Documentary features local farmers' lives

EAST PRAIRIE -- Three Southeast Missouri farmers are helping to tell the story of agriculture through a nationally syndicated documentary special set to broadcast locally this weekend.

"Against the Grain: The Year Mother Nature Struck Back" will air at 4 p.m. Sunday on the ABC affiliate, WSIL 3. Produced by an Emmy award-winning team, Weller/Grossman, and agriculture industry experts, the documentary focuses on a number of farm families as they battle the forces of weather that are "against the grain." Each family tells their own stories in their own words.

Among farmers featured is Kevin Mainord of East Prairie.

"I'm excited that the program gives an urban audience -- because most of the stations it's going to be on are in the metropolitan area -- a chance to see what farmers do for a living and where their food comes from," said Mainord, who has been involved in agriculture for 30 years and also serves as East Prairie's mayor.

Mainord said his involvement with the documentary came about last spring when Avatar Studios of St. Louis came to Southeast Missouri to cover the breach of the Bird's Point-New Madrid Floodway and talk to those affected by the flooding.

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