I must have been out of town for the Software City Celebration or the Mall City Celebration or the Realtors City Celebration. Ag knows how to use PR to their advantage. To begin with there is hardly any ag group or corporation that doesn't have a person to do damage control. When Butte Environmental Council held a press conference about the herbicide that drifted over Chico from the rice farms, the rice promotion board went nutty. They threatened the BEC Executive Director's job, as if the BEC Board would side with them.
Intimidation is a common tactic in big ag.
I've seen it over and over again generated from the water issues and watershed issues. Ag mesmerizes people. They reminisce about a time they have spent on a farm in their childhood, the farmhouse, the country, and the pond. People have all kinds of good farm memories. Farm memories evoke a kinder gentler time in people's lives.