Authors:
Matthew Wilde, ACN SIG Committee Chairman
Joy Crosby, ACN 2021-22 Board Member
Todd Fitchette, ACN Member
Hand sanitizer stations strewn about the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center during the 2020 Commodity Classic in San Antonio was a very subtle hint the world was about to change.
Nearly 4,700 farmers flocked to Texas from Feb. 27-29, 2020, for America’s largest farmer-focused educational and agricultural experience put on by several commodity groups. Less than three weeks prior to event, the World Health Organization officially named a disease — COVID-19 — that started as a novel coronavirus outbreak in December of 2019 in China that was slowly (at the time) making its way to other countries.
COVID-19 didn’t consume discussions among the record number of farmers who attended the convention, but it was talked about. Some attendees did apply hand sanitizer when they exited meeting rooms and escalators that were installed to help keep people safe.
Little did any of us know that within three weeks after Commodity Classic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would declare COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic and the U.S. would start shutting down (schools, restaurants, offices, etc.) temporarily to mitigate spread of the deadly disease.
COVID-19 has negatively affected everyone since, and it continues to impact everyone’s lives and jobs, including agricultural journalism. As the two-year anniversary approaches of the beginning of the U.S. COVID-19 lockdown — March 15, according to the CDC — here’s insight from three ag communicators from across the country on how the pandemic affected their work and continues to play a role in how they tell the stories of America’s farmers today.
Matthew Wilde, Progressive Farmer crops editor and AAEA SIG Committee chair, provides a Midwest perspective. Joy Crosby, Georgia Peanut Commission assistant executive director and Southeastern Peanut Farmer editor and AAEA SIG Association Communications co-chair, provides a look into the East Coast and South. Todd Fitchette, Western Farm Press associate editor and AAEA member, gives a glimpse on covering agriculture on the West Coast.
MIDWEST — MATTHEW WILDE
I can’t express how much I’m looking forward to attending Commodity Classic this month in New Orleans. Organizers did a good job putting on last year’s virtual event, but there’s no substitute for talking with farmers, company officials and others in-person, along with seeing the latest and greatest ag equipment and technology.
Most everyone, I believe, has virtual-meeting fatigue. People quickly tired of being stuck indoors and isolated. Thankfully, the world is starting to get back to some sort of normal.
The pandemic changed how most ag journalists did their job. For a time, going to farms, sitting at kitchen tables, and riding in tractors and combines to gather information ended. For much of 2020, phone interviews and taking socially distanced photos of field work (typically from the side of the road or ditch) sufficed.
In the latter half of 2020, farm visits resumed, albeit with new rules to keep myself and interviewees safe. Once I established an in-person visit was OK, I would list what I would do to make everyone comfortable — where a mask, sanitize hands, keep six-feet apart, only enter a cab or vehicle with permission and share my vaccination status. I, along with other journalists, did what needed to be done to keep information flowing.
In the Midwest, I would say things are close to getting back to pre-pandemic times as far as news gathering. Many Corn Belt states opened up quicker compared to the coasts, even as different COVID-19 variants hit, and infection rates spiked and declined. Sure, masks are still occasionally required at some meetings, but most are in-person and that’s good.
I believe farmers are mostly comfortable with journalists visiting farms and hopping in tractors. Many growers I know do not care if a mask is worn or not. However, writers shouldn’t take that for granted. It’s still good to ask subjects about their comfort level with COVID-19 and possible safety expectations. I have not had a farmer decline an in-person interview request since the pandemic lockdowns started to ease.
Plant 2022 is just around the corner along with Commodity Classic. I look forward to covering both in-person.
EAST COAST/SOUTH — JOY CROSBY
I’ll never forget the call I received after setting up a peanut exhibit for the upcoming NASCAR race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 12, 2020. Within an hour after leaving the race track for the hotel, I received a call stating that the race was being closed to the public and all exhibitors needed to pick up their exhibit materials by 5 p.m. on March 12. Then eventually, the race was cancelled completely. On March 13, 2020, I received another call that the Atlanta Community Food Bank Hunger Walk the Georgia Peanut Commission sponsors and exhibits at was also cancelled. One by one, more events were cancelled, and everyone began working from home.
The shift in mindset from on-site activations to figuring out a way to promote our brand in a virtual setting became reality. Of course, at the time, I don’t think any of us thought it would take this long to get back to a somewhat normal lifestyle.
I have two roles with my career and on one hand, I had to figure out how to continue promoting Georgia peanuts virtually and on the other hand still obtain information and photos for articles in the Southeastern Peanut Farmer magazine. Since everyone seemed to be at home and learning how to cook more then we promoted more recipes through our social media channels so that peanuts and peanut butter were at the forefront for those looking for new recipes. We also saw the trend in at-home learning since schools were closed and most parents were looking for materials that children could use virtually to continue their learning. So, we worked with a variety of groups to make sure they knew how to access our educational materials and shared those resources online to help teachers and parents who were looking for new materials.
At the same time, the world seemed to close down, farmers did not. Farmers continued on and they still need a variety of resources at their exposure. They also were used to attending field days throughout the summer to keep up to date with research and production tips. So, we had to figure out a way to transition those in-person events to a digital format for farmers while making it easily accessible to them.
So, we contacted researchers within the University of Georgia to meet them in order to conduct video interviews. While we conducted the video interviews we maintained any university protocol restrictions in terms of safe distance, using hand sanitizer and wearing masks. In the end the videos were a success and provided growers with information they normally would receive at an in-person field day. Fast forward to 2021 and farmers couldn’t wait to get back in the field and walk through the research plots and ask questions one-on-one with the researchers at field day. I did notice attendance being slightly down in 2021 compared to field days held in 2019 and earlier years.
In 2021, we did have to cancel our Georgia Peanut Farm Show event held in January but by the spring, some events had begun having a mixed option with some parts virtual and some events being held in person. By June 2021, we were back to events being held in person within the peanut industry with the first event being the USA Peanut Congress which brings all segments of the industry together. The next event held in July 2021 was the Southern Peanut Growers Conference which is geared for farmers across the Southeast. At both events you could tell that everyone was excited to be back in person with the hugs and “so glad to see you” comments heard at both events. Of course, you still had hand sanitizer stations, some folks wearing masks and such. There was an occasional speaker that appeared virtually at the conferences but for the most part all of the other speakers were in-person at the event.
On farm interviews slowed down and came to a halt mid-March through the summer of 2020. For this article, I reached out to editors, Jennifer Whittaker with Georgia Farm Bureau, and Marlee Moore with Alabama Farmers Federation, to see how they have been impacted through their association events and publications. Both mentioned that farm visits picked back up near the fall of 2020. In some cases, interviews may have been cancelled if the farmer or someone in their family came down with COVID but otherwise they happened like normal. I only had one farmer during 2021 that did not want an in-person interview at his farm but that was mainly due to his elderly father. So, all in all, reporters had to be resourceful in terms of obtaining photographs and interviews for their publications.
So, from no meetings, working from home to a transition allowing for in-person meetings and on-farm visits, things are basically back to normal. Now, let’s hope things continue to stay this way for 2022 and everyone stays healthy.
WEST COAST – TODD FITCHETTE
If there was any one thing that did not change for me during the pandemic, it was the need for copy and photos. Content creation could not stop. While the world shut down and access to live events ceased, perhaps the biggest struggle would be how I gathered content outside of my preferred method of personal interviews, on-farm visits, and live events.
Government closures and restrictions were immediate as I worked from my home in California at the time. While my work venue did not change – the pandemic did not send me home; my company hired me to work remotely – how I gathered information changed significantly.
Right out of the gate following California’s declared state of emergency in March 2020, an interview I had previously scheduled with an Extension entomologist was cancelled less than two hours before I was to visit her at a research station. In response to the governor’s state of emergency, the University of California closed public access to its research and Extension centers the day I was to interview the entomologist ahead of her announced retirement.
Interviewing her by phone was easy; it saved me over an hour of windshield time. Though I would not be able to get some new photos of her in her element, I had plenty of photos of her from previous stories, which saved me.
My extensive photo library collected over several years saved me and my colleagues many times as useful stock images of western agricultural crops and systems from the various available sources are rare. Most of my print edition cover images over the following two years came from that photo library. It has long been a practice of mine to shoot photos of way more than I need for any one assignment. It’s not difficult to justify shooting scenes unrelated to stories I’m working because at some point I may need them.
I had already planned to relocate to Arizona and continue writing for Western Farm Press when California enacted its state of emergency. Arizona followed suit with its own restrictions the weekend before I moved in late April of 2020. This made it even more difficult as I knew very few people here. As word got out that I lived in Yuma – by then the produce industry across the desert region of southern Arizona and California was reeling from millions of dollars in lost sales as restaurants and schools closed – a couple of well-connected folks in the ag industry from the Yuma region whom I had never met learned of my venue change and began to virtually introduce me around. I can’t thank them enough.
My success as a journalist has been about the ability to nurture quality relationships and build my network. My personal passion for photography allowed me to augment content in the absence of live events and travel. While agriculture remained an “essential” industry that couldn’t completely shut down, I learned to live with and work around government restrictions on travel that a few times in two years allowed me to get out of the house and visit a farm or processing facility.