@MorethanOrganic

Through communication of a clear, accurate initial message, we can key into shared mutual interest with our audience. Then, if we're really interested in developing mutual understanding that leads towards the heart of our cause, we need a willingness to get involved wholeheartedly with its values. These values at the heart of our cause would seem to take precedent over its activity and even its mission, as the latter are dependent on the former. When farming, I learned the quality of my produce was dependent on how the soil was managed, care for the plants, quality of water used for irrigation, and above all, the focus needed to bring it all together. Without sincere commitment to the values behind what we do, the end result is compromised. So, in developing communication campaigns that utilise open platforms, we could consider really getting into the values at the heart of our cause.

When our cause is grounded in values shaped by what is universally accepted to be true, we can afford to be more open in our communication. Using organic food as an example, its core values would seem to be sustainability, and the health of people, environment, animals and biodiversity. Both sustainability and health are universally accepted as beneficial. Living beings need food to survive and many of the natural resources currently used to produce our foods are finite. In the case of health, it is universally true that we humans value our health and wellness, and that our health is connected with the health of natural systems: we need water, food and air to survive, all of which are dependent to some degree on natural systems. It is also true that sustainability and health are dependent on each other: healthy soil is necessary for healthy plants, which provide healthy food for people and animals. Organic food's values then are not exclusive, rather they are established values which are universally accepted as sane and beneficial because they make sense.

Given its ordinary values and universal benefits, it's amusing that organic food is associated with elitism or seen as a single interest group. This image is the result of successfully differentiating organic food from chemically produced food, which creates an almost extraordinary image for organic. Although considerably different to chemically produced food, it’s how these differences accord with ordinary truth that are important, and not the creation and of separate, organic food values. The challenge then would seem to be keeping communication of organic food's values grounded in the ordinary truth on which they are based. Maybe then, trying to win position in the debate on farming and food isn't so useful for organic food, because when your values already adhere to ordinary truth, there is no need to establish yourself as something special. Of course, this doesn’t mean that organic farmers stand aside and allow their crops to be contaminated with gmo, or we simply accept continual mass intensification and use of antibiotics in food production, as this would be to ignore the truth. We simply stay with what is accepted as true and try not to communicate a slanted perspective.

Ordinary truth doesn't lift organic food to any high moral ground where advocates could be tempted to dictate how food 'should' be produced. Any dictating is clumsy, as ordinary truth and the common sense on which it is based has no need of moral positioning. The only apparent danger is that without discipline to stay firmly rooted in ordinary truth, we start to interpret actions as good and bad, and before we know it we're sitting on moral high ground that doesn't benefit anyone. Openness in communication then will help ensure that when we do wander off course, communicating a slanted perspective, which we will definitely do from time to time, our audience will bring us back to what is established as true. Market segmentation then looses importance, as our audience doesn't need to be split into target groups, as we’re concerned with ordinary values that resonate with all people, irrelevant of socio-economic group, different cultures and nationalities. We're all people on the same planet, our basic needs are similar and the conditions affecting this planet affect us all.

This isn’t a call to ‘make’ organic food more ordinary. It is already ordinary, so we just have to consider whether making it extraordinary is useful.