances.
  • Our children and families can no longer enjoy our region’s beautiful rivers and lakes, because our waterways have unsafe levels of algae due to preventable agricultural runoff. We must work with our region’s farmers to implement standards for ag chemicals to keep our whole community safe.

VALUE: STEWARDSHIP

• Framing: Rural constituents are also invested in environmental protections because they value stewardship. In rural America, people are proud of their relationship to the land, air, and water that gives life to their families and local economies. They are also proud of the knowledge and culture of environmental responsibility passed from generation to generation that keeps this connection alive.
• Example Statement: (Value) For generations, rural families have been good stewards of our air, water, and land. (Problem) But rural people cannot be good stewards if they do not have accurate information, which is why it is a problem that pesticide manufacturers often obscure data about how their products impact the pollinators that are so critical to our food supply. (Solution) That’s why I am working to pass a pollinator protection bill for our state that would direct the study of such pesticides and their effect on pollinators. (Action) To make sure that rural Americans have the information they need to be good stewards of the land, we need constituents to contact their representatives and tell them to pass the Pollinator Protection Bill.
• Example Talking Points:
  • Through decades of feeding our families and our neighbors, we know best how to balance meeting market demands today and keeping our land healthy so it will provide for generations to come.