PBS ‘lost its soul’ in farm series

A coalition of 70 environmental groups announced yesterday that PBS has “lost its soul” over a 20-part series meant to celebrate the traditional values and bedrock appeal of the nation’s farm country.

In conjunction with Boston-based American Public Television, PBS will air “America’s Heartland” on 305 stations this fall, funded by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, four other agricultural trade groups and the Monsanto Company, a Missouri-based manufacturer of seeds and herbicides.

And therein lies the rub.

“Public television has lost its soul if it can be so easily bought and sold by corporate agribusiness,” said Alice Slater of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, which organized the effort.

In a collective letter, the groups are asking local public TV stations to reconsider airing the program on the grounds that it has overlooked the plight of the family farm, which Miss Slater called “a sin of omission.”

The letter notes, “The destruction of America’s rural communities and the disappearance of its small farms is an important story that needs to be told … We are concerned that ’America’s Heartland’ is being produced to put a friendly face on the very forces causing these problems.”

The 70 signers comprise a motley crew, however. They include such obviously farm-based organizations as the American Grass-Fed Association, the Iowa Farmers Union and Family Farms for the Future — right along with the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, the Wisconsin Green Party and MoreOnBush.com, a Utah-based T-shirt manufacturer, which feature predominantly anti-Bush messages.

The letter cautions stations that the series will make “American consumers think that corporate farming practices are harmless and inevitable,” and recommends that stations offer alternative programming.

But the program, produced by PBS affiliate KVIE in Sacramento, Calif., has promised to showcase “the love of our land and the respect for the people who live on and from it,” and “bedrock American values,” among other things.

“We are surprised at this criticism. The show has not even been aired yet. I haven’t even seen it yet. So we wonder how these groups can quantify their comments,” KVIE spokesman Jim O’Donnell said yesterday.

KVIE has already ventured to 10 states, offering dispatches from a Vermont maple tree farm, a Gulf Coast fishery and an aloe plant farm in Texas. The series itself is based on “California Heartland,” a similar program that ran on KVIE for eight years and never received a single complaint, Mr. O’Donnell said.

The sponsors, meanwhile, say their collaboration is fueled by good will.

Kerry Preete, vice president of U.S. crop production for Monsanto, said he hoped the series would earn “greater respect for farmers’ and ranchers’ contributions.”

“America’s farmers are still predominantly operated by farm families and not large corporations, as many people think. ’America’s Heartland’ will put a face on those families and give them a voice,” said Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.