agri.CULTURE - The woman behind the camera

Karla Salp
Communications

Sue Tebow with her horse. Photo courtesy of Sue Tebow.

For Sue Tebow, inspiration struck as she scrolled through her Facebook newsfeed.

She came across a post by Humans of New York – a project begun by an amateur photographer in New York featuring a street portrait of New Yorkers accompanied by a few of their own words sharing their stories. The photographs became a social media phenomena and the project’s Facebook page now has more than 18 million followers since its inception in 2010.

To Sue it was clear that the simple interface of a photo and a few words from the subject had resonated with people around the world. She decided to try her hand at a similar project in her community, combining two of her passions – photography and helping people reconnect with farmers. That’s when agri.CULTURE was born.

Her goal: to photograph and post one picture and story of someone in agriculture each day on her Facebook page. Her husband thought that would be too much, but Sue knew that with just her neighbors in the Block 40 area near Moses Lake she had 300 potential farmers to feature.

“No one is going to tell their story better than they are,” Sue said. “Who is going to tell their stories if they don’t tell it themselves?” 

It has not been easy. Sue works hard to capture photos that she can feature on each and every day, and sometimes struggles to find willing subjects.

Still, in a matter of a few months, she has managed to post a new photo each day of the week except Sunday since last April, along with the a few words from the people she’s featured. Her Facebook page has grown to more than 5,000 followers just by word of mouth and sharing. By comparison, WSDA’s Facebook page has about 4,000 followers, though it was created in 2012.

Like many in the agriculture community, Sue believes that those who work in agriculture need to reconnect with the vast majority people who are no longer familiar with life or work on a farm.
To make farm life real, Sue insists on photographing people as they really are. No makeup prep needed for this photoshoot – Sue wants to catch people doing what they really do on a day-to-day basis on the farm.

As quickly as her project has grown, Sue hopes that one day it will be a national effort.
“Washington, the Pacific Northwest, then beyond,” she said.

If you work in agriculture, might be a willing subject for Sue, or are just interested in connecting with her, you can email sue.agriculture@gmail.com. You can also visit Sue’s Facebook page to see the photos and view the stories of farmers she meets.

New website helps military veterans get on the farm

Brent Barnes, Pesticide Management Division

For some of us military veterans, returning to civilian life is a transition that requires a little help.

Brent Barnes is assistant director
of WSDA's
Pesticide Management Division

Before I left the U.S. Army, I had the chance to participate in a wonderful transition program called Northwest Edge that helps veterans enter Washington State and federal employment. This led to a Washington State Veterans Fellowship, a number of informational interviews and job shadowing opportunities and, finally to the position I currently fill, for which I am very grateful.

But not every veteran wants to work for the state government. Some want to farm.

WSDA had been hearing about efforts around the country to help veterans transition into agriculture. We would occasionally get calls for information about organizations involved in this type of work.

While there was interest in sharing this information, most websites I found focused on recruiting veterans for vacant agency positions or linking to benefits available to veterans based on their honorable service. I believed what WSDA needed was a web resource for those who wanted to become farmers, ranchers, or find another way to enter the industry that we support.

The result is www.agr.wa.gov/aginwa/veterans - a website sharing links for a range of resources that might be useful to a military veteran seeking a future in agriculture.

Creating this website is one result of WSDA’s interest and intent to help veterans.

We can now provide an online resource that I hope will serve as a clearinghouse for subjects such as assistance for beginning farmers, small farm loans and grants, education, ecotherapy and mentorships.

I hope this small effort will help those who want to enter the agriculture industry, whether in Washington or anywhere transitioning service members relocate.