If you’ve gotten this far into my site, chances are you may be asking yourself why this Jeff Melchior character wants to be an ag writer. Of all the myriad of ways one can apply their journalistic training and experience, why would he choose the field of agriculture?
From a purely sentimental perspective, I would say it’s because I grew up on a small farm and have spent most of my life in rural communities. But it goes deeper than that. As I mentioned in my introduction, I fell into ag journalism more by accident than design. Like most young journalists, I set my goals on large weeklies, dailies and magazines. Trade journalism of any kind wasn’t even on my radar.
However, when I did luck into a job in this particular subfield, there were a few things I quickly discovered that in turn made me fall in love with it.
Farmers are willing to share knowledge. Seed genetics today may be proprietary, but the processes involved in most forms of agriculture are not. How many other industries can you think of that do not have at least part of their manufacturing process hidden behind a firewall? Agriculture is perhaps the world’s first open source industry -- here are the tools, you decide how to use them.
What’s even better is that, in my experience, most farmers – large and small – are more than willing to give you a peek into their production process. They want people to know how their food is grown. Coca-Cola doesn’t want you to know how their products are made for fear of compromising their proprietary rights. Ag producers come from a tradition of sharing knowledge with each other and anyone who expresses genuine interest.
Farmers are changing. There is a stereotype out there of the farmer who sits in coffee shops all day complaining about the weather and the government. It’s not one without merit. However, I don’t think it’s pervasive as it used to be.
Many years ago, a career in agriculture was one of few career options for rural dwellers with little opportunity for education. Today, it seems like most young farmers go to college in order to leverage the most value from their farming careers. Starting a farm is more of a financial risk than ever today and you want to be sure it’s something to which you wish to dedicate your entire life. Given this new reality, the coffee shop crowd who may have never wanted to be producers in the first place are being weeded out (just for the record, I have nothing against coffee shops and they can in fact be excellent places to share ideas).
The big picture. Farm process is only one part of a very big picture. There is also the ever expanding science of GMO. There are the ever-growing environmental solutions farmers put in place in order to be responsible stewards of the land. There is the ongoing debate over how we should go about feeding the world; do we put our faith in the Monsantos of the world or do we seek a more organic route? What role should government play – should they get to pick winners and losers by subsidizing certain commodities over others?
It’s about us all. Ultimately, agriculture all comes down to something no human or animal can get through the day without consuming: food. It’s essential to our survival, and even in this era of foodies and trendy direct farm sales, the big debates around food production do not resonate with nearly enough people. It’s a thrill for me to help open peoples’ eyes (and, more often than not, my own) to the realities of food production. And that’s why I’m an ag writer.
From a purely sentimental perspective, I would say it’s because I grew up on a small farm and have spent most of my life in rural communities. But it goes deeper than that. As I mentioned in my introduction, I fell into ag journalism more by accident than design. Like most young journalists, I set my goals on large weeklies, dailies and magazines. Trade journalism of any kind wasn’t even on my radar.
However, when I did luck into a job in this particular subfield, there were a few things I quickly discovered that in turn made me fall in love with it.
Farmers are willing to share knowledge. Seed genetics today may be proprietary, but the processes involved in most forms of agriculture are not. How many other industries can you think of that do not have at least part of their manufacturing process hidden behind a firewall? Agriculture is perhaps the world’s first open source industry -- here are the tools, you decide how to use them.
What’s even better is that, in my experience, most farmers – large and small – are more than willing to give you a peek into their production process. They want people to know how their food is grown. Coca-Cola doesn’t want you to know how their products are made for fear of compromising their proprietary rights. Ag producers come from a tradition of sharing knowledge with each other and anyone who expresses genuine interest.
Farmers are changing. There is a stereotype out there of the farmer who sits in coffee shops all day complaining about the weather and the government. It’s not one without merit. However, I don’t think it’s pervasive as it used to be.
Many years ago, a career in agriculture was one of few career options for rural dwellers with little opportunity for education. Today, it seems like most young farmers go to college in order to leverage the most value from their farming careers. Starting a farm is more of a financial risk than ever today and you want to be sure it’s something to which you wish to dedicate your entire life. Given this new reality, the coffee shop crowd who may have never wanted to be producers in the first place are being weeded out (just for the record, I have nothing against coffee shops and they can in fact be excellent places to share ideas).
The big picture. Farm process is only one part of a very big picture. There is also the ever expanding science of GMO. There are the ever-growing environmental solutions farmers put in place in order to be responsible stewards of the land. There is the ongoing debate over how we should go about feeding the world; do we put our faith in the Monsantos of the world or do we seek a more organic route? What role should government play – should they get to pick winners and losers by subsidizing certain commodities over others?
It’s about us all. Ultimately, agriculture all comes down to something no human or animal can get through the day without consuming: food. It’s essential to our survival, and even in this era of foodies and trendy direct farm sales, the big debates around food production do not resonate with nearly enough people. It’s a thrill for me to help open peoples’ eyes (and, more often than not, my own) to the realities of food production. And that’s why I’m an ag writer.