Cyndi's Two Cents
Community
Commentary
This is the first official week of summer. County fairs and summer festivals are underway across the heartland of America. Our families, friends, fellow farmers, congregations, organizations, local businesses – all who make up our local communities – come together in support of youth, education, agriculture and to enjoy some good old fashioned summertime entertainment.
We volunteer. We participate. We donate. We congregate.
We take time away from work to “babysit” craft exhibits in a Morton building with a box fan blowing hot air on our legs. We organize and tag entries in the floriculture, pantry stores and culinary departments in the school gymnasium on a hot summer morning.
We stir burgoo soup from midnight to 3am, we pick up someone else’s trash left behind after what must have been some night in the beer tent, and we line-up exhibitors for the champion drive at the cattle show.
We flip burgers in the food stand, take tickets at the grandstand and work together to prepare the track for the horse show, tractor pull, 4-wheeler races and mud-run.
We are teachers and farmers, pharmacists and receptionists. We are bankers and sheriff’s deputies, mechanics and truck drivers.
We are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and children. We are not all the same color. We represent every generation. We are toddlers on Daddy’s shoulders and great-grandmas who are driven as close to the show ring as possible so we can see our granddaughter show her first pig or bottle calf.
Although we represent different religious denominations and political views, we set aside our differences to focus instead on the task at hand. We are these people and we do these things without payment for our time and services because of our intrinsic belief and need for “community.”
We believe that it is our duty – our responsibility – to “step up” and give of ourselves to improve the quality of life for those here today and for the next generation in this community.
It is my hope that during this time of celebration, you will make the time to reach out to those within your community who harbor some misconceptions about modern agriculture. If each of us would share a single truth with one other person, the impact would be phenomenal.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all who are so committed to doing what we can to secure the future of our local, rural communities would rise up in support of the larger community of agriculture in America? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could embrace those qualities and beliefs that we share and put our differences aside to accomplish that which could secure a bright future for the industry we love?
It shouldn’t matter if you grow corn or soybeans, cotton or canola, rice or wheat. The number of animals you raise or acres you farm or the color of your tractor should not matter. If you are involved in growing food or feed, you are a part of the community of agriculture in America and you can make a difference in how our industry is perceived by consumers.
Cyndi,
Fist let me commend you for printing remarks that don’t always agree with your viewpoint. Something most of the other writers on this site chose not to do.
Second, we are all American farmers, conventional, organic etc. The idea that one form of farming is better than another is offensive to those who love freedom. In this country we are free to chose how we want to live our lives and how we want to farm.
The problem with conventional Ag is that rural American has been dying due to the concentration of Ag into a few corporate hands. The Obama administration’s recent move to break up the big meat trust is a good first step in saving small farmers and ranchers.
I give thanks, but not to the current corrupt farming system.