Featuring thoughts from from mom, health professional and speaker Eliz Greene about her first visit to a modern farming operation. She came away realizing that the best people to speak about food production are those whose families engage in farming every day. An inspiring piece for anyone in agriculture tired of misinformation campaigns.
An estimated 1.9 million tweets are sent daily. There are more than 225 million people on Facebook and it reached 150 million users nearly three times faster than cell phones. Do the math about how many opportunities you have to connect agriculture if 98.5% of those people aren’t actively engaged in farming. Call social media a fad if you wish, but know that agriculture is missing an opportunity to be proactive if you don’t take the time to harvest the benefits of at least one of the tools. What’s holding you back?
Taking a look in the rear view mirror, the leadership lessons from FFA have become clearer, reports Michele Payn in reflection about FFA. For example: Follow your passion. It’s the single most valuable life rule FFA taught me. Expect to be bored, unhappy or unsatisfied if you don’t. OR –
Leadership is influence. John Maxwell said it; I learned it the hard way. Leadership is not she who speaks the most eloquently, he with the most friends – it’s about moving people in a singular direction. If you can’t successfully influence others, you can’t lead – regardless of the title on your business card.
Here it is in simple black and white; antibiotics are needed to keep animals healthy and your food supply safe. Antibiotics used in food animal production undergo more stringent testing than human antibiotics. Antibiotics are expensive, which disincentivizes farmers to use them unnecessarily. Low levels of antibiotics in feed undergo the same scrutiny and again, are there to keep animals healthier (if you’ve ever seen a cow’s gut, you’d know why).
A lesson in walking my talk, even in the speaking profession. We all know the statistics of how few people are actively engaged in farming – it takes EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US to “talk agriculture” in our professional circles. You never know when you’ll give someone a nugget that will change the way they look at food production or act as a defense mechanism when anti-ag groups attack. I had one of the attendees from the March workshop stop me in the hallway yesterday to tell me that he’s thought of the dairy farm economic crisis every time he buys milk – because of the information I shared.This lesson has continued to be reinforced as several of my speaker buddies connect with me on Twitter and now have a firsthand view of facts and my passion related to the business of raising food, feed, fuel and fiber. People appreciate passion, even if they don’t fully “get” what you do.
Are our choices being threatened? In today’s cultural demand for being politically correct, I believe choice is being threatened. Let’s look at food, which as become a polarizing and highly political issue. Frankly, I don’t care if you’re vegan, a locavore, rooftop gardener, farmer, foodie, organic fan or junk food junkie – as long as you make your decision based upon the facts. Your food is your choice and I’m not going to judge you for it – the same as I ask of you. I may not agree with your choices, but that doesn’t mean that a robust food system meeting a variety of consumer demands can’t exist.
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