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Public television telling the farmer’s story

By Mace Thornton

"We just need to do a better job telling the farmer's story to non-farmers." Anyone who has hung out around a machine shed, a small-town diner or a barber shop in rural America has surely heard this lament. Usually, the phrase is preceded by the latest report of well-meaning consumers being snookered by slick campaigns from activist groups determined to drag agriculture through the mud.

The challenge confronting agricultural communicators is how to tell agriculture's story to American consumers in a meaningful and tangible way. It simply is not feasible, affordable or effective to drop leaflets over a city or buy a series of commercials during the Super Bowl, or even purchase the naming rights to a professional sports stadium.

In the search for an appropriate vehicle to give farmers a voice in a way that would attract the interest of consumers, last year a new public television show came to fruition. America's Heartland, a national public television series, has been a resounding success. The show recently embarked on its second season of telling the story of America's farm and ranch families to a sophisticated, consumer-oriented public television audience.

America’s Heartland celebrates the way of life, the state of mind and the rural pride that embodies American agriculture. The program does that through personal stories, rich in their depth and breadth, highlighting a special group of people – America’s farm and ranch families. During each episode, talented and dedicated journalists from KVIE public television in Sacramento, Calif., take their viewers on a journey paved with the stories of the families who help produce food, fiber and renewable fuel for America.

For this second season, the show's emphasis is to tell more stories that showcase how America’s traditional commodity crops – including wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, cotton and livestock – are grown. The show tells the story of how farm and ranch families undertake the major tasks of caring for their animals and planting, nurturing and harvesting their crops in ways that not only sustain their families economically, but also conserve the natural resources on which they rely. Also, the show is continuing to honor the small farmer seeking new and innovative ways to survive and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

American agriculture always has known the value of telling the farmer's story, but there has never been a vehicle that does so in quite the style of America's Heartland. You can bet that officials from the show's flagship supporting groups, Monsanto and the American Farm Bureau Federation, have frequently heard the old mantra about doing a better job telling the farmer's story. Now that they have found an effective way to accomplish that goal, you may want to tune in to see how their efforts are going. To learn where you can watch America's Heartland visit www.americasheartland.org online.

Editor’s note: America’s Heartland and OFBF’s Our Ohio television series are complementary tools with which to tell agriculture’s story. Get local listings for Our Ohio at ourohio.org.