Food: Connecting People

By Bianca Blasl
Bauer to the People

“We need to talk about food when we want to inspire people about agriculture.” These words of Owen Roberts, the former IFAJ President, changed my life.

What he said out loud on stage at the Austrian Ag communication event in 2019 was what I always felt deep inside of me. What I always tried to do as a press agent in communications in Austria. But no one would listen. Inspiring, involving, building bridges. Getting to know what people want and need when it comes to food. His words, not mine. The rest is history.

Owen plays therefore a big role in my future path:

I love food and agriculture. I grew up in Vienna and learned: we totally forgot where our food comes from and who produces it. I always wanted to change that. I want to change our awareness and the way we talk about food and agriculture. Therefore, I studied agriculture and started working in PR and journalism. In that time, I understood that agriculture herself forgot to tell her true story. And share it. For the last three years i drove from farm to farm in my fire engine called “Red Lightning”.

In my Blog “melange.in.gummistiefeln” and on my platform “BauertothePeople”(farmer to the people) I take people along on my journey. With humor and good food I want to tell these stories and re-build the bridge between us and our agriculture. I am self-employed as a communication consultant in the field of agriculture and a freelance journalist. I am teaching communication and rhetoric at the University of Natural Resources in Vienna. Together with my partner Wilhelm Geiger, we built a journalistic platform called “BauertothePeople”, aiming to take people behind the scenes of their food and agriculture and to reconnect everyone along the food supply chain. To get a new perspective and talk with each other instead of about each other. 2020 we started with a podcast. Now there is a YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. We organized so many events I can’t count them anymore. Currently we work on a live podcast to reconnect people with those who produce our food. We also wrote a book called Behind the Scenes of Food and Agriculture.

Many people and events shaped my way. I feel, Owen was the lightning to ignite my courage to “just do it” when it came to the point. He and my beloved uncle passing made me think: Life is too short to not just do what you love and think is right. Anybody can change the world in their way. We just need to get up even when we are afraid, and fail at some points and just do it. In the best case: Let´s do it together.

I owe you Owen. I owe you IFAJ.
Thank you all.

I was not thinking of writing an emotional article when I started to type. That’s not journalistic, they say. This is not how you do it, they claim. But who are “they” anyway?

The community of IFAJ taught me I was not too wrong with my path.

And maybe, just maybe, I can inspire someone else with this story.

Because it´s stories we love. And it´s stories we should share. Stories are the reason we are able to live as we do in our world. They connect us. Like food. So stories about food and people who produce it must then be the ultimate thing. Musn’t they?

If you read this and want to talk, get more inspiration or just an insight of how I think and learned communication and journalism works: Reach out any time.

If you think this is total bullshit: Then even more so! Let´s talk!

Bianca Blasl was a 2023 IFAJ/Alltech Young Leader. The Young Leader program, sponsored by Alltech, recognizes outstanding young journalists and communicators from IFAJ member guilds and provides them with networking and professional development through a special Boot Camp and Alltech activities. The program has been a springboard for many active guild members and officers for years.