Ag leader wary of ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’

A Nebraska farm leader is worried about how accurately a new TV reality show will portray farmers and their problems.

John Hansen, the president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, fears that “The Farmer Wants a Wife” intends to paint its rural reality cast as naive bumpkins.

“I’m not inclined to be helpful to any of those efforts that would trivialize the enormous problems that farm and ranch families face,” he said.

The premise of the show is to make a match between lonely young farmers with no time to date and women who dream of living a traditional, small-town lifestyle.

The show is from FremantleMedia, which also produces “American Idol,” the upcoming “American Inventor,” “The Price is Right” and “Love on the Rocks.” Producer Julie Uribe, a graduate of the University of Nebraska, said she’s determined to search her home state for farmers who will star in the show.

“I wanted to help somebody from my home state get the opportunity of a lifetime,” Uribe said. “I made sure we sent our casting team to Nebraska.” The casting team has also tapped California, Ohio and Texas.

Hansen said he’s worried about how Americans perceive family farmers and ranchers because of how they are portrayed in the popular media.

“It’s somewhere between rednecks and ‘Hee Haw’: culturally backward and unwashed,” he said. “It’s kind of the new and more modern version of the hayseed. It’s such a shallow, inaccurate and stereotypical view of rural families.”