The organization has become an important social outlet for farmers and ladies who love them. It traces its beginnings to a 1984 article in Farm Journal asking lonely agri-singles to place classified ads seeking dates or mates. After some 2,700 responded, the magazine encouraged formation of the new singles group. There are now 1,300 members in 40 states, according to The New York Times. Singles in Agriculture is a group dedicated to erasing loneliness among men and women who share at least some background in agriculture.
Farmers often travel as much as a hundred miles to get to a meeting.
Each session does end in a group hug, however, to promote togetherness and fight loneliness. Singles in Agriculture publishes a directory that is issued four times per year, allowing farmers to post messages designed to help them meet members of the opposite sex who would be interested in romance with a man of the soil, a husbander of animals, a down to earth kind of guy. Many have found such joy, thanks to the thriving organization. The least they have found is lasting friendships with many others whose way of life is as complicated and as isolated as their own.