''America's Heartland'' is a television program in the United States airing on

public television Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

since 2005. Produced by

KVIE KVIE (channel 6) is a PBS member television station in Sacramento, California, United States. The station is owned by KVIE, Inc., a community-based non-profit organization. KVIE's studios are located on West El Camino Avenue in the Natomas di ...

Sacramento, ''America's Heartland'' reporters and crews have brought in stories from all across the United States as well as faraway places like

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. The program features profiles of farming and ranching families and explores trends in food production from

farm-to-table Farm-to-table (or farm-to-fork, and in some cases farm-to-school) is a social movement which promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer (which might be a winery, brewe ...

. ''America's Heartland'' also features a "Farm to Fork" segment hosted by well-known CNET personality and blogger Sharon Profis. Profis joins farmers in their own kitchens, preparing recipes with ingredients grown on that farm. Other recurring segments include "Harvesting Knowledge", highlighting the history of familiar

food production The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the World population, world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from sm ...

, "Off the Shelf" featuring information about items found right in the

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday US usage, however, "grocery store" is a synon ...

, and "Agriculture 101", where agriculture experts answer questions posed by consumers. The program has featured several "themed" episodes. In 2008, Jason Shoultz explored overseas

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, and other food grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agri ...

in China and Taiwan in a special entitled "Journey of the Corn." In 2009, the program took viewers to Egypt and Morocco to explore overseas programs designed to grow export markets for corn and wheat. Themed episodes include "Dawn to Dusk," following a

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

farming family throughout a busy day, "The Miracle Bean," exploring the many uses of soybeans grown in the U.S., "Cowboy Cattle Drive" taking viewers on a three-day cattle drive in the Utah mountains. The program has also featured state-themed shows in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Sponsors are the United Soybean Board, Farm Credit, and the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. In 2011, the "Fund for Agriculture Education" was created, providing businesses and organizations an opportunity to contribute to show production funding. The series is a national evolution of ''California Heartland'', which covered California agriculture and aired for nine seasons on KVIE. The show airs weekly on public television stations across the US, on the cable/satellite channel

RFD-TV RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United St ...

, and on commercial television stations (including the World Harvest Television,

NewsNet NewsNet (stylized as NEWSnet) was an American news-oriented free-to-air television network and newscast production company owned by Bridge News, LLC, which itself is owned by Manoj Bhargava's Bridge Media Networks. The network was structured ...

, The Country Network, Heartland,

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

and

TBD TBD may refer to: Arts and media * TBD (TV network), an American broadcast television network for millennials * TBD TV (now ''WJLA 24/7 News''), a local cable news channel for Washington, D.C. * TBD Records, an American record label * TBD.com ...

subchannel networks) to meet educational children's programming requirements. Shows and segments can also be viewed on the program's website and the

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. ''America's Heartland'' also maintains a strong social media presence on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. The show's theme song "Close to the Land" was written by

Michael Martin Murphey Michael Martin Murphey (born March 14, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter. He was one of the founding artists of progressive country. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including ''Cowboy Songs (Michael Martin Murphey alb ...

and Rob Quist and performed by Michael Martin Murphey. Current Hosts: * Jason Shoultz * Rob Stewart * Sarah Gardner * Paul Robbins * Sharon Vaknin Former Hosts: * Paul Ryan * Pat McConahay * Yolanda Vazquez * Jon Lobertini * Amy Henry * Dave Lieberman * Akiba Howard * Kristen Simoes

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0802425
America's Heartland Website
2005 American television series debuts 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2020s American television news shows PBS original programming RFD-TV original programming