Greg Peterson: Ag-Advocacy at Work
Back in January, Greg Peterson, famous for his viral videos of pop-music parodies about agriculture and life as a young beef farmer in Kansas, visited MSU on an invitation from the Michigan Corn Growers Association.
He gave an endearing presentation on how the “Peterson Farm Bros”, the farming trio consisting of Greg (26) and his two brothers, Nathan (23), and Kendall (20), rose to internet stardom, and how we can all use social media to advocate for agriculture. He left the audience with the take-home message that anyone can be an agricultural advocate – you just have to take the leap and get started.
When I first saw Greg as he entered the conference room in Anthony Hall, I almost laughed at how much he looked like a typical Animal Science student. He was wearing a weathered ball cap, a red flannel button-up, blue jeans with a big belt buckle, and work boots: the typical ensemble of so many of our undergraduates. If I had passed him in the halls of Anthony, I honestly wouldn’t have looked twice. This reassured me that he was the “real deal”; a good-hearted country boy who got swept up in viral videos and internet fame, but kept his roots firmly planted back home in Kansas. He was also a lot taller than I imagined him being, but I’ll chalk that up to my never having met someone I’d only seen on the internet before.
His talk started off with a history of their 5th generation family farm out in Kansas, and a timeline of how their first video, “I’m Farming and I Grow it” (a parody of LMFAO’s hit single “Sexy and I Know It”), went from having 1,000 views to being featured on Fox News with over 1 million views in less than one week. The boys were actually flown out to New York City for an interview with Fox News just three days after posting the video!
Greg received his bachelor’s in Agricultural Communications with a minor in Music Performance from Kansas State University. What seemed like an odd mixture of degrees ended up inspiring him to write the parody song and convince his brothers to star in the video with him (which apparently was quite a feat in itself). They filmed the video completely on cell phones with tripods, and their only promotion was through facebook and friends and family in the Kansas farming community. That first video now has almost 10 million views on YouTube (as of March 2017), and they have more than 80 entertaining ag-educational videos on their channel. It was amazing to see the power of social media at work for the great cause of making agriculture accessible to millions of people.
My favorite part of Greg’s presentation was his message that anyone and everyone could be an agricultural advocate (“ag-vocate”, as it were). He emphasized that every little bit of outreach helps, and that it’s increasingly important to reach out as the public continues to get further and further separated from farming and agriculture. He encouraged anyone with an idea on how to creatively get the word out to not be afraid to try – if it doesn’t work, that’s fine, but if it does, think of the impact one little YouTube video can have on the world. Greg also challenged us with questions like “What if every person in the U.S. spent a day on a farm? What if every person knew a farmer?” How would that affect the often controversial, distrusting relationship between the general public and agriculture? I agree that it’s easiest to fear what you don’t understand, so to me, the impact would be astoundingly positive. Even if you only reach one person, we’ve clearly seen that these messages can spread like wildfire.
So, to all you farmers out there, don’t be afraid to tell your story – show the world why you’re proud to be in agriculture. Who knows? You might just end up going viral and traveling the world with your message. If it can happen to a nice little family from middle-of-nowhere Kansas, it can just as easily happen to you.
