Don Parrish, an environmental specialist for American Farm Bureau recently addressed a group of farmers and ranchers in North Dakota about agriculture's footprint on the environment. "The efficiencies American farmers and ranchers have implemented in the last 60 years have done more to help the environment than hurt it," said Don Parrish, AFBF Senior Director for Regulatory Relations.

“Our ability to increase our efficiencies in feed conversion, our ability to increase the genetics of our herd and increase the meat per animal, has basically reduced our environmental footprint, rather than increased it," said Don Parrish.

"Compared to 1948, across all production in agriculture, animals produce 25 percent less manure. At the same time, each animal we raise produces 700 percent more meat than it did in 1948," says Parrish.

These are amazing FACTS that we in agriculture need to be talking about. Critics are trying to force technology out of agriculture by using scare tactics to convince consumers farmers are damaging the environment by using technology and modern facilities. The critics claim big numbers of livestock are harmful, but in reality, today's livestock produce less waste today than they did 60 years ago. And remember, we feed more people today than we did 60 years ago, and we are doing it on fewer acres.

Last week, my first grader brought home his reading assignment from school. It was a book called "Help the Forest." The book talked about all of the animals that lived in the forest. The book also showed a picture of loggers and on the same page it said the loggers didn't take care of the forest, that they left trash in the forest. It also said the loggers destroyed homes for birds and animals and hurt their food supply.

I immediately contacted my state Farm Bureau and asked if there was a book I could take to the school that showed the many benefits of forest management. Our state Promotion and Education Director recommended "The Tree Farmer" by Chuck Leavell. This book was the 2007 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture's Book of the Year recipient and it has amazing illustrations of Charlane Plantation which is owned by Leavell and his wife.

I took the book to my son's school today and read it to both first grade classes. The book talked about all of the benefits of having trees in our lives, and how tree farmers work hard to plant trees. The book reinforces the need to harvest trees to make products we use everyday in our lives.

Each class is receiving a copy of this book to include in their class library. It is very important we help our schools understand the important role farmers and ranchers play not only in providing food for our nation, but in protecting our forest and managing them. Tree farmers manage our forest properly to encourage new growth and to meet the needs of our growing nation.

Yesterday a man stopped by our family feed mill looking for directions and asked me what we were making here in this building. He explained to me he was from the city and he had never seen a feed mill before. I told him we were making feed for our hogs. He wanted to know what the feed consisted of and I told him it was corn, soybean meal, vitamins and minerals. He asked me why we didn't just feed them grass or hay like the cows he had seen in the fields. I explained that hogs won't eat grass or hay like cattle. He was amazed to learn this. He told me he never thought about where his bacon came from, he just went to the store and bought it.

I spent about 10 minutes explaining to this man that we use a nutritionist to create the diets we feed our hogs and that our veterinarian plays a key role in our farm. I also explained that our hog barns had computer controlled climate systems to keep the hogs warm in the winter and cool in the summer. He told me it made sense to offer our hogs this care because it was protecting our food supply.

When he left the mill and headed on his way, he told me he was glad he took the time to ask these questions because he had no idea agriculture was so advanced. He said he would appreciate his bacon a lot more and couldn't wait to share this new knowledge with his wife.

Never miss the opportunity to tell your story, even if it is only to one person. Each new person we tell our story to will be another person who can help tell our story!

This year in NC we not only get to vote for president, but we are also choosing our Commissioner of Agriculture. The race is between the incumbent, who along with his position as Commissioner currently produces wheat, soybeans and sweet potatoes, and his opponent, a lawyer with little experience on a farm.

In The Washington Daily News this past week the Commissioner's opponent was reported discussing his trip across the state speaking with farmers on their own turf. He said that when he asked them what needed to be done in agriculture, they all said that family farms needed to be protected. He stated that he believes that the future of farming in NC is in biofuels production. He says this can be done on small family farms and larger corporate farms and will help create jobs and revitalize the state's economy.

The incumbent has helped develop a farmland preservation fund to stop the loss of farmland, has worked to create an improved food safety program, has expanded international and local trade, and launched a marketing campaign that has opened doors for the sale of NC produce in large grocery chains and restaurants. These are actual accomplishments of this Commissioner's tenure.

I'm certainly not sure what the right answers to NC's agricultural challenges are. However, if we elect people to positions in Agriculture with little experience in the "field" it would only seem to me that representing the best interests of producers would be a thing of the past. How can one make decisions about agriculture without having ever worked in it? Regrettably, being a couple of generations removed from the farm, we see the not so good impression that Americans, as a whole, have of agriculture. When those in leadership and decision making positions are not from an agricultural background, would not their lack of understanding prevent sound policies from being enforced? Something else to think about before the big election...