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Ag Blogs -
Jonie James
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Thursday, 01 April 2010 09:05 |
 Last week I had the opportunity to attend an educational conference in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s focus was on programing designed to reach women involved in agriculture. Following the conference, the attendees were invited to watch as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Kathleen Merrigan, celebrated the roles women have played in agriculture history. She had a panel of 4 women, each representing a different segment of agriculture. It was titled, “Women involved with agriculture, rangeland, and forestry - challenges & opportunities which helped shape their passion and commitment and involvement in their careers.”
It was interesting in the fact that each woman had an opportunity to speak a few minutes on how they became involved in agriculture. However, as they began to take questions from the crowd, one of the ladies began to advocate her way of ranching, and making non-factual comments towards conventional agriculture. She had previously been an environmental attorney, and had married a rancher and involved in ranching for almost 10 years. She began to throw the word “sustainable” out there often. To be quite honest, I became irritated on the direction this monologue was going.
I honestly am afraid about challenges that face the agriculture industry. I worry that within ourselves we are so busy arguing among ourselves, who is “sustainable” and who is ruining the environment, that we aren’t paying attention to the big picture. I wish I ‘d had the opportunity to be on the panel and argue my view of sustainability.
As most of you know, I am a dairy farmers daughter, a farmer/rancher’s wife, mother of 4 children, and an agriculture educator. I have spent my life surrounded by agriculture, and I have realized there are many different ways to ranch and farm, all of which can be sustainable. I could have told her that I have a neighbor who runs an organic poultry operation, another neighbor that runs a confined egg laying operation, a neighbor who operates a cattle feedyard, and numerous farmers and ranchers surround my family. All of these people live in my community, create jobs in my community, send kids to my school, shop on my main street, and have a positive affect on my community. They are all sustainable and contribute to the sustainability of my community.
Instead of focusing on all of the environmental challenges we are facing and pointing blame, I wish she had taken a moment to look back and see all of the issues we have solved, made improvements on, and are still addressing. She could have encouraged all segments of agriculture to band together to become pro-active against groups like the Humane Society of America, whose sole vision is to put animal agriculture out of business. She also could have spoken up about all the ways agriculture affects lives and communities and what a safe food and fiber system we have. She should have instilled faith in agriculture by portraying to the audience, that we will not walk away from our responsibilities, we will continue to improve our practices, and that we value our environment, and our communities.
So my challenge to all of you is to not get caught up in the blaming game, but to realize we all play a part in doing things right. I urge all of you to really evaluate what sustainable means to you, and determine your role in the sustainability of our community. I encourage all of you to educate yourselves on agriculture and to not be fooled by marketing tricks of organizations whose intent is to mislead the public. Do not be fooled or influenced by well spoken people who have not done their homework, but happen to be in front of the microphone. Even if you are not active in agriculture, it is active for you and your community.
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