I’m sure most of you know that The Hand That Fees U.S. is the American farmer. But not everyone understands that in the media and the consuming public. For that reason HTFUS was announced today.

One of the key individuals involved with this project is Larry Combest, former U. S. Representative from Texas. He was Chairman of the House Ag Committee and was directly involved in farming his whole life, although he’s not currently actively farming. So he’s sure got a good background on the subject matter.

I spoke to Larry this morning and we talked about why this new project has come about, who’s behind it and how they plan to help educate the media about agriculture. I found out about it this morning on Twitter. You can follow their feed here. He says HTFUS is a project of FarmPolicyFacts.org which he became aware of during last year’s farm bill efforts. One of the things HTFUS will do is respond to any and all media articles about agriculture that are not factually correct or are very biased. He says this is an outreach effort to the media to make sure real life farmers are given a voice.

Of course they’ve got a website and you can already watch video with a real life farmer telling his story. A very diverse group of organizations has come together to support this project and Larry says more are considering joining in.

This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “Take My Hand”, by Dr. Mic and the Brain Ninjas. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 219 (30 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Larry Combest - ZimmCast 219

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