Agriculture is under attack. No it isn’t an attack by insects, droughts or other pests. Those attacks we can fend off on our own, we are used to things out of our control. No, this attack is in the form of a movie called “Food Inc.” It is a sensationalized, full-on attack of the farmers and ranchers who utilized modern technology to produce the most wholesome, abundant supply of food in the world. If you a member of the agriculture community I am asking you to share our story with your non-ag friends and associates. Education is the key to stemming this tide mis-informed, anti-ag messages.
For those of you who do not have close ag ties, I want to tell you about my neighbors and myself. Most of us have farming and ranching deeply in grained in our roots. In many cases, we have owned the land for several generations and there are as many as three to four generations currently working that piece of land. We have grown-up working alongside our parents and grandparents and now work everyday with our children.
All of my neighbors have a deep love of the land and strive to be the best stewards of it. We seek out the latest methods of conserving and protecting our lands and saving them for the next generation. We take great pride in the beauty that surrounds us on a daily basis. In short, farmers and ranchers are the ultimate conservationists.
While we revel in our past and the history that surrounds us, we also realize our commitment to society. We utilize the latest technology to produce more food and fiber with less land and fewer inputs. Advances in technology actually make us better, safer (both for humans and the environment) and more efficient. We realize we feed all of humanity and take great pride in doing so.
We are the ones who provide the income and the tax base for most of our rural counties, who in turn provide much of the support for all of the United States. We cannot continue to prosper without a strong agricultural base in this country. In the words of Ben Boyd, a peanut farmer from Georgia and a good friend, “If you like being dependant on foreign oil, your really going to love foreign food”.
So let’s stand up to the people who created this piece of fiction and to the celebrities who endorse it. I would venture most of them have never known what it was like to go without. We need to make sure that the story of agriculture is told by those who know and understand. If you do not know a farmer or rancher, I encourage you to take a trip and visit one of my friends and truly listen and watch them. I guarantee that you will have a whole new appreciation for the food on your table.