MLO Around McH

Mike Orso will be traveling McHenry County to share what's happening on farms and in agriculture.

A Full-Circle Agriculture Adventure

By Mike Orso

What occupation allows you to wander the Amazon River in northern Brazil, attend a discussion in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, help fix a van on a rural road outside of St. Petersburg, Russia, participate in a food demonstration in Mexico City or play a role in the opening of  a member-owned source of home-grown and other food right here in McHenry County? I suspect you wouldn’t think “agriculture.” Think again. I can personally attest that the most essential sector of our economy – food, fiber and fuel production – does provide these types of exciting life opportunities plus more.

That’s in my past. I’ll have the honor over the next few months to highlight some of the inspiring agricultural people, places and events that now make McHenry County – and the McHenry County Farm Bureau – special. I hope you will come along for the ride.

First, I’ve been asked to share a bit about myself, which I’ve never done before, at least not in the written word. My time in agriculture started – and will conclude – right here in McHenry County.

I’m #6 in a Crystal Lake family of 8. Living within walking distance of our church, grade schools and Main Beach provided a special bonus for us Orso kids. Not quite at the front end of our family nor at the end, it wasn’t until I worked on a farm near Woodstock in high school that I found some direction and a clearer path to pursue.

I met Judy and George Sowinski, who farmed in rural Woodstock, when I was in high school. Judy served as a very special English teacher and caring class adviser for me and many others at Marian Central. I met her husband George, who helped chaperone at one of our homecoming float building weeks at a farm on Queen Anne Rd. not far from the school. A few months later, he needed a hired hand on the family farm. Judy asked if I would like to come out on weekends during the school year to start. I’ll never forget my first day on a cold, Saturday in January, climbing the silo to help repair its unloader that blew down the valuable, fragrant feed for their beef cattle.

My interest in journalism and communications developed from playing with an open-reel tape recorder my dad brought home from work along with listening to the service journalism practiced by radio stations such as the old WIVS-AM in Crystal Lake. Its federal license made it go off the air at sundown, but not during weather emergencies. I vividly remember the station matching up listeners with first responders utilizing volunteer snowmobilers during a two-day blizzard to, among other things, rescue stranded motorists on roads and respond to medical emergencies throughout our county.

I took classes at McHenry County College and learned about the agriculture journalism programs at several land grant universities. My mom and dad put me on a bus in Elgin to go visit Iowa State University. That’s when the bus companies stopped at just about every mid-sized town along the Grant Highway. What should take about six hours took 13. When I arrived in Ames, I almost immediately knew it was where I wanted to be, in part because of its agricultural journalism program. Instead of spending spring breaks at Dayton Beach or South Padre Island, I came home to help George clean calf pens and pig farrowing (birthing) crates along with preparing for spring planting.

My adventure has taken this course:

  • General assignment reporting during the farm crisis days of the mid-to-late 1980s at an NBC-affiliated TV station in northeast Iowa.
  • Doing broadcast and other communications work for the American Farm Bureau Federation, first at its then-headquarters in Park Ridge and then at its office in Washington, D.C.
  • Evaluating and starting an overhaul of the communications program for the National Corn Growers Association, an organization representing one of the nation’s top farm commodities, in St. Louis.
  • Serving as senior producer for the farm-and-food focused Channel Earth in Chicago, then channel 283 on DirecTV. We didn’t generate enough advertising revenue to cover costs. Security for a Chicago bank that provided financing escorted us out of studio after 10 months!
  • Sharing the story of how to create demand for specific U.S. farm products such as beef, pork and soybeans for U.S. farm commodity group clients of St. Louis-based advertising and public relations company, OsbornBarr.
  • Leading an effort to transition the communications program at Illinois Farm Bureau out of the Baby Boom generation to Generation X, Y, Z and beyond.
  • I’ll never forget walking into a chain grocery store in March 2020 with bare shelves and thinking, “Something is definitely wrong here.” I’m proud now to be part of the group of dedicated and fun people who bring you a local and independent source of food at the member-owned FoodShed Co-op in Woodstock. You just might find me at the loading dock helping unload fruit, vegetables and other goods produced right here in our county or stacking them out on FoodShed shelves or displays.

That’s more than enough about me. I hope you come with me and check back here often over the next few months to learn about today’s people, places and happenings that make our most essential economic sector, agriculture, an important part of McHenry County, our state, country and world.

Mike Orso (center) works with Kevin Ortega (front), FoodShed produce manager and others at the cooperative in Woodstock.