Rick Friday’s cartoons have been published in Farm News for 21 years. That is, until April 30, when he was fired for a cartoon that ran in the latest edition. The cartoon features two farmers standing alongside a fence and having a conversation. The first farmer says:
"I wish there was more profit in farming."
The second farmer replies:
"There is. In year 2015 the CEOs of Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer and John Deere combined made more money than 2,129 Iowa farmers.”
That didn’t sit well with a local seed dealer, who called to complain about the cartoon and ultimately got Rick Friday fired. You can see the cartoon on Rick Friday’s Facebook page along with a message from Rick Friday explaining why he was fired:
Again, I fall hard in the best interest of large corporations. I am no longer the Editorial Cartoonist for Farm News due to the attached cartoon which was published yesterday. Apparently a large company affiliated with one of the corporations mentioned in the cartoon was insulted and cancelled their advertisement with the paper, thus, resulting in the reprimand of my editor and cancellation of It's Friday cartoons after 21 years of service and over 1090 published cartoons to over 24,000 households per week in 33 counties of Iowa.
I did my research and only submitted the facts in my cartoon.
That's okay, hopefully my children and my grandchildren will see that this last cartoon published by Farm News out of Fort Dodge, Iowa, will shine light on how fragile our rights to free speech and free press really are in the country.
Friday’s post has been shared on Facebook nearly 7,000 times. Perhaps all the attention will get him re-hired by Farm News.