“Downstream: Saving the great lakes in farm country”

The National Wildlife Federation has been a national leader in wildlife conservation for decades, but felt that their impact was limited by not engaging the farming community in those conversations. While developing their agricultural programs, they wanted to start by studying why farmers do what they do, and explore what levers we all have to affect their high-impact decisions. That’s why they called us. We sometimes feel like ‘smokejumpers’, the wildland firefighters who parachute into remote wildfires - we hit the ground, hungry for story, taking in everything, and hoping to leave with something new and precious in tact. This time we touched down in rural Indiana and spent a week in tractor cabs, at kitchen tables, and crowded around soil pits, learning and witnessing. A hero film and a series of social shorts that changed the conversation were the result.