Viral farmer remembered

Jun 02, 2023

Dave Brandt is the face of a popular online meme

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

You may have seen and shared a photo of a farmer without even realizing it.

Dave Brandt, a Fairfield County, Ohio producer, Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was the face of a viral meme highlighting honest work - real or imagined.

The image shows Brandt standing in front of a field, wearing a plaid shirt, overalls and a hat. The caption “it ain’t much but it’s honest work,” surrounds him.

The ag and online communities are remembering Brandt after his passing in late May.

Brandt was involved in a car accident in Urbana, Ill., while driving back to his farm after picking up red corn.

He passed away on May 21 at the age of 76.

In the ag community, Brandt is remembered for his implementation of no-till practices.

He started no-till farming in 1971 as a cost cutting measure on his farm. And in 1978 started to use cover crops. He spent his years in ag encouraging others to do the same.

“He was determined to educate farmers about the value of conservation agriculture, and how it would improve soil health,” Randall Reeder, a retired Ohio State University associate professor, told The Columbus Dispatch.

In 2012 the USDA began a soil education program on his farm. That’s where the viral image came from.

And from 2017 to 2021 he served as president of the Soil Health Academy, a non-profit organization he helped found focused on regenerative agriculture.

Brandt identified that farmers could benefit from no-till practices if they made the attempt.

“The biggest challenge is changing the mindset of producers so they understand the soil they are working with,” Brandt wrote in a 2019 blog post. “This challenge is still there, but I continue with field days, research and speaking on the topic of soil health.”

In 2022, No-till on the Plains, an ag education organization in Kansas, created the No-till David Brandt Soil Legacy Award for farmers committed to improving soil health.

Brandt was the first recipient.

In online communities, where many only new Brandt’s face, users have also paid tribute to him.

A post on Reddit, where Brandt’s meme originally gained traction, has more than 54,000 upvotes.

“Our friend here was amazing,” one user wrote. “Truly a super hero without the cape.”

“I buy soybeans from this man and I can attest to his kindness and authenticity,” another user said. “He will be missed.”

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”