Cape Girardeau native and television producer Chris Greenwood is bringing attention to the country's "flyover states" in his work with agriculture news networks Rural TV and RFD TV.

Greenwood, who attended Cape Girardeau Central High School and Southeast Missouri State University, began his career in movie production, where he worked on films such as "The Help" and "Country Strong" before last year making the change to television. He said he's traveling around the country telling the story of rural America.

"We're the only network that really focuses on farmers and rural communities, which is the real backbone of America," Greenwood said.

He described Rural TV as "an agricultural news station" and RFD TV, which can be viewed in the Cape Girardeau area, as a station with a variety of agriculturally based programming. On Wednesday, Greenwood shot scenes of the city's downtown area to use as footage in future programming.

"We would use these shots for stories about the Mississippi River or use some street shots for stories about small-town economy," he said. "What I love about Cape is that there's so much agricultural variety, in the crops and even livestock, that you can get all in one place."

Greenwood said he hopes eventually to do more feature stories on Cape Girardeau and its residents. Features on local farm families and the university's growing Agriculture Department would be perfect for the network's goals to educate people in urban areas about rural life, he said.

"It's really important to teach other people and keep people interested in farming and agriculture," Greenwood said.

More information about RFD TV can be found at rfdtv.com. The station can be watched locally through Dish Network and DirecTV.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

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Cape Girardeau, Mo.