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Agriculture Reporting - It will grow on you!
The Michigan Farm Bureau Adopt-A-Farm service helps media report on the local agricultural scene by pairing newspapers, TV stations and radio stations with a local farm for exclusive interviews.
News organizations set the tone and scope of the reporting. We line up a local farm. Throughout the process, the Michigan Farm Bureau is available to assist with story ideas and provide expert sources or other resources to enhance the coverage.
Reporting possibilities are endless. For instance, a radio station may want to speak with a local farmer on a monthly basis about food trends or weather-related crop updates, while a newspaper may opt for a one-time, in-depth feature that profiles the different generations of a farm family. (Examples of past Adopt-A-Farm projects are noted below.)
Once the angle is established, the Michigan Farm Bureau arranges a partner farm that most closely meets the specifications sought by a news organization, i.e. a livestock farm versus a cash crop farm or a seasoned agricultural veteran versus a beginning young farmer.
The program has helped several news organizations cover local agriculture uniquely, creatively, thoroughly and factually. Here's a sampling of how others have used the program in recent years.
- Self-proclaimed "city slicker" Donna Daines, a feature writer for the Marshall Community Ad-visor, adopted a Calhoun County farm for an engaging series that blended first-person observations of farm life with statistics on local agriculture.
- Photographer Andrew Skinner illustrated the asparagus season in words and pictures by linking with a local asparagus farm for a photo story published in Oceana's Herald Journal.
- Radio personality Kevin Allen of Tawas City-based WKJC partnered with the president of the Ogemaw County Farm Bureau for monthly dialogue on local agricultural concerns and happenings.
- The Grand Rapids Press used the program as a foundation for a Labor Day business feature that explored the ambitions of area young farmers and the hurdles they face in pursuing their dreams to farm.
- In 2002 Oakland Press reporter Bob Gross was introduced to one of suburban Detroit's last surviving dairy farms for an in-depth series chronicling how the farm family maintains traditions such as making and selling their own milk and ice cream in the shadow of urban sprawl. Articles from his series were picked up regularly by the Associated Press and reprinted in AP Member Exchange newspapers across the state. The insightful reporting earned Gross third-place in the Society of Professional Journalists' general news reporting competition and the Agricultural Communicator of the Year Award from the Oakland County Farm Bureau.
Don't just take our word for it. Here's what one partnering news organization had to say about the service.
"The series itself was perfect for a small weekly... The interviews were as educational to me as they were to many of our readers, whose positive comments about the series made me wish I could have written stories more often. The program proved to be a win-win situation for us. Our readers really enjoyed the series, and putting the time and effort into the stories opened some doors to the ag community, making it easier to continue to cover this vital industry in the Thumb."
~ Tom Montgomery
Cass City Chronicle, Editor
2002 Adopt-A-Farm partner
Agriculture reporting has never been easier, so sign up for Michigan Farm Bureau's Adopt-A-Farm service today and let agriculture grow on you!
Adoption forms are accepted year-round.
Download the Adopt-A-Farm sign-up sheet
