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Prestigious Peabody award for CNN documentary featuring local farmer

A CNN documentary on immigration and food security, featuring Todd County dairy farmer Pat Lunemann, along with Long Prairie mayor Jodi Dixon and Chief of Police Kevin Langer has won a Peabody award, acording to the project’s producer Matthew Reynard.

The purpose of the documentary was to show CNN viewers that many immigrants live in rural America and that they are vital to our economy, especially food as regards production. In addition to Todd County, CNN visited Worthington in Nobles County and Storm Lake in Iowa.

The George Foster Peabody Awards program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and online media, according to Wikipedia.
Reynard, and his team, chose Lunemann as a subject because he employs immigrants at his dairy, has spoken out publicly in support of just immigration reform, and has made it clear that a food security policy in the U.S. must include immigrants.

“The team was here for five hours,” Lunemann said. “Two just talking, and over two under the lights and undergoing an on camera interview.  The next morning we spent about two hours on camera walking and talking on the dairy farm, with Evelio and Leonel getting up close and personal with the cows, and the milking process.  I don’t think there was a question that Ed had not asked me, and if he didn’t get the slant he wanted, he asked the question again a different way.  Sometimes to the point of being annoying, but I knew what he was after, and I knew what my message should be, and I wasn’t going to say anything that could be sensationalized, although I’m sure they could have, out of four hours of camera recording.”

It’s not that Lunemann sought out immigrants to hire. He’s tried to hire many native born people who often don’t show up for work on the first day or they quit before  the days is out, he says on camera.

"What we're finding is the only people that are willing to do these jobs are immigrants," Lunemann said. "We need food security. If we don't have the workers to produce the food here in the US, the food is going to be produced somewhere else. And that's not a good plan for America.”

After visiting with Lunemann at his Twin Eagle Dairy near Clarissa the CNN crew went to Long Prairie to walk the Main Street with the mayor and Chief of Police. Long Prairie has a large number of immigrants, many of whom work at area farms.

You can see portions of the documentary, which is called “Beyond the border: Tracking America's hidden workforce”  here  https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/12/us/undocumented-in-america-special-report/index.html


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