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Suburban Mom’s eyes opened on farm tours

A mother of three in suburban Chicago says she sees farming and food production differently since becoming a ‘Field Mom.’

Sharon Blau tells Brownfield Ag News she joined the program because she is very concerned about the food her children eat and she wanted to know more about how it’s produced.

Upon touring a Dean’s Dairy facility in Huntley, Illinois recently, Blau says she learned that food safety is stressed, “We learned exactly the tests that they take, even before the milk can come into the facility. And, then, all the safety and the precautions that they take to get the highest quality of milk – is what they put into their milk jugs and ship out to the grocery store.”

Blau says she has also learned that farmers DO care for their animals, “The biggest misconception, I think, is that the farms that I have been to – how much compassion and empathy, and if I can say it, love, the farmers actually have for their animals.”

In fact, she tells Brownfield, they care deeply, the opposite of what she learned as a kid, “Every single farmer that I’ve met actually may not name their animals but they can tell me, like ‘this one has a trait where he wants the other cow to go before him before he goes into the milking parlor. Or, this farmer over here will tell me something unique that this particular cow will do.”

Blau and 24 other “Field Moms” also toured the dairy farm of Dale and Linda Drendel in Hampshire, Illinois. The Field Mom tours are a cooperative effort between leading ag groups in Illinois in an effort to help rebuild trust between farmers and consumers.

AUDIO: Sharon Blau (10:00 mp3)

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