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Posted By Katie On March 25, 2014 5 Comments

I Have Nothing To Do With Farming, Or So You Think

Filed Under: America's Farm Table Tagged With: agriculture, family farm, family values 5 Comments

The Pinke Post Double RainbowDo you have nothing to do with farming? It was a topic of conversation for me today and got me thinking.

I had lunch with a friend and we met to talk about an upcoming project we are working on together for agriculture education with schools in our county. In the midst of the conversation, we talked about even in our rural county, how few kids are raised on farms and ranches anymore. In my daughter Elizabeth’s kindergarten class of 22 students, I think there are only a few students whose parents actively farm and ranch.

The Pinke Post Bottle Calf

Just because our kids are raised in a town of 1,000 people in a county of 3,000 people doesn’t mean our kids truly understand production agriculture. Then there are the parents of the non-farm kids, who work in businesses but don’t actively farm or ranch. 

I’ve heard my own friends say, “I have nothing to do with farming.” 

They work in an office. They live in a small town. They live in a big town or a city.

As one friend has said to me, “I can drive to the edge of Fargo and I don’t know what’s past it.” The same could be said for your town or city. 

If you don’t actively farm and ranch, do you have nothing to do with farming?

Absolutely not. You have something to do with farming. 

Agriculture is on the shelves of the grocery store. 

There are faces of farmers behind every box of pasta, every apple, every cob of corn, every pound of ground beef or bacon  you buy. 

Every gallon of milk or ice cream you buy, you have something to do with farming. 

The Pinke Post Shucking Corn

The sweaters you wear. Your favorite cotton pajamas. The gas you pump into your car. They all have something to do with farming. 

You know what else has to do with farming? A lot of our jobs and businesses. 

I often share about my family’s farm and the passion our kids have for agriculture. It’s the land that I love, the food and grains produced from it and the hope of a next generation to farm the land that my family has farmed for five generations. 

The Pinke Post Barley Field

But when I only share about traditional farming, I leave out the industries behind the faces of farmers, the people who support our family farms and ranches.

The lumberyard and ag building business my father-in-law and husband work in everyday. They have something to do with farming.

The essential parts guy. He has something to do with farming. 

The bookkeeper and accountant. She has something to do with farming. 

The fuel truck driver. 

A bank teller. 

A grocery store clerk. 

The mayor.

The dentist. The chiropractor. The doctors. The nurses.

All pastors and priests. 

They all have something to do with farming in our small town. And in your town or city, you have something to do with farming. Whether you can’t see a farm field from your high-rise city apartment or you live in the middle of a field, you have a stake in agriculture. The Pinke Post City Girls

Farmers and ranchers grow food to meet the demand of what you are purchasing. You have something to do with farming. 

And many of us have businesses  and jobs whose success or failure is impacted by agriculture. For that, I am thankful.

I am thankful to be an affluent American eater, to have an abundance of food choices and to have a stake in the future of agriculture. 

The Pinke Post Red Tractor Girl

Because I have something to do with farming. 

March 25th, 2014 is  National Agriculture Day and also would be Dr. Norman Borlaug’s 100th birthday. If you want to know who Dr. Borlaug was and what he had to do with farming, click here to read a blog from National FFA. 

My friend, Ryan Goodman, has a blog post on CNN Eatocracy, Celebrating National Agriculture Day: Talk To A Farmer and another great resource to think about how you have something do with farming is Ag Day.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. missbonniekaye says

    March 25, 2014 at 3:05 pm

    Great message Katie! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      March 25, 2014 at 9:47 pm

      Bonnie, I always appreciate your comments and sharing. Happy Ag Day!

      Reply
  2. Robyn says

    March 25, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    I like the way you think, Miss Katie! The pictures of your girls active in agriculture are priceless.

    One thing that always comes to my mind is animal and grain by-products. Society could not survive without them as they are literally everywhere.

    Reply
  3. Myla says

    March 27, 2014 at 7:44 am

    Reading your post a few days late, but after Robyn linked it to her post today I definitely wanted to check it out. You did a wonderful job describing how agriculture and farming really does affect everyone! I work for Extension and one of the programs we do in the schools talks about how all the careers you mentioned, and many more, are tied to ag. It’s really an eye opener for the kids and adults that participate!

    Reply
    • Myla says

      March 27, 2014 at 7:45 am

      Oh, and you also have a new follower! Looking forward to reading more.

      Reply

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I am a mom of three kids and a wife to Nathan. Together we live on the North Dakota prairie, 97 miles from a Starbuck's. I share about family, food, farming and the prairie that I love. I used to commute 98 miles one-way to work but it required too much coffee. So now I am home, consulting, speaking, writing and primarily, juggling family life.
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