Fire Safety Week was celebrated the week of October 4th - October 10th and was studied in numerous schools around the United States. My daughter’s preschool class was no different with the whole week being centered on fire safety. She has been talking about the “real-life fireman” that came to her class for the past couple of weeks. She was blown away by meeting someone that risks his/her life to save someone else. The ironic thing is that her father is also a volunteer “real-life fireman,” but he does not seem to be as interesting as other “real-life firemen.” This brought me to the question…How many people know a “real-life farmer?” I asked my daughter’s preschool class and not very many of the children said yes, even though we live in a very rural community and every one of them does actually know at least one agriculture producer with some even having a parent involved in agriculture. With more and more people being generations removed from the family it is becoming more important that “real-life farmer” is more in the public eye telling his/her story.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan is helping people put a face with a “real-life farmer” with the USDA's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative to help develop local and regional food systems and spur economic opportunity, which is all part of the 2008 Farm Bill. The concept of knowing the farmer that produces your food is certainly an opportunity to restoring the link between consumers and local producers. This will give the consumer the opportunity to see how nutritious our products are and meet the farmer who is providing for their family.

It has been my mission to try to allow as many people as possible to meet me…a “real-life farmer” that raises very tasty and nutritious beef for their family to have on the supper table. I challenge you to meet a “real-life farmer” if you haven’t already or as a “real-life farmer” to take the opportunity to meet someone that may not know someone that has the opportunity to grow products for them to consume.