Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Telling our Great Story

Guest column: Focus on livestock farmers who reach out to neighbors

AARON PUTZE is executive director of the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers. Contact: aputze@support farmers.com

Nearly 50,000 Iowa farm families go about the hard work each day of raising livestock, dairy and poultry in a way that's good for the environment, their neighbors and communities.

Many of these farms are owned and managed by families who have been involved in agriculture for generations. They're deeply rooted in their neighborhoods, sending children to local schools, supporting area businesses, volunteering in church and community activities and enjoying their state's many cultural and recreational amenities.

Stories about these families rarely make headlines. However, that doesn't make them any less real or important. Read More

Telling the positive story of agriculture will only be done by those of us involved in the business of feeding people. Several states have formed organizations that consist of several different commodity groups to do just that. Educating consumers about what we do is a job that was neglected for a long time but producers are starting to realize how important it is. The work we do off our operations telling our story can be just as productive as the work we do each day on them.

3 comments:

lightninboy said...

Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers is awful! I mentioned it on this blog:

http://madvilletimes.blogspot.com/2008/08/higher-feed-costs-send-cattle-to.html

You say you want to be a passionate spokesman for production agriculture, Farm Bureau and Ag United for South Dakota. Answer the questions I asked Bill Even, Steve Dick and Scott VanderWal.

Anonymous said...

Isn't lightninboy the guy that sabotages family farming businesses by drilling wells in the middle of unoccupied fields to make them noncompliant with setbacks? Why would anyone be against families that farm?

lightninboy said...

Dear justwondering,

Yep, that's me!

That CAFO dairy would have been a bad thing.

Answer my questions on the Madville Times and tell South Dakota how YOU feel about CAFOs and the right to have a say about the safety and economic sense of them.