Florida Producer Survives Undercover Video Attack

Someone had shot an undercover video on his dairy.  “I’ll always remember that day, Nov. 9, 2017,” Larson recalls. “We really didn’t have any warning. By the time she emailed it to me it was already online. Boy, it was rough. The initial reaction when I first saw it, I was just gut shot. I literally didn’t eat anything for 24 hours. I just wanted to throw up.”Larson’s phone was blowing up with calls, and he couldn’t keep track of them all. There were so many that he couldn’t even get a call in to his office. When he finally made it through, they knew all about the video—they were swamped with calls as well. It got so bad Larson had to unplug the office phones. Some of the calls were press, most were harassment. “Every member of our family and extended family was affected,” Larson says. “Unfortunately, the Larson name was severely tarnished. The activists were so good at their attack, even some people in the industry who knew us began to have some doubts.”The right communications are critical in the first few hours in a situation like this, and Sleper says SMI felt it necessary to take a major role in communications, strategy and decision-making. He says while it takes a team effort between different stakeholders, a cooperative can play a pivotal role with its link between other dairy producer members, customers and stakeholders such as FDF, NMPF and industry experts.