activities. Their website contains qualitative information on crop cultivation, livestock care, and the general lives of farmers in the US. In 2011, the alliance commissioned a survey of farmers, ranchers, and consumers. A total of 2,417 consumers and 1,002 farmers and ranchers were surveyed. Seventy-two percent of consumers said that they knew little or nothing about farming or ranching and 86% of farmers and ranchers believed that consumers knew little or nothing about farming. Forty-two percent of consumers believed that food production was heading in the wrong direction, while 58% of farmers and ranchers believed that consumers have an inaccurate perception of farming and ranching. With the aim of bridging the gap between consumers and farmers, the alliance launched a search in June 2012 for a national spokesperson. Will Gilmer, of Lamar County, Alabama was selected. He received a $10,000 stipend to defray the cost of spending time away from his farm and he had the opportunity to select an agricultural related charity for a $5,000 donation from the alliance. The alliance funded the making of a documentary film, Farmland, that opened in select theaters in the United States on May 1, 2014. The aim of the documentary was to counter the messages about modern agriculture in recent documentaries such as Food, Inc. and King Corn. They hired James Moll as director who agreed to do it only if he had creative control. In 2016 the alliance founded the non-profit U.S. Farming and Ranching Foundation, which furthers agricultural education, particularly among the youth. One of the main activities of the alliance are “food dialogues”, of which it ran around thirty between 2010 and 2018. The intention of the dialogues is to promote debate over issues, including some that are considered controversial. Some of the alliance's messages promote the use of technology to create food sustainability. Criticism In 2011, Bill Deusing, head of the Northeast Organic Farming Association has criticized the alliance for not including enough organic farming representatives. The alliance has been criticized potential bias towards Big Ag, and that its website tends to support industrial agriculture such as genetically modified crops, while questioning the value of alternative agricultural practices (e.g., free-range chickens). Randy Krotz, previous CEO) of the alliance, told Bloomberg Businessweek that the alliance does not favor one form of agriculture over another and that "My personal feeling is, there is a lot of information there on every