I F-A-R-M.
Wow, what an amazing sentence! Just kidding, it’s no profound title I get that; but if you think about it, it kind of is. Let me explain. I have an eight year old, a soon to be four year old, and a six month old. I have done my share of spelling out words I don’t want them to understand. For example, I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M (ice cream), P-A-R-K (park),C-A-N-D-Y (candy), S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F-R-A-G….haha. Those words trigger a lot of emotions from my kids (and me too) from screaming, crying, begging, outright joy! So my husband and I choose to spell them to save us and the neighbors some of the crazy!
Why spell out F-A-R-M? For the exact same reason I spell in front of my children; because there are some individuals out there who are behaving like crazed children. In all the years I’ve heard people say that their occupation is farming, up until recently, its never garnered a reaction as it does today. In the great state of Nebraska, agriculture has been the backbone of our economy since it was settled. But if you were to go on any social media site it seems as though our way of life is under attack from everyone. It’s enough to want to make you spell the word farm or farmer when asked your profession in fear that some radical person might be listening.
Just even typing it into a search engine provides crazy amounts of variety, there’s everything from farm stores, farm websites, animal rights groups, people angry about gmo/non gmo, organic. I’m not even going to delve into that whole debacle but is there a reason we have to be so harsh?! The number of farms are declining they say. Not only because prices are dropping, markets fluctuating, etc. to blame but I’m sure all these special interest groups aren’t helping matters either. They seem dead set on shining an unflattering light on the American Farmer.
Most of these groups claim we are ruining the land, trees, animals, polluting water, etc.; now some of these claims maybe correct and we could make a few more changes. But why not support and actively come up with ideas that would help one another? Why is everyone so quick to jump on the finger pointing, sign waving, blasting from the soap box behind a computer band wagon. I’ve noticed time and time again those who intend to tear anything down have no intention of learning about the thing they hate most.
If education is the key, I have to give kudos to those who “ag”vocate for agriculture. Those who aren’t afraid to not spell the word farm! We have a wonderful opportunity to educate in this day and age; classroom, fairs, websites, Facebook, etc. I think if all of us (no matter how big or small our operation is) stand up for our way of life and educate those who don’t understand, even if they don’t want to learn, we can and eventually will make a difference.
March 21 was National Ag Day and I made sure that a posted on Facebook about it. I also am posting here about it as well. Whether you farm 40 acres, 4000 acres, or 4 raised beds in a garden we are all FARMERS feeding the world and sometimes doing the work no one else will do. Without farmers, the world would suffer. Economies would decline and starvation would happen (no matter how the lab can engineer tissue).
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from some great leaders and farmers:
Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil
and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways. John F. Kennedy
*Remember we’re all in this together! Let’s support one another!
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