Modern Farmer is a quarterly American magazine devoted to agriculture and food, founded in April 2013.[1][2] The magazine is unique in that it attempts to have equally rural and urban readers,[3] and to "appeal to the person who wants to romanticize farming and the person who is knee deep in turkey droppings", according to The New York Times.[2] In 2014, the publication won the National Magazine Awards for the Magazine Section.[4]
Frequency | Quarterly |
---|---|
Founded | 2013 |
Final issue | 2018 (print) |
Company | Modern Farmer Media |
Country | United States |
Based in | Hudson, New York |
Language | English |
Website | modernfarmer |
ISSN | 2326-0807 |
Modern Farmer covers feature livestock and its articles include those like a series of interviews with agriculture ministers from around the globe.[5] Its stories tend to take a "farm to table" perspective, comprehensively covering food and agriculture topics like Greek yogurt or feral pigs.[6] In addition to the print magazine, it has a popular website; its "goatcam", a public web cam of goats, produced 60,000 pageviews alone.[7]
Based in Hudson, New York,[3] the magazine was backed financially by Fiore Capital and its founding CEO/editor-in-chief was Ann Marie Gardner; she was later replaced by Sarah Gray Miller.[7][8][9][10] Gardner, a long-time magazine editor, came up with the idea for Modern Farmer when she tried developing a television show about a magazine editor covering a story about conflict between old and new farmers in Germantown, New York.[8] After developing a set of stories for the fictional character, she decided to create a real magazine.
In early 2015, the magazine's founder and much of its editorial staff departed the publication, with print publication suspended.[1][11] The paper's owner said in a statement that it planned to return for a summer issue in 2015.[12] Despite fiscal difficulties, the magazine temporarily returned in 2015, in part due to Frank Giustra's continued support for the project. In 2018, the magazine went online-only.[13]