Survey Results: How Do Farmers Prefer To Be Addressed? What Terms Do You Prefer?

By Farms.com Team

Many different terms are used to refer to people who farm.

The terms "grower", "producer" and "farmer" are used interchangeably by the ag media, agribusiness professionals, extension personnel and others.

But what do the people who produce food, feed, fiber and fuel prefer to be called. Iowa State University rural sociologist J. Arbuckle asked them that very question in this year's Iowa Farm Poll.

"We gave them a list of five terms-farmer, producer, farm operator, grower and rancher-and asked them to select the one that they felt best describes them," Arbuckle says, "and 'farmer' came out on top-60 percent of farmers would prefer to be called 'farmers'."

Tied for second on that list were "producer" and "farm operator", both with 18 percent.

Only three percent of those who responded to the Iowa poll preferred the title of "grower", and only one percent considered themselves "ranchers".