The lovely and talented advocate for agriculture Michele Payn-Knoper put on the gloves to teach the peanut industry some new moves in the fight for the hearts and minds of consumers as the keynote luncheon speaker at the 2011 SPGC.

Michele is a professional speaker and farmer from Indiana who “works to connect the farm gate to consumer plate through programs in agricultural advocacy, social media strategy, the translation of farm to food and grassroots marketing.” She’s also the founder of the AgChat Foundation, developed to help farmers and ranchers learn to connect communities through social media platforms.

“We have to engage with the 98 and a half percent of the population who are not farmers,” she said, encouraging the peanut growers to use the social media tools available like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. “Just use your smart phone and shoot a little video the next time you’re out in the field and throw it up on YouTube,” she told them.

To illustrate how the agriculture industry needs to fight for itself, Michele brought some peanut industry representatives up on the stage and taught them some kickboxing moves. It was pretty darn funny and now, yep, it’s on YouTube!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3bvWcs1siU&w=400&h=243]