The Shadow
Neesey Payne, an anchor for television station WDBJ7 in Roanoke, captured Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s 2022 Ishee-Quann Award for Media Excellence, the top honor in Farm Bureau’s annual Journalism Awards program. Payne also won the award in 2021, and she has won in the award program’s television category for a fourth consecutive year. Her work includes Grown Here at Home, an energetic ongoing series of farm and farmer profiles and seasonal stories tied to local agriculture.
Her work in the past year has included stories on orchid care and the orchid industry, local eggnog, pawpaws, the Southwest Virginia Agrarian Commons, and the equestrian team at Hollins University.
The Ishee-Quann Award is named in part for Jeff Ishee, who operates On the Farm, a daily, web-based farm news service, and who is a recipient of numerous VFBF Journalism Awards. The late Homer Quann was WSVA radio’s farm news director for several decades and was known as the most dedicated agricultural reporter in Virginia.
VFBF Journalism Awards recognize exemplary ongoing coverage of agriculture issues, practices and events by print and broadcast news operations. Award recipients were announced Nov. 29 at the VFBF Annual Convention.
- For a 16th time in the award program’s history—and a seventh consecutive year—staff at the Kilmarnock-based Rappahannock Record submitted a winning entry in the category for weekly and semi-weekly newspapers. Rappahannock Record coverage in the past year has included articles on local agribusinesses and a regional wheat quality assessment; a windfall of farm conservation funding in the state budget; and locals’ participation in county fairs, the State Fair of Virginia and a fall festival at the Northern Neck Farm Museum.
- A second award in the category for weekly and semi-weekly newspapers was presented to the Rappahannock News, located in Rappahannock County. The paper’s coverage in the past year has included a feature on organic produce farming on a historic property; a meticulous analysis of the county’s real estate tax; the insights of a rising generation of cattle producers; a look at the county high school’s thriving FFA program; the return of an annual county farm tour; and the success of local butchering classes.
- A special Members’ Choice Award was presented to the Princess Anne Independent News in Virginia Beach. Members’ Choice Award recipients are nominated by leaders from county Farm Bureaus, and the Independent News was nominated by Virginia Beach Farm Bureau President Bobby Vaughan. The paper’s coverage in the past year has included the work and successes of youth livestock exhibitors; the bounty of this year’s asparagus and strawberry seasons; and profiles of a local microgreens producer and a nursery that’s focused on native plants.
With 133,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to supporting Virginia’s agriculture industry. View more convention news as it is shared at vafb.com/convention, and follow us on social media via #VFBFannualmtg22.
