The Super Bowl is an enormous event, and often times, it’s the commercials that the get the most attention on national television. In this case, we at Texas Hill Country can’t help but share what’s in our opinion one of the best Super Bowl commercials to ever run. There’s no drama or action, no special effects, no comedy – just a simple monologue about the very people who are the backbone of our country. It’s as American as football itself, and it just makes us proud to be Americans – and Texans, where farmers are the foundation of our land.
“So God Made a Farmer” was the name given to a speech given by the radio broadcaster Paul Harvey at a 1978 Future Farmers of America convention. The speech was first published in 1986 in Harvey’s syndicated column. The speech borrowed a few phrases from a 1975 article written by Harvey in the Gadsden Times, which was itself inspired by parts of a 1940 definition of a dirt farmer published in The Farmer-Stockman. The 1940 article was copied verbatim by Tex Smith in a letter to the editor in the Ellensburg Daily Record in 1949. The speech was given as an extension of the Genesis creation narrative referring to God’s actions on the 8th day of creation. Harvey described the characteristics of a farmer in each phrase, ending them with the recurring “So God Made a Farmer.”
God bless our farmers!
