Animal rights activists are shaping the conversation on animal agriculture because farmers aren’t speaking up, and Steve Kopperud wants that to change.

"We need to take back the messaging," said Steve Kopperud, executive vice president of Policy Directions Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based government affairs/specialty communications company. "We need to talk about things we do, why we do them, how well we do them, and why it benefits the consumer," he told farmers recently at the Iowa Pork Congress in Des Moines.

At a time when consumers are asking more questions about their...