Mike Rowe to keynote AFBF Annual Meeting.
Mike Rowe, the creator and executive producer of Discovery Channel’s Emmy-nominated series Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, will deliver the keynote address to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 92nd annual meeting on January 10, 2011 in Atlanta, GA
More than 5,000 Farm Bureau members from across the nation will gather in Atlanta Jan. 9-12 to hear from distinguished leaders and participate in a grassroots policy setting process that will guide the American Farm Bureau through 2011.
A champion of farmers and ranchers and other hard-working Americans, Rowe has spent years traveling the country, working as an apprentice on more than 250 jobs that most people would go out of their way to avoid, including many agricultural jobs.
“We are excited to have Mike Rowe as our keynote speaker,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “Like farmers and ranchers, he’s not afraid to roll up his shirt sleeves and get his hands dirty. Mike understands that most things that contribute to our standard of living—such as abundant food—are the result of someone else’s hard work, dedication and skill, not magic. I think Farm Bureau members will get a lot out of his message.”
Some of Rowe’s included apprenticing as a big animal veterinarian; cow feed lot worker, dairy cow midwife, rice plantation worker, egg producer and a farmer of goats, pigs, turkeys, potatoes and sugar cane.
While Dirty Jobs showcases some of America’s toughest occupations, Rowe’s work doesn’t stop at the job site. He’s launched a website called mikeroweWORKS.com, where skilled labor and hard work are celebrated in the hope of calling attention to the steady decline in the skilled trades and dwindling enrollments in trade schools and technical colleges.
In furtherance of his support of farming, Rowe is doggedly highlighting the issues facing America’s farming community through his website and specifically on his blog “The Future of Farming”. Rowe was the keynote speaker at the 82nd National FFA Convention in Indianapolis last year.
Farm Bureau members can register for the 92nd AFBF annual meeting through their state Farm Bureaus.
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Mike talks about egg farming in this video: “It’s a Tough Job!”
November 20, 2009
Mike Rowe, who hosts “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel, has spoken several times about farming and farm life – and how sometimes farmers do indeed know the best way to do what they do. (See this video on lamb castration, farming and hard work.)
It’s also interesting to note that many of his “Dirty Jobs” segments involve farming in one way or another.
Recently, Rowe sat down with AgriTalk’s Mike Adams for an interview.
Rowe talks about a “war on work”, his website MikeRoweWorks and specifically about agriculture and animal agriculture.
For the full radio interview, click here.
“Anybody from a city, in my opinion, who spends a day, a week, maybe even just a few hours on a working farm is going to be quickly disabused of a lot of what they believe” Rowe told Adams.
Rowe said he is not looking for trouble with OSHA, PETA or “any other angry acronym.”
“But I’m amazed and really curious to know how they’ve become so influential over the last 40 or 50 years,” he said. “I can’t imagine a political organization dedicated to the elimination of U.S. animal agriculture, as the Humane Society [of the United States] appears to be today.”
Before going on, let me just say that I really like Rowe. And we’ve all got to start somewhere.
If you dig a bit at MikeRoweWorks you’ll find the Warehouse. It is here where Rowe, in his classic style, discusses his early days on TV – where he worked for QVC in the overnight hours – “sleepwalking through the graveyard shift, and doing my best to amuse myself at a time when the sound of my own voice was the only thing keeping me awake.”
He later learned that people at The Onion would videotape his shift on QVC “on purpose and then – inexplicably – watch it at work for the purposes of fostering ‘the proper level of subversion and irreverence’. How crazy is that? At a time when I was offending the gentle sensibilities of insomniacs and doll collectors everywhere, I was simultaneously providing inspiration to aspiring writers and starving artists.”
Rowe links to a few YouTube videos that you may find entertaining, provided you appreciate his sense of humor. Be sure to check out the dirt shirt and art glass links, too. (And, yes, QVC eventually let him go.)
Visit the Nebraska Corn Kernels website here.
Mike talks to Orion Samuelson after the 2009 FFA Convention. Check it out – it’s really quite good!
FFA 2009 National Convention – October 22, 2009.
Mike delivers the keynote to 56,000 young people and America’s farming future. (Note: The speech is about 45 minutes long but worth every second.)
