The “Story Behind the Story”
ACN’s 2022 Story of the Year
By ACN’s 2022 Writer of the Year Steve Werblow
Some days the universe just hands you a story. Some days you have to dig for it. “Down from the Mountains” was a little bit of both.
I’d been invited to speak at a press tour in Switzerland by an International Federation of Agricultural Journalist (IFAJ) friend, so I had a spectacular opportunity to see something very special: the alpabfahrt, or “exit from the mountain,” when Swiss farmers march their livestock from high-elevation summer pastures to the valley floor where they’ll spend the winter.
Not surprisingly, it was spectacular.
The Felders descend more than two thousand feet from summer to winter pasture.
(Courtesy: Steve Werblow, The Furrow)
It’s the sort of scene that’s tailor-made for The Furrow and our 6-page photo story format: dramatic countryside, cheesemaking, charming villages, and handsome people in beautiful costumes. Heck, there were even handsome cows in beautiful costumes.
Herders from seven Swiss dairy families lead their herds from the Entlebuch region in the foothills of the Swiss Alps to winter barns in the valley below.
(Courtesy: Steve Werblow, The Furrow)
It went beyond the visual, too. You could hear the animals before you’d see them, thanks to the big, brass bells swinging from their necks. I knew I wanted to bring readers to the scene through the sound.
The village of Schüpfheim, population 4,200, swelled with 12,000 visitors during the 2018 alpabfahrt. The festival celebrating farmers helps form a bridge between rural and urban Swiss.
(Courtesy: Steve Werblow, The Furrow)
But a few days of talking to Swiss farmers, policy people, and animal activists also put me on notice that this story could—and should—go more than skin deep. The alpabfahrt festivals that had caught on around the country were part of a fairly desperate PR effort to connect city people to Swiss agriculture. Between government checks and top-dollar groceries, public spending is vital to keeping Swiss farmers in business, so it’s important that the public understands what all that money supports. These festivals have provided a forum to highlight the roles farmers play in maintaining biodiversity in the mountains, enhancing the tourist economy, producing delicious food, and maintaining the Swiss self-image.
Kathrin Felder readies cows for their downhill march.
(Courtesy: Steve Werblow, The Furrow)
American farmers, ranchers, and policymakers can learn a lot from how the Swiss use agriculture to achieve environmental objectives. We can also gather some tips on when the reins get too tight. I went digging for details so I could help readers understand the power and potential of Swiss farmers and their alpabfahrt campaign. Perhaps it will spark new creative engagements here.
To be honest, I’ve re-read some of the passages in this story and wish I’d smoothed them out a little more effectively (particularly when I piled the statistics pretty high). That’s typical when I go back to any of my stories, I guess. But reading this one again also reminds me of how fortunate we in this business are to do what we do. It also reminds me how important it can be to keep asking ourselves how we can bring these scenes—and the facts around them—to our readers so they can become more successful, learn something new, and maybe even help them hear the sound of cow bells in the mountain air.
Click here to read Steve’s entire award winning article from the September / October 2021 issue of The Furrow.
“Down from the Mountains” from the September/October 2021 issue of The Furrow was named ACN Story of the Year and its author, Steve Werblow, was named Writer of the Year at the 2022 Ag Media Summit. Steve, an Oregon-based writer and photographer, is a contributing editor on the Furrow team. Steve is a graduate of Cornell University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, and has been freelancing since he moved to Oregon in 1995.