This past weekend I attended a County Farm Bureau meeting near St. Louis. While visiting with some Young Farmers, their daughter spoke up about a magazine a friend had given to her. This magazine said it was bad to raise animals in modern barns, and that people shouldn't eat meat. This young girl's friend was also a vegetarian.

It's startling to see how activist groups are trying to shape young minds with misinformation. This young girl was smart enough to know the difference between right and wrong, thanks to her roots with agriculture. But so many other kids don't have this knowledge available to them to make an informed decision.

As parents, we try to protect our kids from bad influences. This is a bigger challenge today than when I was a growing up. Many activist groups have websites geared toward young kids, they even have games on their website to help drive their messages home to kids. Many parents don't realize these websites are a threat and allow their kids to view them on the internet. Some parents are blocking these websites on the internet hoping to protect their kids from the false information. But blocking these websites won't stop these groups, they have email newsletters for kids to sign up for, as well as magazines.

One way we can help stop this threat is Accurate Ag Books and Ag in the Classroom. Local Farm Bureau members can take a few hours out of their day and travel to a nearby school and read an accurate book about agriculture. This will give kids who have no contact with agriculture the opportunity to meet a farmer or rancher and learn what agriculture is really about. It's our responsibility to help our young kids understand agriculture. We can no longer afford to let the activist groups shape today's young minds.

Yesterday I visited the photo gallery at Agritalk and found pictures of a tour the United Soybean Board took to Mexico called the "See For Yourself" tour. It was intriguing to look at these photos, and shocking to see how modernized agriculture is becoming in Mexico. There is a photo of a modernized feed mill, which is completely automated by computers, and is state of the art. This mill was very clean, well designed, and is using dried distillers grain, a co-product of Ethanol.

There were also pictures taken from inside a modern chicken barn, which housed 1.2 million layers. The building was completely automated and extremely clean. There were also pictures taken at a dairy, which was modernized as well. The photos showed the cows being milked on the carousel, and it too was very clean. The group also visited a fish farm, and toured the greenhouses which they housed the fish in to control temperature. The fish farm was also very clean and modernized.

These photos were proof that Mexico is making advancements in agriculture, and learning that technology helps improve conditions not only for the animals, but for food safety as well.

While the activist groups are busy trying to destroy agriculture in the United States, Mexico is gaining ground in becoming more efficient and productive in agriculture by implementing technology on their farms. If the activist groups run agriculture out of the United States by banning the use of egg laying hen cages, veal stalls, and sow gestation stalls, Mexico will be ready and willing to pick up the slack.

This is another reason why we as farmers and ranchers need to be out telling our story everyday! Direct people you visit with to go to this site and see what is happening in Mexico. Together, we can keep agriculture thriving in this country, and our food supply home grown!

Many understand that agriculture holds a profound presence in rural communities and contributes greatly to industry, productivity, and sustainability. Agriculture is also vital to urbanized areas that are surrounded by rural communities. Among the many avenues being pursued by Farm Bureau members to enhance community and consumer education on agricultural products and issues, is the recent “Save Our Food” campaign launched by Virginia Farm Bureau (saveourfood.org). Following closely on the heels of a Cooperative Extension study of the economic impact of buying local produce on counties around the Commonwealth and an endorsement by Governor Tim Kaine of the August 3-9 National Farmers Market Week, the Virginia Department of Agriculture challenged residents to eat locally for one day during this time.

The county in which I reside is rural, with roughly 30,000 residents occupying 550 square miles. The county in which I serve Farm Bureau board positions, by comparison, touts itself as primarily urban (78%) with over 88,000 residents in 250 square miles. Interestingly, the state’s oldest year-round daily farmers market is in the hub city of this locale. Research reveals that if every household in the county spent $10 a week on locally produced foods, the economic impact over a year would exceed $24 million. Great fact and potential, but there are not enough farms in the county to supply that type of demand. A press conference held Friday was attended by Farm Bureau personnel from the state capital, local producers and consumers, and a multitude of press. The resulting coverage that was actually aired was poor, to say the least, and the newspaper did a slightly better job. NO mention was made of where to network with local producers and seek information, however, and online comments have already hit the network sites asking why locations of markets were not mentioned.

So, in an attempt to share a wealth of local agriculture and preserve farms, and subsequently our food, an information gap could ultimately backfire on the whole event and its purpose. Rural communities cannot exist without agriculture, and urban communities are beautified and enriched by it. If we can’t network and educate efficiently, however, our future survival is adversely impacted. My farm is across the street from Wal-Mart and at an intersection that sees 35,000 vehicles a day. Why am I asked on a regular basis where we are located? Are people so caught up in their routines that they forget to absorb their surroundings? Sounds like time for a letter to the editor…

The News-Leader.com from Springfield, MO ran a column today which focused on the care farmers and ranchers give their animals. (Click here to read the full story.)

The article emphasizes that farmers and ranchers attend workshops, trainings, and seek advice from veterinarians and scientist to ensure their animals receive the best care.

Chelsea Good, author of the article, also addresses the issue of unnecessary regulations pushed by groups that oppose modern livestock production practices. She points out these groups are "notorious for employing emotional appeals to push animal welfare-related bills."

One reader, "daisydelight" commented on Chelsea's story, saying: Notice that Ms. Good never references family farmers, though. I'd be willing to bet money that she's a shill for the Confined Animal Feeding Operation proponents. That kind of farming is totally different, and people that do that for a living are doing it for the money, period. In these discussions, don't let them get away with using the term 'farmers' - make them specify whether they are a farmer in the traditional sense of the word vs a person that is willing to be a step in a corporation's 'production' (as she terms it) if the money is right.

Please visit this site and comment on Chelsea's story and help her tell our story, THE STORY OF AGRICULTURE. By the year 2030, we need to increase the world food supply by 50%. If AMERICAN farmers & ranchers are regulated out of business, our food supply will be grown in foreign lands, is this really what we want?