Cyndi's Two Cents

Hate mail

Commentary.

I’ve received some hate mail over the years for commentary I’ve written.  It’s come at me from many directions!  I’ve been accused of being too much of a “granola cruncher” by some while others have accused me of kowtowing to multinational corporations or “big ag.”

One person I’ve known for 20 years recently insulted me on his social media page.  “I don’t know how she can sleep at night” he wrote.  He doesn’t like it that I believe there is room for all of us in agriculture if we simply do it right on our farms every day.  He believes “the future is in small farms.”

There are a few readers and listeners who would side with anti-agriculture groups such as PETA before “giving in” to corporate agriculture.  I’m not exactly sure what “giving in” to corporate agriculture means, but I do know that PETA wants you to be a vegetarian. Call me crazy, but it makes no sense to me why a farmer who raises meat animals would hitch his or her wagon to a group whose goal is to keep people from eating the meat from the livestock said farmer is raising.

Many people with whom I’ve crossed paths lately are convinced a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is the worst thing that can happen to a community.  Many of these same people do not even know what a CAFO is or that CAFOs currently exist in their community and have for several years.

I am sorry that friends, neighbors, fathers, uncles, grandparents and fathers-in-law had to sell their farms.  I wish all children today could grow up like I did with two parents working at home on the farm raising hogs, cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat, milo and hay.  I am sorry, but that is not a reality for many family farms today.

Chances are those friends, neighbors, fathers, uncles, grandparents and fathers-in-law worked hard, loved the land and their livestock and took good care of their equipment.  Chances are they were smart, business savvy and maybe even pillars in their community.

Is corporate agriculture unfair competition?  Are mega-farms running small, family farmers growing number 2 yellow corn and soybeans out of business?  Has contract finishing of hogs and turkeys changed the face of animal agriculture in America?

It does not matter how you answer those questions.  The bottom line is that there are groups of people working against farmers of all sizes. They push for regulations and twist truths and monger fear.  They do not bother to educate themselves.  They convince people in our rural communities that doing anything differently than the way it was done fifty years ago is doing it wrong.

While they are doing everything they can to be sure costly regulations are imposed that could very well put you and me out of business, they complain about the cost of food and buy their meat (if they eat meat) from a big box store.  Apparently if they are going to eat meat, it is ok to eat meat from livestock raised in a CAFO if the CAFO isn’t in their community.

While luddites infiltrate our rural communities with lies about what happens on our farms, more than 15 million U.S. children live in “food-insecure” households — having limited access to adequate food and nutrition.

Wake up, people.