My team, Culture & Trends, is often asked how we discover up-and-coming trends on YouTube. One of the many places we look is Creator on the Rise, a global program that highlights emerging channels and exposes us to communities and content formats before they hit the mainstream. In 2019, Creator on the Rise surfaced a number of creators from one industry in particular: farming! From 10th Generation Dairyman and Stoney Ridge Farmer in the U.S., to Kisan Farming in India, and Gael Blard in France, farming creators from around the world kept cropping up (pun intended) on YouTube.
When we dug into the data, we found that this phenomenon — one we’ve come to refer to as FarmTube — was not limited to Creator on the Rise: It saw massive growth across YouTube throughout 2019.
As of October 2019, monthly uploads of farming-related videos increased 61% compared to the same time period a year prior. Monthly views of farming-related videos kept pace with that growth, increasing over 69% in the same timeframe.
These videos are coming from individuals whose families have worked in farming for generations, like Zach Johnson, also known as Millennial Farmer, a fifth generation farmer from West-Central Minnesota who has amassed over 434,000 subscribers with his daily harvest vlogs and tours of other farms around the country. They’re also coming from first-time farmers, such as Weed ‘em & Reap and White House on the Hill, who share their adventures learning the basics of raising chickens and goats from scratch.
While farmers on YouTube work with different products (you’ll find everything from durian fruit to dairy), call different countries home, and have different levels of experience, they tend to have a similar goal: To help those of us who did not grow up on or around farms better understand where our food is coming from and how farms work (you can even check out farmer Ryan Kuster’s channel with that very name!). By using their channels to share their knowledge and shed light on everything from the financial aspects of running a farm to the day-to-day challenges of harvest season, farming creators are confronting stereotypes about their industry head-on.
And they’ve captured the attention of The New York Times, too, which came out with this story about farm-influencers on August 7. (You can also catch more FarmTubers, such as How Farms Work and Sonne Farms, in our United States of YouTube map.)
At March’s Commodity Classic in San Antonio, Texas, YouTube partnered with Farmers Business Network to talk with just a few of the farming creators whose voices are resonating with audiences around the world. Watch their videos above, then head to their channels to get a first-hand look at life on a farm.