Jan 5, 2009

Keeping up With the Growers

Think of your favorite Web site. I might be putting myself out there a bit by asking a bunch of farmers to do that, but even the oldest, most tradition-bound vegetable grower among you must have a favorite Web site by now. Or, if not a favorite, there must be a site you visit often.

Has that site ever changed its look or its content?

I’m guessing it has. If the site doesn’t change, what’s the point of follow-up visits?

As I indicated above, there’s a bit of a stereotype out there that farmers never change. In some ways, that’s fair. There’s a decent chance you dress for work more or less the same way your grandfather did: jeans, flannel shirt, work boots, John Deere cap.

But in other ways – especially if you’ve been farming for a while – you’ve been in a constant state of change. Whether it’s unpredictable weather, unpredictable labor shortages, unpredictable fertilizer prices, unpredictable insurance costs, unpredictable parking space or any of the other innumerable obstacles farmers and farm marketers face, you’ve been forced to adapt almost constantly. But you’ve survived.

Take a moment to pat yourself on the back. Seriously. Few people these days truly understand what you go through day in and day out. Think of yourselves as part of an elite group: underappreciated, perhaps, but essential nonetheless.

Anyway, since you’ve proven you’re adaptable and aren’t scared of change, don’t be intimidated by our fancy new look. We’re trying to make things easier for you. One of the major goals of the redesign process was to make Vegetable Growers News – or VGN, as we’re now calling it – more accessible to our readers.

In short, there’s going to be more of you, less of me. For example, instead of writing a long-winded editorial at the back of the magazine, I’m writing a shorter editorial up front. That’s what you’re reading now. This way, you can get through me quickly and painlessly, and move on to the rest of the magazine.

Also, we’re changing our Question of the Month format to get more detailed answers from our readers. Instead of multiple choice, we’re allowing you to write a (brief) open-ended answer to the monthly question. We’ll e-mail you the question; you e-mail back your answer. The responses will be published in the back of the magazine.

Not everything is changing, however. We’ll still have our special sections; Jane Eckert, Sheryl Williams and the Michigan Potato Industry Commission will still have their monthly columns; and the focus will still be on you, the vegetable grower, who is constantly buffeted by the winds of change.