German Dairy Farmers Start a YouTube Moo-vement

The last few years haven’t been kind to German meat and dairy farmers. Last February, officials pulled frozen lasagna off grocery stores shelves after discovering horse meat in the products. The country also diagnosed its first case of mad-cow disease since 2009 earlier this month.

But 16 dairy farmers aren’t taking the bad P.R. laying down. NBC News reports a group from Lower Saxony have built “My Cow Tube” ”“ as well as complementary Facebook and YouTube pages — to bring their stories to the public.

“The negative discussions are getting louder, therefore we want to give the consumer a behind-the-scenes look into the places where their products come from,” Christine Licher, a member of the local association for the dairy industry, told the news agency.

[mf_video type=”youtube” id=”7oOI4kRgd1o”]

The project fits with the trend of farmers turning to social media to build a connection with their customers. Such efforts don’t just meet consumers’ suspicion with transparency ”“ they also put a lasting face to the people behind milk, eggs and vegetables.

At the moment, the strategy is working out for the Deutschland dairy dudes. More than 170,000 people have watched the cow videos.

Most say the appeal of the videos is their humor, but unless you’ve been polishing up on your German, don’t expect to pick up the jokes.

[mf_video type=”youtube” id=”WJl38pwQp6A”]

Still, Cow Tube’s new-found popularity shows people are eager to learn the technical details of food production as long as farmers present them with personality. A clip called “Look Who’s Munching,” has a farmer explaining cow digestion as he lays among his bovine buddies. Another gets into the basics of cow dentistry, which is sickly mesmerizing with or without the farmer.

While there hasn’t been anything quite as organized in the United States, dairy farmers like Dairy Carrie have had their own successes in using YouTube as a place for positive PR. Her “Undercover Dairy Farm Video” racked up over 60,000 views. It’s a gentle roam through her dairy barn, a spoof on undercover videos that have shown animal welfare abuses in other organizations.

[mf_video type=”youtube” id=”SuNSzrSiZ9w”]

MyCowTube and Dairy Carrie’s videos and blog are yet another example of farmers, once isolated from the general public, using technology to reach the end consumer. And the public seems to be paying attention.