From the Smithsonian Institution to outreach programs, how farmers and our industry are explaining today’s agriculture to everyday consumers
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- Smithsonian curator Peter Liebhold (standing) shows a recent visitor the interactive “Farming Challenge” exhibit.
It seems you can’t turn on the TV or listen to the radio without hearing new questions from consumers about where their food comes from. And why not? After years of folks assuming their pork chops magically appear in their grocer’s freezer, it only makes sense that many would want a better understanding of how that meat – or eggs, or milk, etc. – made it to their tables.
But today, everyone with an agenda to push has the power to add his or her voice to the noisy clamor of our always-on society. So, it’s more important than ever that farmers and their families keep telling their story – the true story of American agriculture – to cut through the noise and be heard.
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Wisconsin farmer Nancy Kavazanjian says it’s a story that farmers tell best.
“Everyone wants to eat tasty, nutritious food,” says Kavazanjian, a suburban-Long-Island native and ag convert who now raises soybeans, corn and wheat in Dodge County. “As farmers, we are most effective at telling ag’s story – how we are innovating and adopting new technologies to keep our food tasting great and staying nutritious and affordable so we are sustainable – because we can make it personal.”
The national and state soy checkoff boards have been telling the story of today’s agriculture to non-farm people for years, both directly and through their greatest ambassadors, the soybean farmers who live it every day. Since the mission of the soy checkoff system is to maximize soybean-farmer profitability, helping consumers understand today’s agriculture helps support farmers’ freedom to operate.
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U.S. soybean farmers’ checkoff investments have put truthful, positive answers about food into the hands of urban moms, thanks to the CommonGround program. These investments have helped bring to the big the feature-length FARMLAND documentary, introducing hundreds of thousands of people to six hardworking families enduring the ups and downs of farm life. These farmer dollars demonstrate the power of soybean biotechnology to hundreds of visitors a year at the headquarters of the World Food Prize in Des Moines, including some of the world’s most powerful leaders; and they help the 1.4 million tourists who pass through Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry each year understand farm technology, to name just a few examples.
But starting in the summer of 2015, U.S. soybean farmers will assume their rightful place on the biggest national stage they’ve ever accessed: the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., known as “America’s Attic” for the priceless icons it houses, including everything from the American flag that inspired The Start Spangled Banner, to the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz. More than 4.5 million people visit the museum on the National Mall every year.
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Clik here to view.Jim Rapp
Princeton, Illinois soybean farmer teaches the Smithsonian a thing or two about farming
Telling the story of American agriculture was a challenge for Smithsonian planners, none of whom had much experience on a farm. As far back as 2009, then-USB director and Illinois farmer Sharon Covert brought curator Peter Liebhold to some farms near hers to learn from the people who live ag’s story every day. One of those people was third-generation corn and soybean farmer Jim Rapp (pictured here).
“They visited my farm and we took a combine ride,” says Rapp, whose grandfather started farming in northwest Illinois in the 1920s. “Afterwards, we were talking in my machine shop and Peter was intrigued by some of the ethanol, no-till and wind-energy signs on the walls. That led to some great discussions and helped identify questions that Peter had, which are likely shared by other consumers as well.” Soon, Rapp was boxing up some of those historic signs for the Smithsonian’s American Enterprise exhibit, where they hang today. Said Rapp: “The vast majority of U.S. farms are family-owned, so we can tell agriculture’s story by simply talking about our families and what we do. Farming is an important aspect of this country’s economy, so it’s a great responsibility.”
“I think we will reach more people than almost anything else the soybean checkoff has ever done,” says former USB Chairman Phil Bradshaw, one of several USB directors who helped convince Smithsonian staff to incorporate agriculture into the exhibit.
The voice of the farmer will be heard in the Smithsonian’s new American Enterprise exhibit, which, as of July 1, leads visitors through the tumultuous transformation of the United States from a small, agrarian economy in the 1700s to the economic powerhouse it is today.
As Smithsonian visitors move through the evolution of the United States from the days of colonial merchants (think the Eli Whitney cotton gin) to the era of corporate power (the first cash register) to the rise of the all-powerful consumer (an 1,800-square-foot computer) to the formation of the global consumer marketplace (iPod, anyone?), they will also get a sense of the huge role agriculture played along the way.
In fact, it was USB directors who helped Smithsonian staff understand today’s agriculture so they could weave it into the exhibit, said Peter Liebhold, one of the principle curators on the project. Says Liebhold: “USB really led the charge.
“We were astounded by the fact that the story of agriculture is the same as the story of American industry,” Liebhold says. “Ag is not just growing corn and soybeans: It’s finance, manufacturing, information technology, retail and services and users.”
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An original 1920s Fordson tractor – which was to tractors what the Model-T was to cars – gives visitors a glimpse of where automated farm technology started; an interactive Farming Challenge” exhibit gives them a look at where it is today: a mock-up of a modern combine, complete with yield monitor, GPS and other controls. Visitors will make crop- and input-selection decisions just like today’s farmers do, and then “harvest” their results.
As many museum exhibits do these days, this one will include a robust amount of homespun stories from real farmers – including USB directors – who lived the history on display. The Agricultural Innovation and Heritage Archive invites American farmers to share their stories about the technologies and innovations that have changed their work and communities over the years. Former USB Director Roy Bardole of Iowa tells of his father’s Allis-Chalmers tractor, one of the first in his community, which was a welcome replacement for the thrashing machine at oat-harvest time. Former USB Director Sharon Covert, who spearheaded USB’s involvement in the exhibit, describes what is was like to “walk the beans” in the 1950s and ’60s on Illinois farms.
“The story of American agriculture is the story of American ingenuity that continues even today,” says Kavazanjian. “The stories can’t be separated. Hopefully, that’s what people will come away with.”
The Soy Checkoff at the Smithsonian
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Starting at the left, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and its American Enterprise Exhibit show visitors the story of ag, including the formation of the marketplace; early pioneers such as Cesar Chavez and Norman Borlaug; the growth of Colonial farms; and an early Eli Whitney cotton gin.