Celebrity Farmers

Move over Rocco, Emeril, Mario and Jean-George. You've got competition - and these big boys drive big tractors. Today's Wall Street Journal takes a look at how small farmers are moving out of the barn and into the spotlight:

Get ready for your close-up, Farmer Brown. Hoping to reap a bigger piece of the $27 billion gourmet-food pie, some ambitious local growers are signing up book agents, calling Hollywood producers and even appearing on baseball-style trading cards with their pictures and stats. (One sample card, produced by a restaurant in Boston, features Nunsuch Farm of South Sutton, N.H., which makes goat cheese and is run by a former nun).

Farmer Andy Griffin of Watsonville, Calif., is staging poetry and cookbook readings with chefs to get the word out about his beans and squash. In Portland, Ore., apple growers Ken and Irene Bergren were picked to appear in a commercial directed by documentary maker Errol Morris and are planning to join the Screen Actors Guild.

The small farmer is the latest profession to get a celebrity makeover --