America’s Heartland Back for a Second Season, NCGA Notes (9-11-06)

America’s Heartland, the public television series that celebrates the miracle of American agriculture, is coming back to the airwaves for its second season, and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is once again a proud supporter.

America’s Heartland tells the stories of innovative farm and ranch families across the nation. The program is a collective effort among leading farm organizations, Monsanto, and the American Farm Bureau.

“NCGA is thrilled to be associated with America’s Heartland for another season,” said Gerald Tumbleson, NCGA president. “The program provides a medium for producers to explain to the public the importance of agriculture to our country. U.S. farmers provide feed, fuel, fiber, clothing and food for the nation’s consumers, and America’s Heartland is one way of giving the non-farming public a closer look at agriculture.”

The magazine-style, half-hour series produced by KVIE television in Sacramento, Calif., begins the second season with a slate of all-new stories captured from locations throughout the nation.

Corn is featured in two episodes for season two. America’s Heartland crews follow a Tennessee corn producer during planting in episode three, and the program highlights an ethanol plant in Wyoming in episode five. In addition, the program will  travel the length of the Mississippi River from its beginning in Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans.
    
The program will have an increased presence on the Internet this year, making it available to an even wider audience. The public can now view all 20 episodes of season one and the first five episodes of season two at www.americasheartland.org. Future episodes will be added to the site as they are produced. The first several episodes of season two also have been fed to public television stations, and they have already aired in some markets.

Viewers can check with their local PBS affiliate to see when the show is airing. While some stations have started airing the second season, others are now repeating the first season, while still others are showing season one for the first time. In addition, RFD-TV, the rural-interest satellite channel that aired season one, will start showing the second season in late September or early October.

In all, America’s Heartland can now be viewed (in analog, digital, or both formats) in 84 percent of the nation’s television households.

The series’ flagship supporters for the second season continue to be Monsanto and AFBF. America’s Heartland supporting contributors include NCGA, the American Soybean Association, National Cotton Council, National Association of Wheat Growers, United Soybean Board and U.S. Grains Council.