Sean Ellis is busy running most of the time. As Publications Editor and Spokesman for the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, Sean travels across Idaho and the country gathering and disseminating information about issues important to Idaho farmers. As an avid runner for over 40 years, Sean also runs an average of 20 to 30 miles each week. At age 54, how does he maintain this kind of pace inside and outside of the office? "I'm fueled on coffee," he admits. "I'm well-known for drinking way too much coffee."

Sean is also well-known for his award-winning journalism that appears in the Federation's Gem State Producer and Quarterly magazines. The Producer reaches over 14,000 Idaho farmers each month and the Quarterly is sent four times a year to over 80,000 Idaho families. You can also find some of Sean's work - including How Vital Is Agriculture to Idaho - in Coverage.

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"My main job," Sean explains, "is to keep our members up to date on important agricultural issues that the state's farmers and ranchers face. Our state's agricultural industry faces numerous challenges and issues and it's important to keep producers updated on what's going on." Besides educating farmers about the issues, Sean also tries to "pick out some stories that are entertaining or just downright different." A recent article he wrote about people farming crickets in the Magic Valley is one example.

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Sean was born in Los Angeles but lived in several U.S. locations as well as Italy and Germany because his father was in the Army.

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"I never really had a place I called home," Sean says, "until I moved to Idaho in 1991. Now I consider myself an Idahoan."

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Sean received his journalism and public affairs training while serving in the U.S. Air Force at an Indianapolis training center called the Defense Information School. "It was basically four years of college crammed into you in three months," Sean recalls. "With the military owning your rights, it was day and night of school until you passed."

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Sean's writing career also began in the Air Force. He hadn't planned on being a reporter, but the military "volunteered" him to be a journalist and it worked out. "I hated it at first," Sean says, "but the training was top-notch and when I began to get better at it, it got exciting and I learned to love it."

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The hardest part of writing an article, according to Sean, "is actually collecting the information and doing the interviews. Once that's done and I have all the information printed out and in front of me, I can write a story in as little as half an hour."

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Sean's military training also sharpened the focus of his writing. "In the military," he says, "there's not a lot of time or tolerance for debating things to death. You just do it. I don't see a lot of gray. It's either a fact or it's not. That's helped me cut through the fluff on certain subjects and get straight to the core of the matter." 

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Since most of Sean's readers are involved in agriculture, he says the feedback he receives is, "something like, 'I appreciate your article on such and such. Thanks for letting us know what's happening.'" Other recognition Sean has earned for his writing has been more formal. He has received several awards while in the Air Force and while working at the Idaho State Journal, the Blackfoot Morning News, the Capital Press, and Farm Bureau.

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Sean feeds stories to other newspapers who are "hungry" for agriculture news. "I try to send at least one article a week to the Idaho State Journal, as well as Ag Weekly and Capital Press. I will also send an article to other media outlets if they request it. This works well for us. They get a free story and Farm Bureau gets the issues covered from our perspective."

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When he's not writing or running, Sean also enjoys reading "as many news stories as I can find. I can often be found doing just that at the local coffee bar. Other than that, I'm pretty boring." Sean and his wife, Patrizia (from Italy), have three boys, ages 29, 27, and 21.

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"If I could tell people one thing about the media," Sean adds, "it would be this: Don't believe everything you read or hear through the news outlets. Weigh the facts and decide for yourself. If a 'news' story is telling you how to think on a certain subject, it's actually not a news story but an opinion piece. Treat it as such. Too many journalists today believe it's their job to tell people how to think on an issue. A reporter's job is to report the facts and nothing else."

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