Growers almost always finish at or near the top of trusted-professions polls. They’re right up there with first responders like nurses and firefighters.

Usually, that lofty standing is used to sell the virtues of their food. Words like safe, wholesome, local. 

But could growers use their highly regarded status to help rural vaccination efforts succeed, by leading by example?

It’s an approach being tried in the U.S. There, frustrated health officials are pulling out all the stops to try diffusing the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

They’re hitting a wall of resistance in rural areas, hotbeds of disbelief about the potentially fatal repercussions of not being vaccinated.

That’s odd, in a way. Rural areas are closer to any others when it comes to the irrefutable power of vaccinations. Producers routinely vaccinate livestock to stave off disease, and few people blink an eye.

Granted, few people actually see hypodermic needles in action on the farm. But vaccinations are a big part of livestock culture, and livestock is a big part of rural culture.

Still, polls suggest most unvaccinated people simply don’t want it. The issue is trust, not access: some people remain skeptical of the vaccination’s safety. They’re more willing to take a chance with the actual infection than the vaccination.

Of course, besides putting themselves at risk, unvaccinated people are putting others at risk, such as friends and their own family members, by spreading the virus around. That’s especially true now that the more contagious delta variant has taken hold. 

But friend-and-family arguments aren’t putting needles in arms. In June, the U.S. National Public Radio and Johns Hopkins University found new COVID-19 hotspots cropping up in urban and rural areas with dangerously low vaccination rates, especially in the South, Midwest and West. 

Some so-called rural states, with big farm sectors such as Illinois, Missouri and Utah, are seeing higher infection rates in non-metro areas.

So the National Rural Health Association and the National Farmers Union have teamed up to try something new: that is, having farmers and ranchers speak openly about why they've chosen to be vaccinated. 

It’s an interesting tactic, and proven to work in sales. Marketers know testimonials and strong voices from trusted sources carry a lot of weight. Look at farm publication advertising and invariably you’ll see producers implicitly or explicitly endorsing products they use. 

The rural health association likens this kind of endorsement to a one-on-one conversation. Follow someone’s Twitter account, a medium highly popular with producers, and it’s possible to connect on a personal basis (or at least as personal as a computer or smart phone allows).

A tool kit has been created at https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/programs/covid-19-pandemic/covid-19-vaccine-resources to support the campaign, and those who get involved.

The organizers are not asking growers, farmers or producers to become health experts. They just want them to give honest, straightforward accounts of why they chose to get vaccinated, in the hopes that their reasoning will resonate with others.

Organizers recognize that being a resource for someone else at this time is a challenge for some producers. During the pandemic and its surrounding hysteria, uncertainty and chaos, it’s been hard enough just looking after your own affairs, let alone carving out time to help others through it.

But helping others is part of rural culture, and of the spirit of agriculture. Farmer-to-farmer support is a hallmark of the drive towards better mental health for producers. Can that same spirit be parlayed into physical health promotion and wellness leadership too?