The Story Behind FarmHer

Marji Guyler-Alaniz realized in early 2013 that she needed a change in her life. The Iowa native, who studied graphic design in college, sought a career that combined her love of imagery and her deep appreciation for agriculture, which dated back to her days working for a crop insurance company. But she wasn’t sure what that looked like—until that year’s Super Bowl, when she watched the famous “God Made a Farmer” commercial, narrated by the radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.

“These women in ag are crushing stereotypes right and left. While they are still taking care of their families, they are operating high-tech equipment and overseeing diverse farming operations.”

“That commercial had all these beautiful pictures of farmers and ranchers in the U.S.,” she says. “I loved it and teared up when I saw it.”

But a few weeks later, she read an article that pointed out, while the commercial was heartwarming, its coverage of women in agriculture was limited to only three images.

“I had a pretty big aha moment,” Guyler-Alaniz says. “I had spent 11 years working in corporate ag, and I even began my career in marketing, where I created things that should have had women in them. But it never once struck me until that moment.”

In response, Guyler-Alaniz created FarmHer, an online and social community that showcases women working in a variety of jobs across agriculture through photos, videos and stories. To date, FarmHer boasts more than 23,000 Facebook likes, almost 3,200 Twitter followers and around 6,300 followers on Instagram.

RFD-TV realized that the next logical step was to take compelling stories like the ones Guyler-Alaniz has captured and broadcast them to a larger audience, with the help of Syngenta, the presenting sponsor of the series.

“Women play a very powerful role in the future of agriculture,” says Raquel Gottsch, executive vice president of RFD-TV. “When I met Marji, I knew she shared this same vision.”

The inaugural, 12-month season of “FarmHer on RFD-TV” kicked off in September. The show’s stars are the women whose stories Guyler-Alaniz and Gottsch are helping to tell.

“These women in ag are crushing stereotypes right and left,” Guyler-Alaniz says. “While they’re still taking care of their families, they’re operating high-tech equipment and overseeing diverse farming operations. There are no boundaries anymore.”

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