Winston-Salem Journal, NC
08-23-07
Farm lovers turn to the Internet to find their soulmates
Caryn Rousseau
Winston-Salem Journal
Just a few years ago, Amanda Szymanik was living in rural Chana, Ill., on a farm.
In high school she was involved in her local 4-H Club. She wanted to keep living
in the country, but not by herself.
More than 400 miles away, in Ashland, Ohio, Scott Harbaugh Jr. was thinking
much the same thing. He grew up on a farm - born and raised. He worked on
farms, mostly dairy farms, and wanted his own farm one day - but not by himself.
Problem was, both Szymanik and Harbaugh had a hard time finding anyone else
in their areas who wanted to get married and live and work on a farm. With less
than 2 percent of the nation’s population living on farms, it’s getting harder and
harder for young people to meet - and fall in love - with other farmers, experts
say.
“Just a lot of people, they’re not interested in the farming part of living out in the
country,” Szymanik said. “Especially if you have cows and you’re going to have
hay. Some people, they don’t want to do that. That’s what makes it hard to find
somebody to be by your side to help you with that.”
Paul Lasley, a rural sociologist at Iowa State University, said that historically,
farm families started when boy met girl from within communities that were
relatively nearby. Because of the lack of transportation and the rural isolation,
people dated those around them. There were even social clubs, such as “Singles
in Agriculture,” but the dating scene changed after World War II, he said.
“The number of farms declined and the size of farm families declined,” he said.
“So hence the decline in the number of marriagable or eligible young men or
women declined.”
Faced with their problem, both Szymanik, 22, and Harbaugh, 26, stopped looking
in the towns around their homes and instead logged onto a dating Web site. But
they didn’t choose Match or eHarmony. They picked FarmersOnly.com - a Web
site for, as it touts itself: “Farmers, Ranchers, Ag Students, Cowboys, Cowgirls,
Animal Lovers, Nature Lovers, Country Folks & Wannabes.”
“A guy on my site impresses by standing next to his John Deere tractor,” said
Jerry Miller, the founder of FarmersOnly.com.
Finding someone who was interested in farming was a top priority for Szymanik.
“I thought, ‘Let me just try this and see what happens.’ Sure enough, look how
lucky I got,” she said.
Now, after e-mailing and sending pictures via the Internet and meeting in person,
Harbaugh and Szymanik are getting married. He has moved all his farming
equipment from Ohio to Illinois. They hope to start a grain and beef operation
there together.
“It’s hard finding anybody that wants a lifelong commitment of having a farm,”
Harbaugh said. “I’ve dated people that they thought they wanted it, but then
when they actually see what’s entailed to it - the debt and the struggles, it’s up
and down, you don’t make much money - and so people kind of, after they
realize what’s all involved in it, they shy away from it then.”
It was a dream to find Szymanik, then, he said.
“Amanda fit me just perfect,” he said. “We’ve got all the same interests.”
No surprise that two farm-loving people found love on the Internet, Lasley said,
because now young farmers are looking online. “This is another way to sort of
overcome that isolation that many people in the farming community feel,” Lasley
said.
People living in rural areas are about as likely as their suburban counterparts to
have tried online dating - and they’re not far behind urbanites, said Mary
Madden, a senior researcher at the Pew Internet and American Life Project in
Washington. But Madden, a co-author of a May 2006 paper on Americans’ use of
online dating, said that the method still raises eyebrows in less-populated areas.
“Rural Internet users are a harder sell,” Madden said. “They’re less likely to think
that online dating is a good way to meet people and less likely to think it’s easier
and more efficient.”
There are complicating factors, Madden said. Rural areas have lagged in Internet
access until recently, and people living in rural areas are less likely to know
others who have tried online dating.
It remains to be seen if online dating will be a boon for the farming set, but it
seems to have worked well for Szymanik and Harbaugh.