Cyndi's Two Cents

Agricultural vocabulary

Commentary.

Summertime is county fair and festival time across the Heartland of America. These events draw people from farms and agribusiness as well as those with little real knowledge of what happens on farms and agribusinesses. These events present a great opportunity for us to do a better job of telling our story.

A check-up from the neck up on the vocabulary we use could very well be in order.

Not so very many years ago, people knew that a ‘puppy mill’ was a substandard kennel where diseased, mistreated, over-bred dogs were kept in filthy cages without the benefit of veterinary care. Today, owners of legitimate dog kennels across this country are being demonized because activist groups have successfully broadened the definition of ‘puppy mill’ to include just about any kennel. Animal rights groups have influenced the attitude of people in every sector of our society. They tug at our heartstrings by showing pictures of sickly, sad-eyed puppies and kittens, telling us in no uncertain terms that most or all breeders of dogs mistreat their animals. We, of course, are encouraged to help abolish these horrific operations by sending money or voting on a ballot initiative.

Some radical anti-animal agriculture group dubbed any modern farm that produces meat, milk or eggs a ‘factory farm.’ Today, many consumers believe any farm they perceive as “big” where animals are raised mostly indoors – is a factory farm. A factory farm is bad.

Another example – Several countries, including Russia and China closed their markets to U.S. pork in late April 2009 in the wake of an outbreak in humans of H1N1 influenza, which the media misnamed “swine” flu. Without putting a specific dollar figure on it, stop and think about the number of people who stopped eating pork loin, bacon and ham for fear they would get sick, as though the meat was contaminated with ‘swine flu.’ It took more than a year to get some of those markets back on line.

And of course there is the cow who stole Christmas a few years ago. It was December 23, 2003 when USDA announced the first presumptive positive case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in this country.

Instead of using the proper name for the disease, most news outlets simply used the name dreamed up by those all-knowing scientific intellectuals who write for British tabloids: ‘mad cow disease.’ It was bad enough to have a positive case of BSE in this country. The impact was evident almost immediately as several key customer nations closed their borders to U.S. beef.

Nearly 10 years later, I have to wonder how much of an impact the tabloid term ‘mad cow disease’ continues to have on the beef industry in this country.

It was good advice my parents offered all those years ago when they told us we should think before we speak. As you talk with friends, family and strangers, make an effort to use proper terminology. If we would all try just a little harder to effectively communicate, it could make a significant difference in the future of agriculture in this country.