Why We Should Tell Our Stories

I live in Iowa, in a small town of 8000 people, in a rural environment.  I grew up on a farm and know what it means to do chores, feed animals and depend on those animals to feed our family and actually, the world.  And frankly, most farmers don’t even think about it.  They get up, do their chores and go about their work.  Like most people who go to work, they worry about if there will be enough money at the end of the month to pay all the bills.  They hope and pray their children will be safe and sound and out of harms way. In a lot of ways, we are all more alike than we are different.

But let’s do talk about how we are different.  I have the opportunity to work with some city bloggers in June.  Our chamber has invited them to visit Webster City and participate in a weekend Agriculture bloggers tour.  We’ll take them out to a farm and show them the old fashioned style of farming, and the newer method of farmer.  They’ll see animals, and buffer zones, and big and small equipment.  They’ll experience the farm to fork journey and get a taste of what rural living is all about.  We call them city bloggers, because that is exactly who we have invited – bloggers that live in larger metropolitan areas.

We want to tell our story – and answer questions from someone who often hears our story from media outlets who don’t really know it.  We reached out the Midwest Travel Bloggers group and asked who wanted to come to Webster City and were very pleasantly surprised by the number of bloggers who responded.  Now our committee is working solidifying the partners who will be participating in July in the Ag Bloggers Tour!

We are telling our own story.