‘On The Farm’ Explores Plights Of Small-Scale Farmer

ROBERT NATHAN GREGORY

STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI

Sam McLemore had exceptional strawberry harvests in 2020 and 2021, but he still couldn’t grow enough produce to meet increased local demand, so he took out a bank loan for a new tractor and began expanding his farm.

McLemore and his wife, Isabel, has co-owned Starkville-based Bountiful Harvest Farms for more than a decade. A time of prosperity for their farm was brought to a sudden halt with one bad crop. In the 2022 growing season, late fall temperatures were too high and winter rains too heavy. Plantings for an anticipated 5,000-pound strawberry harvest only yielded 150.

He explained in the miniseries “On the Farm” that the setback caused him to fall behind in making debt payments. The miniseries, produced by the University Television Center at Mississippi State University, represents a partnership between the MSU Extension Service and the MSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“There are definitely conversations of, ‘Do we just close the farm altogether?’” McLemore said. “Do we cut it back to a smaller size that’s more manageable and sell the tractor, so we don’t have that loan and sell other equipment and pare everything way down? Do I go work for someone else and get a salary or just get an hourly job delivering pizzas? … We talked about all sorts of options.”

The second season of “On the Farm” airs on Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s TV channel July 1 at 9 p.m., July 5 at 7:30 p.m. and July 7 at 4:30 p.m. Each of the four stories will air in full as a single, one-hour episode.

Each film tells the story of an agricultural worker navigating industry and personal challenges. The films also spotlight resources and organizations that can assist producers in crisis and feature specialists from MSU in agricultural economics, family science and clinical psychology. These specialists connect the lived experiences of the farmers to scientific literature on rural and agricultural lifestyles.

The episode on McLemore highlights a disadvantage that small-scale farmers have compared to corporate operations – equal access to technological advances in the industry.

“While technology is great and has allowed us to produce more efficiently, generally corporate farms are able to invest in that equipment and benefit from the gains in technology and gains from the scale of production, producing more at a lower cost,” said Elizabeth Canales, an agricultural economist with the MSU Extension Service. “Small farmers do not benefit from that.”

Other farmers profiled in “On the Farm” include Sunflower County catfish producers Ben and Ed Pentecost, Pike County large animal veterinarian Kim Klunk and Sulligent, Alabama dairy farmer David Gilmer.

For information about Mental Health First Aid training, visit the Extension website at https://tinyurl.com/4buuy4vx or contact the local Extension office. To hear more of McLemore’s story along with other Mississippi farmers’ stories, watch the entire “On the Farm” miniseries at https://onthefarm.life.

If you or someone you know is personally struggling with navigating challenges faced in the agriculture industry, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat with a crisis counselor at http://988lifeline.org.  ∆

ROBERT NATHAN GREGORY: Mississippi State University