Mega Important
January 24, 2011 As someone who regularly words with the English language, I know using the correct words to get a message across is very important. This is particularly true in agriculture today, as the marketplace’s opponents have made perfectly clear.
I remember a good example of this from a few years ago. In an on-the-street survey of the average person in Chicago, passersby were asked if they would be more comfortable eating food grown with fertilizer or crop nutrients. Interestingly, 100% said they thought crop nutrients sounded more natural than fertilizer (despite being the same thing!).
– Poll: How should we refer to mega-growers in the future? Vote now
Now, we have the debate on what to call very large farmers, commonly referred to as mega-growers. On a recent visit to one ag retailer, the topic inevitably turned to the growing important of mega-growers to the average retailer’s bottom line.
“I don’t like the term mega-grower,” chimed in one executive. “When I tell someone outside the industry my company sells to mega-growers, they always come back saying something like ‘why are you selling to the big corporate growers and not helping the little guys?’ There’s got to be a better term to describe really large growers than mega.”
Now I never thought of the word “mega” as having a negative connotation, but perhaps too many industry outsiders have read articles describing Wal-Mart as a “mega-retailer” and Microsoft as a “mega-technology company” and are getting the wrong idea.
So let’s put it to a vote. In this week’s poll, I’ve listed some alternative words to describe really large growers going forward. Please vote for your favorite or drop me an e-mail with some suggestions of your own.
This could be mega important to the future of our business.
– Poll: How should we refer to mega-growers in the future? Vote now
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