Luke Bryan Farm Tour: The Value of a Simple Conversation
By Craig Mischo, Deputy Director, State Relations, Bayer U.S.
Luke Bryan is a down-to-earth guy. Still, I was asking a country music superstar to have a one-on-one meeting with a governor — it might be uneasy, I thought. How would they communicate with each other?
Having grown up in a farming family, Luke’s respect for farmers inspired him to take his concert to farms across the country during harvest season. 2018 is the fourth consecutive year Bayer is sponsoring the Luke Bryan Farm Tour to give back in the communities and connect with our customers and elected officials. As we begin the tour, I find myself reflecting on this moment from our 2017 Farm Tour. We had set up for the governors from Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri to meet with Luke to present official proclamations, making the day that the Farm Tour stopped in their states “Here’s To The Farmer Day.”
Here’s To The Farmer, of course, is one of Luke’s songs. As part of the 2017 and now 2018 Farm Tours, Bayer and Luke ask country music fans to join in celebrating America’s farmers by sharing the hashtag, #HeresToTheFarmer. For each share, Bayer will donate a meal through our partner Feeding America to someone in need.
While we were waiting outside of the tour bus for Luke to meet with each Governor, my colleague Ray Kerins and I talked with them about the Here’s To The Farmer and Farm Tour sponsorship, and what it meant to Bayer and to agriculture. Engaging with and educating customers and stakeholders is the foundation of what we do as part of Bayer’s Corporate Affairs team.
We mentioned a recent collaboration we’d undertaken with 4-H to fuel a passion for science among young people. We talked about how we were bringing this initiative together with Bayer’s time-honored Making Science Make Sense initiative, which seeks to advance science literacy across the United States through hands-on, inquiry-based learning activities for young people.
As often happens when you have a minute to talk with someone, you make a connection. It turned out, for example, that Governor Reynolds of Iowa sees STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education in her state as a primary focus for her time in office. We also learned that Missouri Governor Greitens’ wife, a professor at the University of Missouri, also is very focused on STEM education.
One thing led to another, and we had lined up a couple of terrific events for aspiring youth in two states. In Jefferson City, Missouri, we coordinated with Governor Greitens and his wife to bring our Making Science Make Sense initiative — including our chief ambassador and astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison — to conduct a hands-on science learning event for 4th and 5th graders at the Governor’s Mansion.
In Iowa, we brought Bayer’s Making Science Make Sense initiative and Dr. Jemison to the Iowa State Fair. During the fair, we set up in the 4-H building, and Governor Reynolds came out to do experiments with the kids.
Inviting the Governors to attend the Luke Bryan concert in their states opened a moment in time for us to have a simple conversation and share the opportunities we value. It’s one of the many positive outcomes from the Farm Tour
The 2018 Luke Bryan Farm Tour starts today, Sept. 27, at the Ayars Family Farm in Irwin, Ohio, and over the next two weeks, the tour will make stops in Illinois, Iowa, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. Governor Reynolds has committed to join us again at the Iowa stop, and we’ve also invited the governors from each of the other five states to attend the concert and to meet Luke.
Getting back to the meetings between Luke and the three governors in 2017… I’m happy to report no uneasiness, no awkward pauses; three out of three times, it went well. Take the meeting with Governor Ricketts of Nebraska. Governor Ricketts presented Luke with the Here’s to the Farmer Day proclamation, and he also made Luke an honorary Admiral in the Nebraska Navy — which is a state inside joke given that there’s no Navy in Nebraska. So he and Luke had a good laugh. They also made a connection, realizing they have a shared interest in biking. Luke took the Governor to the back of his tour bus and showed him his road bike, and the two discussed their bikes and traded biking stories for close to 30 minutes. And Governor Reynolds, who’s a very easy person to talk with, also had a nice long visit with Luke, inviting him (and Bayer) to attend her annual Governor’s hunt in December. It’s truly amazing the connections that begin with a simple conversation. I can’t wait to share the great opportunities we value at Bayer with new connections during this year’s tour!
