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Common theme to farm questions

A Minnesota farmer who advocates for agriculture says there’s a common theme surrounding questions about food production.

Wanda Patsche raises corn, soybeans and hogs with her husband in south-central Minnesota. She’s also very active on social media, where she interacts with people who generally want to talk about the same issues related to agriculture.

“It goes from the use of hormones (or) antibiotics on the farm to using GMO’s and why we use them.”

Farmers make up just two percent of the U.S. population, and Patsche tells Brownfield that makes educating consumers difficult.

“That really opens up the ground for a lot of other people, whether that means activists or just people that don’t really understand agriculture and how food production works…it really opens up the door for a lot of misinformation.”

She says seeing that misinformation led her to begin reaching out to consumers, and those efforts continue as Patsche has helped organize an event on a local farm the first week of August.

From the Ground Up is invitation-only, but Patsche hopes to see it grow so that more people can get an up-close look at what farming really looks like.

The event will be August 4th on the Lonny Becker farm near Fairmont with the goal of not only engaging consumers, but to also raise funds for a new community center and local FFA chapters.