Illinois farm family featured in regional Super Bowl commercial

A farming family from the Peoria area will be featured in a commercial to air during Super Bowl 58, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sunday on WMBD-TV.

The Leman family of Eureka, Illinois, is set to appear in the regional commercial along with at least five other farming families throughout the state. Produced by Illinois Farm Families, the 30-second spot — part of the IFF’s “We are the 96%” campaign — is designed to highlight that nearly all of the state’s farms are family-owned.

“I hope people can see that the same families who have been responsible for growing their food in the past are still responsible for growing it today,” Chad Leman told agweb.com. “But, we’ve had to grow a little in the meantime so the next generation has room to move in.”

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Who is the Leman family?

Vernon Leman began farming the main Woodford County farmstead in 1949, according to IFF. The farm has expanded with each new generation, starting with crops and then moving on to pigs in the 1970s and then onto selling seed to fellow farmers in the 1990s. Three generations of Lemans work the farm now, including Chad and Staci Leman’s daughter, Tessa Leman, a former two-time Journal Star small-school girls basketball player of the year and recent graduate of Illinois State University.

“The next gens don’t have to come back to the farm, but the values and work ethic they learned growing up on the farm will benefit them in whatever path they pursue,” Chad Leman told agweb.com. “No matter what our daughters pursue in life, we hope they carry with them a fondness of the time they spent on our family farm.”

The Lemans will appear in the commercial alongside four other Illinois farming families: the Boucher family of Livingston County; the DeSutter family of Knox County; Bunting family of Livingston County; and the Marr family of Morgan County.

How can you see the Illinois farmers commercial?

The commercial will air in television markets in Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign, Quad Cities, Quincy, Rockford, Springfield, St. Louis and southern Illinois markets, including the Evansville, Indiana, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, markets. Following the on-air debut, the full commercial can be viewed on Illinois Farm Families’ Facebook page and Wearethe96.org.

The IL Corn Marketing Board helped spearhead the commercial for the second year because “consumer education is important to IL Corn,” said Lindsay Mitchell, director of communications and marketing for IL Corn and IFF Coalition member.

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“Closing out the ‘We are the 96%’ campaign with a second Super Bowl ad felt like the exact right way to conclude such a fantastic campaign,” she said.

Tammie Sloup of FarmWeek contributed to this story. Information in it was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.