So God Made a Farmer

Background

Paul Harvey first gave the speech at the 1978 Future Farmers of America convention. It begins as a continuation of the Genesis creation narrative, describing God's actions on the eighth day. Harvey lists the characteristics of a farmer, each passage ending with the refrain 'So God made a farmer.' The speech was later published in Harvey's syndicated column in 1986. Harvey claimed in an introduction that the essay arrived unsigned in his mailbag, though he acknowledged embellishing and cropping it.

The speech borrowed phrases from a 1975 article Harvey wrote for the Gadsden Times, which itself drew from a 1940 definition of a dirt farmer published in The Farmer-Stockman. That 1940 piece was copied verbatim in a 1949 letter to the editor of the Ellensburg Daily Record by Tex Smith. Only two phrases and a few words from the 1940 piece remain in Harvey's speech, including 'can shape an axe handle from a persimmon sprout.'

The speech gained renewed attention when Ram Trucks used it in a two-minute commercial during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013. The ad featured still photographs of rural America and a voiceover of Harvey's narration. In collaboration with the FFA, Dodge agreed to donate $100,000 for every 1,000,000 YouTube views up to $1,000,000, a goal reached in less than five days.