By Trent Loos
What started in the United Kingdom in 2020 will hit another gear in late October. In February of 2020, I traveled to the United Kingdom on my own accord to feel out what was happening regarding the opportunity for free trade between the UK and the United States.
I have been friends with Andrew Henderson since 2012 and in 2019 we both attended a meeting in Kentucky that started our mutual brainstorming. During that trip in February, every day I met folks in the retail food business, I visited farms, met U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson in London and most importantly visited with everyday consumers.
The misinformation that had been presented to the UK consumer about technology and food safety in the U.S. was mindboggling. So, in May 2020, Henderson and I decided to do something about it.
The onset of COVID-19 lockdowns was the perfect time to start a live video broadcast every morning from 6:30 to 7 a.m. with Henderson in the UK and me in the USA. We talk about the myths that exist between the two countries in food and farming and why more free trade is really a great idea. We call the broadcast Across the Pond and our theme is “Regaining control for the farmer.” I don’t think either one of us understood at the time how essential that phrase would become.
Three and a half years later, Across the Pond has grown substantially since our days of streaming only on Facebook. In November 2022, Facebook took over my account and won’t even allow me to shut it down. When you see all the ridiculous posts they have made for me, you will know that it certainly is not me running it. We found ways around my Meta-ban and, most importantly, North Dakota’s BEK News started airing our broadcast July 7, 2022, on both their television network and streaming to all social media platforms. Now you can even watch our broadcast daily on HPJ.com.
About three months ago Jim Ferguson, also from the UK, started joining us every Thursday to strengthen our discussion about how important food production is to the citizens around the world. We now have regular contributors from The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. What I thought was a catchy slogan: Regaining control for the farmer—thanks Todd Kennedy—back in 2020 now has become an actual necessity.
We want to take our show on the road, so Andrew and Jim are coming to America. They came up with the idea that we should go to some places here as a roadshow. I went to work thinking about how many states we could get to in one week. So here is the tour line-up: On Oct. 22 we will start near Quincy, Illinois, at John Wood Community College Ag Center from 4 to 6 pm. We will have introductions then we will record my daily Rural Route Radio program with audience interaction. At each stop, we will record the next day’s radio show at 4:30 p.m. with crowd participation and the rest of the time will be very interactive. I know folks don’t want to just sit through speeches. They want to interact and share stories.
The tour will land in seven states over seven days and cover about 1,850 miles. From Quincy we will travel to Rock Prairie Dairy in Wisconsin, then to Key Largo near Slayton, Minnesota, and on to Brown County Fairgrounds in Aberdeen, South Dakota, followed by the Black Leg Ranch in McKenzie, North Dakota, then we land at the Custer County Fairgrounds in Broken Bow, Nebraska, and wrap up in Brush, Colorado, at High Plains Cattle Supply. Each daily stop will be from 4 to 7 pm except Brush, which will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
My message will be clear and simple: We cannot sit back and expect someone else to create a better path for our kids. The challenges we currently have to our domestic supply of food and energy are dire. We must engage at the local level in ways we have not been prior to this. We all play a role and that is what I look for most on the tour. I can’t wait to get input from all the folks that join us. See you on the Regaining Control for the Farmer Tour 2023.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
