Words Matter

Words matter…whether it’s the adjectives that you use to describe a person, a mouthwatering description of a dish on a menu, or even how you characterize a business or the size of a farm. Words can be used to evoke and stir emotions and sometimes reveal a bias.

In another life I was a Speech Communications major. I often think about word choice through that lense.

Let’s look at a few examples:

• if you saw “spider of the sea” on the menu would you order it? It certainly doesn't sounds as appealing as “Fresh Maine Lobster”
• are animals “slaughtered” or “murdered” for food, or are they “harvested” or “processed”?
• if you have to euthanize an animal do you call it “destroying” or “culling” ….“killing” or “depopulating”?
• what do you think when you hear poultry referred to as “the girls” rather than just “chicken” or “birds”?
• do you call farming an “industry”? Are large farms “industrial” or “factory” farms
• are small farms organic? “local”, “family farms”?
• is food in the supermarket “cheap” or is it “budget friendly” or “inexpensive”?
• is food “highly processed” or merely “packaged”?

Often our words choices are deliberate, and serve to signal to others in a subtle way, our feelings and stance about a topic. Sometimes we may use certain words without considering their emotional content, or how our audience might interpret them.

You may think, ‘What difference does it make?’, but words matter. Words help tell a story. Words convey emotions. Words create pictures and ideas, both positive and negative, in our minds and the minds of the people that listen to us and read what we write.

Choose your words carefully.