Iowa Farm Bureauand the University of Iowa Athletics Departmentare collaborating to bring back the America Needs Farmers—ANF—campaign, which was introduced by former Iowa coach Hayden Fry during the farm crisis of the 1980’s. The rebirth of ANF has been embraced by current Hawkeyes’ head coach Kirk Ferentz.
Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Lang says the ANF initiative is an excellent opportunity to share agriculture’s story with consumers who are two, three or four generations removed from the farm. And Lang says while the challenges facing agriculture today are just as great as they were 25 years ago, they are different.
“We need to rise to meet the needs of a growing population, where 100 percent more food will be needed in the next generation—and today we’re growing energy and fiber and food and all those things,” says Lang, “and we think the ANF brand is a way to promote what farmers do, what they grow, and the value they bring to America.”
There are several different elements in the campaign, including a special web site and creation of an ANF Plaza at Kinnick Stadium. And the Hawkeyes October 15th home game against Northwestern has been designated “ANF Day at Kinnick”. It’s expected to become an annual event.
Lang says this isn’t about promoting Iowa Farm Bureau, “but it’s about farmers—and so we’re going to work very hard to create an awareness that farmers are doing the things that consumers demand and we’re doing it in an environmentally sustainable way.”
Fry, Ferentz and Lang were all on hand for Friday’s ANF announcement in Iowa City.
I praise Coach Fry and Coach Ferenz for the idea and visibility of ANF. However, can this help the small farmer? I’m from north central Iowa, and we continue to see the landscape being altered. More and more family farms and wooded areas are being bull dozed for crop land. These family farms not only used to grow crops but they also raised livestock for our food supply. How can they compete with the corporate world invading farming and livestock raising? So, with different forces in play now than in the 1980’s, I do pray ANF will make awareness and eventually lead to a change.
i would like the u of i or farm bureau to supply numbers from the graduates from u of i’s ag school to see how many stay in the state of iowa or go into a different professions, such as law or the medical field……….oh wait, i seem to have the wrong college.
why would the largest farm organization in the state climb into bed with the college that is the least connected to agriculture( outside of t-shirts and helmets with ANF on them)?
could it be that the farm bureau is more concerned with insurance policies than it is with promoting and sustaining agriculture?
what america needs is well trained people capable of running farms today and they sure as heck won’t learn those tools at the u of i.
wake up, farm bureau, and define yourself and make the conscious decision to saddle up with a college that has your best interests in mind or are you something else than you pretend to be?
Wouldn’t it be great to have someone from ISU step up to enhance the visibility of ANF too? Having both schools support this movement can only help our entire state!
