The farmer on the end of the phone was the nicest guy you could imagine. “I want you to know why I’m not renewing my subscription,” he said. “It hasn’t got anything to do with you personally. It’s just that I’ve heard all this business and this feed-the-world talk before, and it isn’t any more true now than it was last time.
“When a property in this area comes up for sale, it gets sold,” he continued. “Always has, always will. And the price of grain will be just high enough over time so the person who buys it will be able to make a living. Always has, always will.”
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Shortly after, I got an e-mail from another farmer (ironically, he lives in Saskatchewan only about an hour’s drive away from the first) who encouraged us to keep up our business reporting. “I’m reading things in Country Guide that I’m just not seeing anywhere else. It really helps me review my own management.”
Like farmers across the country, these two individuals are thoughtful, intelligent managers who have a deeply ingrained understanding that the most important thing they own is their insight.
I’m telling you about them because I wanted to explain our choice this month to repeat our four basic rules of credibility.
First, we don’t sell editorial space in Country Guide. We never tell advertisers that if they buy a page of advertising, we’ll write an article for them. That means never.
Second, we don’t allow ghost writing. Every article in every issue is bylined. Sometimes we’ll ask a company person or a consultant to write a column on topics that can range from tax planning to field management, but our promise is that you will always know who wrote what, and you’ll be able to make up your own mind on whether their advice is credible.
Third, advertisers and company sources never get a chance to screen or revise the stories we write. Again, that means never. If you’re a farmer and we interview you for an article, we will often show you a draft copy and ask you if we got it right. We think you would approve this. But there’s no way that AGCO, for instance, saw the story in our April issue before you did. It’s an ironclad promise.
Fourth, we don’t accept expensive favours from companies. Yes, if we get together for lunch, they may pick up the tab one time (and we’ll pick it up the next) but we don’t accept free flights or free hotel rooms, and there’s no way we ever accept free product of any kind.
We agree. Your insight is your most valuable possession. To the extent that the articles you read in Country Guide can help you build that insight, we want to make sure you’re building with lumber that is straight and true.
By the way, I didn’t change the mind of the farmer who dropped his subscription, but I did get him to promise to leaf through us when he’s at his son’s place. And I told him to call again. I’m at 519-674-1449. Or you can e-mail me at [email protected].It would be great to hear from you.
