The Journal Contributor Guidelines

📖 The Journal is a place to showcase the art of the new agrarian culture. Through writing, photography, poetry, and more, this is where the culture, the nuance, the observations and the science can come together and just be.

If you have a story, poem, or any other original creative work that you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you. Please write a short pitch describing your story idea or creative piece, and why it might be a good fit for The Journal.

Email all pitches to jonnah@madagriculture.org.

General Guidelines

Article Length 💻

Average article length is typically 1000-2000 words. You are welcome to write more or less depending on the topic or style of the piece, but please keep your article to a maximum of 3000 words. If you feel that your article needs more space, consider a follow-up piece or pitching a series.

Types of articles we publish:

Features: Longer, in-depth pieces on larger issues or questions related to agriculture and the food system.
Personal essays: Stories written from a first-person point of view on your experience in agriculture or working with food.
Interviews: Q&A’s with farmers, leaders in the regenerative and/or organic food and farming space, and more.
Poems: Short or long-form poetry about nature, agriculture, food, flowers–whatever makes your heart sing.
Photo Essays: let the visuals lead the way! There are lots of ways to tie visual stories together. We are always ready to get creative.

Photo Submissions 📸

We highly encourage the contribution of photos to The Journal, either on their own or to help tell your specific story. When you share your photos with us, please send high-resolution JPGs or PNGs and specify any necessary photo credits so that we can ensure each photo is properly attributed to the photographer.

Format for Article Submissions ⭐

We prefer receiving submissions in Google Docs format, but we will also accept Microsoft Word documents. We do not recommend sending your piece in PDF format, as it makes it more challenging for us to make edits. Once your article is complete, please send us a version that is editable so we can make comments/suggestions if needed and easily transfer the content into The Journal during its design phase.

Tone / Audience 📣

We describe the primary audience of The Journal as food and land lovers. It is fair to assume that your reader is familiar with food systems or sustainability work, but try to avoid using industry jargon that the everyday layperson may be confused by. When necessary, please include definitions and spell out abbreviations, and provide enough detail for the reader to understand the gist of your piece.

The Journal’s tone is positive and informative, but also radical and revolutionary. We seek out stories that can inspire and engage our audience, inviting them to imagine an agricultural system that works in harmony with people and the planet. Keeping the tone positive and conversational can help create an environment that invites readers to learn more throughout your piece.

Compensation 💰

Mad Agriculture compensates each contributor to The Journal. If we choose to pursue your story, compensation details will be provided upon initial conversation.

Timeline for Contributor 💥

Our process for pursuing a Journal piece and getting it published is a multi-step endeavor. While working with each contributor, we roughly follow the timeline below:

Step 1: The contributor submits their pitch or full piece to Mad Ag.

Step 2: The contributor’s pitch or piece is accepted by Mag Ag.

Step 3: The Mad Ag editorial team works with the contributor to finalize their writing.

Step 4: Visual content for the piece is collected or created by the Mad Ag team.

Step 5: The full piece is published in the next issue of The Journal.

Step 6: One copy of the issue featuring the contributor’s piece is mailed to them for free. Additional copies can be purchased by the contributor at our wholesale rate.

This process can take anywhere from two to four months, depending on where we are in The Journal preparation process when we start working with a contributor. Note that two issues are published per year–one in June and one in November.

Journal Team 👋

Jane Cavagnero, Chief Marketing Officer, jane@madagriculture.org

Jonnah Perkins, Director of Mad! Media, jonnah@madagriculture.org