Haldimand man uses TikTok to hook folks on farming

Forget webinars and Twitter — farmers looking to reach new audiences should get on TikTok.

So says Hayden Fox, a 25-year-old cash crop farmer from Haldimand County whose energetic TikTok videos show his nearly two million followers the reality of modern-day farming.

“When I started the channel, I just wanted people to hear the stories on the farm,” said Fox, who farms upwards of 3,000 acres of corn, soybeans, oats, wheat and hay on a fourth-generation family farm northeast of Cayuga.

“But I found over time, a lot of people are really curious about farming in itself, and where your food comes from,” he said.

“So I’ve pivoted a little more to education, too. And if I add a little comedy to everything, it’s a little more palatable.”

TikTok is particularly effective at reaching social media users who are unlikely to seek out agriculture-related content, Fox said. He gets feedback from urbanites who came across one of his videos demystifying fertilizer or explaining the difference between hay and straw and are inspired to learn more about farming.

“I think TikTok has that power … because the algorithm isn’t pushing it just to people who are interested in farming. It’s pushing it to everyone and lots of different demographics,” he said.

Fox, who studied food and agricultural business at the University of Guelph, made headlines in 2021 when he posted a video bemoaning how much edible food is thrown away every year by misinformed consumers who are unaware that expiration dates indicate “peak freshness” but most food is still perfectly safe well past its best before date.

“I sometimes talk about the most basic things — to me, I think they’re basic — but then I’ll have people be like, ‘wow, that blew my mind,’” Fox said.

“This is just something I thought everyone knew, but learning that I’m teaching them something is pretty exciting.”

Fox hopes his videos, posted with the handle @haydenjfox, make people see agriculture in a new light.

“I think when people think of farmers, they think of old, grumpy white men. And that’s really not the case,” he said.

“I just want to show people that farmers are a big diversity of people. It’s not just one stereotype.”

In Fox’s case, that diversity includes the fact that he is openly gay, but he said it took about a year for him to feel comfortable sharing that on social media.

“When I first posted something about even being queer, I was petrified and mortified what people were going to think of the video,” Fox said, referring to the “backlash” some LGBTQ farmers get “just simply by working in an occupation that’s not supposed to be gay or queer.”

“But it really resonated with a lot of people,” he said.

“I would get hundreds of messages being like, ‘hey, I came from a small community too, and I didn’t think I fit in until I saw someone like you posting on TikTok.’”

Those message mean a lot to Fox, who had to overcome stereotypes he encountered about farming in his own life.

“I was like, I can’t be a farmer, because I don’t act like the farmers around me,” he said.

“It was just having to get over the fear of being judged in the community. Because I’ve grown up with these people my whole life, and I didn’t want them to think different from me.”

Most of his neighbors were supportive when he came out, Fox added.

“And those people who weren’t supportive just didn’t say anything.”

Growing up, Fox did not seem destined to take over the family farm. He described himself as “a very quirky, bubbly kid” who didn’t like getting his hands dirty.

But as he got older, he came to love spending hours on the tractor with his late grandfather, Alfred Fox.

Fox bought the farm as part of his family’s succession plan to ensure the operation would not be “scooped up” by developers or large corporate farms.

“My favorite thing about (farming) is you’re your own boss and you’re feeding people,” said Fox, who works alongside his parents, Jerry and Wendy.

Agriculture, Fox said, combines his interest in plant science with a love of “all that fun business stuff” like marketing, accounting and sales.

He also as a volunteer firefighter in Haldimand, along with his dad and sister.

“We can be in the middle of a field and we’ll get a call, and if the crop isn’t saying at the moment, we’re going to go,” he said.

“So sometimes a long day can turn into a super long day.”

Managing a popular social media account can feel like a full-time job, and as Fox’s following grew, the pressure to crank out new content started “taking a toll on me,” he said.

“There were some days where I was like, I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m just going to quit,” Fox said.

To avoid burnout, he takes week-long breaks from the app and returns feeling “super energized.”

“If you’re feeling obligated to do something that’s supposed to be fun, then it’s no longer fun,” he said.

JP Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.