Big US farming groups are joining forces in a multimillion dollar marketing campaign to respond to attacks by activists and small farmers that accuse them of promoting unhealthy food and abusing animals.

The outreach comes at a time of growing tension between industrial agriculture groups and small farmers and activists who argue that “factory farming” is inhumane to animals and produces food that leads to obesity and illness.

The effort also coincides with the US food industry coming under pressure to contain a salmonella outbreak this month that has been linked to ground turkey processed by Cargill, the US meatpacker. The US Centers for Disease Control said more than 100 people have been affected by the outbreak, with one death.

As part of the push, a new organisation called the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance will hold the first of several town hall meetings in September. The meeting, which will be streamed online, is part of a multimedia effort to diffuse what the group calls myths about the agricultural industry.

With 50 affiliates, the group is aiming to spend as much as $30m a year on the campaign.

“Consumers are confused,” Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told the Financial Times. “There is a huge knowledge gap out there and we want people to know that farmers and ranchers are committed to providing healthy choices.”

Mr Stallman said that the industry had been unfairly vilified since films, such as Food Inc and Farmageddon, have depicted the industry as using genetically modified seeds, pumping animals full of hormones and antibiotics to fatten them and confining them in cages with no light. He argues that activist groups want the farmers to return to the days when small family farms served local communities.