A new TV series aims to change the image of agriculture, in Tampa Bay and beyond, by telling the stories of several women who make up the U.S. farming workforce.
Throughout its fall run, FarmHer will spotlight female farmers in Myakka City, Lithia, Frostproof and Tampa, among other cities. The show's first episode airs at 9:30 p.m. Friday on RFD-TV.
"I spent my career working in agriculture and never thought about how women were (or rather, weren't) portrayed," according to photographer and TV host Marji Guyler-Alaniz, who founded the FarmHer concept as an online community and photo project after Ram's "Farmer" Super Bowl ad debuted. "I woke up in the middle of the night with the realization that instead of being frustrated, I had the ability to start changing the perception with my camera and show the world that women farm too."
FarmHer essentially answers Guyler-Alaniz's own question: Where are the women?
Those who tune into the show will watch as it explores the life of a different farmer in every episode. During the series premiere, they'll see the four-legged children of Tampa's "corporate yuppie-turned-accidental farmer" Pam Lunn, whose eureka moment came in the form of her urban goat dairy, The Dancing Goat. They'll also see how Frostproof rancher Shayla McCullers, who grew up living off the land, is passing down the craft to her two daughters on their family cattle drive along the Kissimee River.
"It is a really nice thing to enjoy doing something that you like," Lunn says, "and whether you're a guy or a girl doing it, I just wish everybody in the world could do what they really have a passion for. And I have a passion for these goats."
Catch an encore of the FarmHer premiere at 11 a.m. Saturday or 9:30 p.m. Sunday. New episodes of the weekly series (RFD-TV is only available via DirecTV or Dish Network in some areas) will air on Friday nights.
