Talking Agriculture with Mike Rowe

Last weekend Stacy and I had the privilege of meeting with Mike Rowe.  If you haven't heard of Mike you've probably been living under a rock for the past six or seven years.  He's practically become the face of the Discovery Channel with his hit show Dirty Jobs and along the way he's also become the face of the American worker. 

Through his experiences doing Dirty Jobs across the country he's come to realize and appreciate that everything we have is either grown or mined from the earth.  Along with that his appreciation for the people that do that work has grown.

Out of that the mikeroweWORKS.com website was born.  It's a site dedicated to educating people about the importance of skilled trade workers, including farmers and ranchers.  Through that Mike happened to find my youtube video where I dumped a bottle of Yellow Tail wine on the frozen ground to tell people that they had made a donation to the world's wealthiest animal rights group, the Humane Society of the United States. 

Our work with the Farm American project also caught Mike's eye and they featured a blog post of mine about the program on their site.  When it turned out that we were all going to be in Atlanta at the American Farm Bureau Federation meeting we were able to finally meet in person. 

Mike and his team were very interested to hear about our efforts to advocate for agriculture, including our work with the Farm American program.  Mike gets a lot of requests to be spokesman.  In fact he was the most sought after spokesman in the world in 2010.  His name has been thrown around many times in the world of agriculture as someone that would be a great spokesman for our industry.  But Mike can wisely see that we don't need a single spokesman, we need lots and lots of advocates for agriculture.  Mike isn't an expert in food production, not the way that farmers and ranchers are.  So while he is certainly willing to help share the story, ultimately we are the ones that need to be doing it. 

Mike also highlighted the efforts of the Farm American program as a great way for farming and ranching families to spread their message.  He was impressed by the unselfish efforts of Furniture Row to start the program because it was the right thing to do, not as a way to pay for a race team.  When you explain to someone all of the things we could do with Farm American to tell the story of agriculture it starts sounding too good to be true.  One look at the race car proves the intentions of Furniture Row though.  There's not a single mention of Furniture Row on the car.  That really caught the attention of Mike as it has with so many others. 

We are really looking forward to a continued partnership with Mike and his team at mikeroweWORKS.com to tell the story of agriculture.  Mike is a genuine guy who was a pleasure to meet and visit with.  He's certainly a friend of every hard working American and as he put it, a big fan of "chewing and swallowing".  It was a real pleasure to spend a few hours "chewing and swallowing" with him last week. 

You've heard me telling you to be an advocate for agriculture, now hear it from Mike Rowe.

Farm American Update

2010 Trailblazer Award Winners

When Joe Roybal called me late this summer to say that Stacy and I had been selected at BEEF Magazine's 2010 Trailblazer Award honorees I was pretty much speechless (which doesn't happen very often).  My first thought was that we probably weren't old enough to be a trailblazer in the beef industry!  Never had the thought crossed my mind that we would be considered for an award like this.  We didn't set out to win any awards when we started telling our story but we truly appreciate it. 

So a big thank you to Joe and everyone at BEEF Magazine for thinking of us!

Here's a link to the 2010 BEEF Magazine Trailblazer Award article.

Heading East!

We are on the road today headed for the East Coast.  Tomorrow we will get to share our story with a groups of hog producers.  It should be a great time and we are looking forward to getting more people to advocate for agriculture! 

A Busy Week

It's been a whirlwind week so far here.  The end of last week found us in Montgomery, AL speaking to their Young Farmers Summer Conference.  As always, the young farmer groups that we get to speak to are a lot of fun. The passion for raising food and families in Alabama was very strong in that group and there's no doubt in my mind that we have some great new advocates telling the story of agriculture down there. 

From there I got to present at the Agricultural Media Summit on my use of social media in telling my story.  Getting to meet so many of the people behind the articles I regularly read was certainly a treat.  There were lots of fans of Advocates for Ag there.  It was humbling to hear that so many of these professionals in ag communication were appreciative of our work. 

This morning I had the distinct pleasure of speaking to our local Kiwanis club.  It's always a treat when you get to speak to the hometown folks.  I shared some of my story with them as well as highlight the agenda of anti-agriculture groups like the HSUS and others.  I'm glad to know that everytime I get the chance to do this that there are a few less people in the world that will ever donate to them. 

I have to quickly pack a bag and then head for Mitchell, SD.  This evening we are presenting at a beef production workshop.  It will be great to see some good friends of ours in the cattle business there. 

After this week is over though the real work will start.  Spring wheat harvest should get rolling next week and that will be the priority for me.  Food production should be a priority for every human being but unfortunately that's not the case.  That's why it is so important that those of us in agriculture are not only growing food but also telling people where it comes from. 

Yellow Tail Was Tipping Point in Decade Old Animal Welfare Debate

The Humane Society’s Battle With Farmers Began Right Here in Florida
By Kristen Hinman
published: April 15, 2010

Around about the lunch hour in Vale, South Dakota, on February 5, a 33-year-old cattle rancher finished a morning of blogging, then stepped outside with a bottle of wine and a Flip video camera.

“Hello, my name is Troy Hadrick. I’m a fifth-generation United States rancher in South Dakota,” the man ad-libbed to the camera while standing amid a small clutch of cattle. “I recently found out that Yellow Tail wines is going to be donating $100,000 to the wealthiest animal-rights organization in the world, the Humane Society of the United States — a group who is actively trying to put farmers and ranchers out of business in this country. That being said, I cannot and will not support a company who is doing such a thing. This is the only thing I know to do now with this last bottle of Yellow Tail wine that was in our house.”

In his cowboy hat and Carhartt jacket, Hadrick paused to cock the bottle of white at shoulder height, flick his wrist, and send the contents pouring to the snow-covered earth like a stream of piss.

“I hope you will do the same,” he concluded. “Thank you for supporting American agriculture and the family farmers and ranchers in this country.”

Five minutes later, his 54-second “Yellow Tail Fail” clip posted to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, Hadrick finished his chores and skedaddled with his family to the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo. Back online that night, he was shocked at the viewing stats for his maiden voyage on Internet video.

First it was 500. Then several thousand. The tally kept climbing until, as Jim Klinker, the Arizona Farm Bureau’s chief administrative officer, terms it, “Yellow Tail done turned its tail and run!”

Within two weeks the Australia-based wine giant announced it was rescinding the remainder of its $300,000 pledge to the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society.

The frustration shared by Hadrick and others had been bottled up for some time, but not in recent memory had a Humane Society donor buckled under such public pressure. Only a week later, Tennessee-based Pilot Travel Centers announced it would stop collecting Humane Society donations at its chain of roadway rest stops. Then the Dallas-based Mary Kay cosmetics company publicly clarified that a personal donation by an employee’s wife to the Humane Society had been misconstrued by the group as a corporate sponsorship.

Hadrick’s social-media sensation seemed to represent a tipping point in a battle that has had modern food producers playing defense for nearly a decade. It’s farmers vs. activists.
Agriculture vs. animal rights. Read More

Here’s a pretty good run down of what’s happened in the last decade. I’ve never seen anyone involved in animal agriculture be able to survive by abusing their livestock. The HSUS continues to make those claims, but it flies in the face of common sense. Farmers and ranchers are the true caretakers of these animals. Working with them everyday makes you very aware of what it takes make them thrive. It also makes you very aware of what happens when they aren’t taken care of. The HSUS is in the business of raising money and passing laws. Who’s the expert in the discussion of animal welfare? The answer seems simple to me.

Jolley: Pacelle, Yellow Tail & Mary Kay

Jolley: Pacelle, Yellow Tail & Mary Kay - What A Tangled Web We Weave
By Chuck Jolley
03/12/2010 07:13AM

My “Five Minutes with Wayne Pacelle” interview was written as a news piece which means loaded questions are not permitted. A loaded question is something like the infamous “Have you quit beating your wife, yet?” It presupposes guilt and gives the respondent no options at claiming innocence.

The comments that came after the interview was published have no such limitations. What makes them interesting is their unedited nature. Anyone can comment and go on the attack or mount a fevered defense. I’ve just reviewed all those cards and letters and found no fevered defenses of Wayne Pacelle or the HSUS. It’s to be expected, of course, considering the vast majority of the Cattlenetwork audience is Ag people who have a serious bone to pick with HSUS.

But here is the real reason. With millions of people chattering constantly on social web sites, it’s impossible to fool all of the people all of the time. Some of the time, maybe. The problem, of course, is people will find out about little excursions with the truth and they get very angry when they do. People who play fast and loose with the facts generally don’t like the harshness of public opinion when they’re found out.

And now we have the most recent incident involving HSUS and their list of corporate sponsors. We all know about the infamous [yellow tail] wine incident. The Australian winery, wishing to curry more favor in the American marketplace, mistakenly contributed $100,000 to HSUS. They thought they were backing a fine, upstanding organization that enjoyed widespread good will and did good works in saving animals in distress.

The backlash started immediately. Using social networking, the Ag community roared its disapproval highlighted by Troy Hadrick’s now famous Youtube video.

Over 12,000 people and a dozen curious cows have watched as he marched into a cattle pen and poured his last bottle of [yellow tail] wine onto the ground.

[yellow tail] blinked and rethought their generosity. America’s cowboys enjoyed their triumph. Then came the Mary Kay debacle.

Time for America’s cowgirls to take center stage. They protested and Mary Kay’s response was quick and to the point.

Maybe it’s time to call the chief execs of each of those companies and ask just two questions: “Do you realize HSUS is using your good name to promote their agenda?” If he does, then the proper follow up question is, “Do you fully understand their agenda?”

A yes to both questions means Troy Hadrick will have to grab one of their products, march back into that cattle pen again and do his thing. Here’s hoping he won’t have to turn his back yard into a solid waste disposal site. Read the Entire Article

I’m with Chuck, I don’t want to have to turn my back yard into a solid waste disposal site either. ~ Troy

Sioux Falls Argus Leader Interview About Yellow Tail

South Dakota rancher's wine-dumping online video faults Humane Society
Effort protests donation from Yellow Tail
Thom Gabrukiewicz • tgabrukiew@argusleader.com • February 19, 2010

In a tan, worn Carhartt jacket and black cowboy hat, South Dakota rancher Troy Hadrick is an unlikely digital folk hero, a viral warrior.

But there he is on YouTube, pouring out a bottle of Yellow Tail wine - by the looks of it, a nice sparkling white - onto the snowy, hoof-trampled ground with his winter-coated cattle looking on. The act is in protest of the company's $100,000 donation to the Humane Society of the United States.

"My concern is with the Humane Society of the United States, which isn't connected at all with the dog and cat shelters in our local communities," the fifth-generation Vale rancher said Thursday. "This is an organization that's pushing a vegan agenda in this country, and that concerns me. That donation is going to go to efforts to try and put me out of business, and I'm just not going to support a company that does that."

And viral efforts such as this one can be disastrous for companies, especially in the age of instant information, said Maggie Holben, a public relations expert from Lakewood, Colo.

"That's what we fondly call a crisis," she said of YouTube protests such as Hadrick's. "You have to circle the wagons, you have to respond and you have to tell people who you are. Is there a trick remedy? No. It's honesty." Read More

My Interview With The Australian Broadcasting Corp. about Yellow Tail

Facebook campaign forces policy change by wine company
Friday, 26/02/2010

An online campaign by American farmers has forced Australian wine company Yellow Tail to stop supporting animal welfare groups.

The farmers called for a boycott on a Facebook page called Yellow Fail, after the company donated $100,000 to the Humane Society.

Yellow Tail has now agreed it will not donate to animal welfare campaigners in the future, after more than 3000 people joined the online site.

Cattle rancher and internet campaigner Troy Hadrick says it's the first time farmers have used social media to win an animal welfare debate.

"Sometimes there's been questions about is it worth our time to be involved in social media and are we wasting our time?" he says.

"But this is the first time we finally all got on the same page.

"We were selling the same message, and we basically, in just a few weeks' time, forced a multi-national company to change the future course of its donations."

This is the video that took Troy Hadrick less than five minutes to make but made him the face of the campaign against Yellow Tail.

Related Audio:
An online win for farmersListen to this report by Cameron Wilson on the social media pressure that forced Yellow Tail to rethink its animal welfare donations. MP3

The online opportunitiesListen to this extended interview with South Dakota rancher and internet campaigner Troy Hadrick on the effectiveness of social media. MP3

Link To Article

Our Busy Schedule

The last few days have been whirlwind of traveling and meeting new people while we shared our story and inspired others to do the same. With adverse weather all over the country, traveling by airplane became quite a challenge. Despite all of that, we did eventually make it to all our destinations and back home.

On Friday morning we had the opportunity to present to a group of swine veterinarians and other animal health experts from Pfizer Animal Health in Miami. Many times we tend to focus on family farmers and ranchers telling their story, but we need to make sure that everyone who is involved in agriculture, from our veterinarians to our equipment dealers, are also helping promote and educate about the industry they rely on.

From there we traveled to Vidalia, Louisiana to spend Saturday morning at the Louisiana Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference. More than 100 young agriculturalists were in attendance. The amount of talent and leadership potential at these young farmers and rancher meetings, never ceases to amaze me and Louisiana certainly has a lot of it. It was a great group to work with and we are looking forward to crossing paths with these young leaders in the future.

While we did make it home last night, we have to hit the road again today. Tomorrow we are presenting in San Antonio, TX at the Masters of Beef Advocacy graduation which is being held in conjunction with National Cattlemen's Beef Association. We had the privilege of speaking at the MBA graduation last summer in Denver and it was a blast. It's a lot of fun to meet beef cattle enthusiasts from across the country and see their enthusiasm for agriculture turned into positive education and promotion of the industry.

After taking in the Cattle Industry Convention, we will end up in Des Moines, IA at the end of the week to share our message at the Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference. This meeting is always very well attended and it will be great getting to see some old friends and make new ones.

If you can make it to any of these events, please make a point to come introduce yourself to us. One of the best parts of getting to travel to these different areas of the country and share our story is meeting other people involved in agriculture.

Have a great week!

Meeting Season

With the new year upon us, it brings meeting season. Today we are headed to Seattle to attend the American Farm Bureau Federation's Annual meeting. Because of that, the blog is going to be a little lite for the next week. Since I won't be as able to keep up this week, please send me an email if you see something you would like featured on my blog and I will do my best to get it up. Please email me at troy@advocatesforag.com .

Later this month, the meetings continue when we attend the Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio. It's always a great time getting to mingle with everyone that's involved in the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. We will be presenting at the Masters of Beef Advocacy training/graduation and also co-presenting at the Cattlemen's College.

Last year was a fantastic year for us and this year is shaping up to be even better. If you are interested in having us share our message at one of your meetings, please contact us.

Uniting Agriculture

Last week, Stacy and I had the opportunity to present at the Range Beef Cow Symposium in Casper, WY. It's a three day meeting that occurs every other year and is one of the best informational meetings dealing with beef cattle that you can attend.

The message we shared was simple. It's important for producers to be talking to consumers, educating them about what they do and letting them know that their are great family farmers and ranchers in this country that are growing their food. We also tell them how important it is for all of us in agriculture to start working together. With less than 2% of the population involved in production agriculture, we can't afford to be divided. Certainly we need to promote our own products, but it shouldn't be done by trashing another commodity or production method. All of us rely on each other in some fashion in agriculture. The biggest challenges we face are a commonality amongst us and we need to work on them in a cooperative manner.

Unfortunately, the speaker that presented after us had a much different view. He told the beef cattle producers in attendance at the meeting that people who use modern production methods to raise pigs, chickens and dairy cattle are immoral and unethical. In fact he even suggested that beef producers use that as a marketing tool. While he is saying this, he continues to brag about how he is a friend to agriculture.

This person continually talked about how much he admired the cowboy culture and was happy to be part of it, even though he grew up in Brooklyn, NY. It was obvious that he knows nothing about the cowboy culture, at least not the culture I was raised in. You see, if he knew anything about our culture, he wouldn't suggest we try stepping on the throats of our neighbors to promote ourselves.

He also went on to say that we should accept the demands of animal rights groups like HSUS rather than doing what Ohio did with their Issue 2. If he were truly a friend of agriculture, he would trust livestock producers to care for them rather than thinking that an animal rights lobbying group out of Washington DC knows better.

I have a lot of great friends that raise pigs, chickens and dairy cattle. I have been on several of these operations all over the United States. While all of them are different, they all have one thing in common, and that is the fact that they care about their livestock. They are using certain production techniques because they DO care about them, not because they don't. And if any of these folks were immoral or unethical, they wouldn't work so hard to care for their animals.

I'm proud to be in agriculture and I'm proud to be associated with these other livestock commodities. I suppose when you sit at a desk for a career, never worrying about where your next meal is going to come from that it's easy to chastise what these people do.

He claimed that a beef producer once told him that if he had to raise his cows the way pig producers raise their animals that he would quit. Here's what I think as a beef producer. If my industry starts listening to people like this that want to drive a wedge between neighbors, that will be the day I quit.

I'm not an ethicist with a Ph. D. behind my name like this guy, but I am a fifth generation United States rancher. I don't need a person like this telling me what's right and wrong. The cowboy culture that he so admires is the one I grew up in and that experience tells me what he is suggesting is wrong.

What I Did On My Thanksgiving Vacation

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, our friends from PETA held a protest in downtown Rapid City. Their goal was to show people that dairy cows are being abused by the farmers that own them. In addition to this, they were going to be wastefully dumping milk and encouraging everyone else to throw out their dairy products.

With only 24 hours notice, I was able to get several area ranchers to show up for the protest to make ourselves available for media interviews to share the true story of livestock production. Along with that, several ag organizations committed to donating milk to the local food pantry in response. In fact, so far there have been over 1000 gallons of milk (updated as of 12/8/09)committed for donation to food banks in South Dakota. Even though it turned out they weren’t dumping real milk, it’s reckless and irresponsible to suggest that people should waste food when there are some right here in our community that struggle to provide food for their families.

Even though none of the ranchers at the protest were dairy producers, they still showed up to let people know that the things PETA was saying weren’t accurate. I have friends that dairy and have been luck enough to tour several dairies all across the country. I have never seen the abuse and neglect that PETA claims is running rampant at these family farms.

Besides that, the things they were claiming didn’t even make sense. In fact Virginia Fort, the PETA representative at the protest, claimed that since we lived n the 21st century, we no longer needed to utilize any resources that livestock provide us. When asked where our food would come from, she claimed we could be farming the land that cows are currently grazing. I was proud of my brother-in-law when he countered with the question, “So you want us breaking up pristine, native rangeland to start farming it?” Her response was priceless. She said, we might as well break it up because we are letting cows poop on it anyhow. I asked if I could get her on video with that comment and a look of horror crossed her face. She said absolutely not, since she was realizing that she had said something more ridiculous than the standard claims they make.

At that point she declined to visit with us anymore. But as with everything you do in life, there are lessons to be learned. The first lesson is that we have to view these types of things as opportunities to teach people about agriculture. If we hadn’t been there, all of the local media would only have talked to the PETA protesters. Instead, almost without exception, more attention was given to the local farmers and ranchers and their stories than was given to the protesters. Along with that, through the donations to the food bank, we emphasized that not only do we care about our livestock, but we also care about our neighbors that live in our rural communities in South Dakota.

The other lesson that needs to be shared is that these protesters knew nothing about dairy production other than what was printed on their handouts. When we tried to have a conversation about what they were saying, they couldn’t do it. It drives home the point that farmers and ranchers are the experts. We are the ones with the first-hand, lifetime knowledge about agriculture. With modesty to a fault, it’s hard for most of us to go out and tell people that, but we need to. Our consumers want to go to a trusted source for their information about food production. We need to make sure that everyone knows we are the trusted source.

So the next time something like this happens in your region, treat it like an opportunity to tell your story. Agriculture was a big winner last Wednesday in South Dakota and it’s because PETA helped us do it.

Click here for some video of the event.

HuffPo Suggests I Think Children Are Disposable

Children's Health And The Meat Industry
By Christina Perillo

When did our children become disposable?

This loaded question was posed around the conference table in Anthony Geraci's sunny office at the Baltimore School District headquarters as a group of us talked about programs designed to help our kids make healthier choices in their lives, beginning with the food they eat.
As Food Service Director, Tony has worked closely with the district's dietician to make systemic changes that have resulted in the kids in Baltimore schools trying new foods and slowly becoming more health conscious. But it has not been without controversy and therein was the question we posed.

When school began in September, the kids of Baltimore became the first in the country to adopt 'Meatless Mondays, an international program that asks people to cut meat from their diet one day a week. Their goal is simple: reducing meat consumption by a mere 15% can improve human and planetary health. Endorsed by esteemed medical institutions like the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, this seems like a no-brainer, right? Impressed with the credentials and the program, Baltimore decided to take part and see what would happen. I'm not sure anyone was ready for the firestorm of attacks being launched at them by the meat industry.

Meatless Mondays is a positive program designed to educate our children to be healthier for life and is being attacked from all sides. Troy Hadrick, a rancher, wrote on the Advocates for Agriculture website that Meatless Mondays are obviously designed to push children toward vegetarian lifestyles by telling them that 'they can't have meat on Monday because meat isn't healthy for you.' He goes on to advocate parents doing whatever it takes to keep this information from their children. Yikes! Read More

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that the vegan/vegetarians would come out and try to vilify me for advocating that students in Baltimore be fed a balanced diet. Even though our good friend Trent Loos discovered that this situation may have been less of a story that we previously thought, it doesn’t take away from the fact that those of us advocating for a balanced diet which includes meat and dairy products are being targeted. It’s disappointing that since I disagreed with this writer that she thinks I believe children are disposable. I would love to teach her more about raising livestock since she considers me evil for doing it, but she would rather question my integrity than have a reasonable discussion. ~TH

What a Week!

It's been a wild, but very fun week. Last week we were in Indianapolis, IN for the national FFA convention. This was the second year that I had the opportunity to attend and I was even more impressed with the quality of the students that were there. The next generation that will become involved in agriculture will definitely be prepared for the challenges ahead of them.

Today we are in Charleston, WV to speak to the West Virginia Conservation Partnership Conference. It will be fun and exciting to visit with these folks today and let them know about the important role they play in promoting modern production agriculture. All of us realize that the soil is one of our greatest natural resources and that we have a common goal protecting it so that we can raise our food.

There is one last thing I want to mention. Please pray for good harvesting weather for everyone. So many of us are struggling to get the crops out of the fields and is adding to the already stressful job of harvest. When times like these come along, we all need to rely on our faith. So please remember our farmers in your daily prayers.

Have a great week!

Troy

Top 10 Industry Leaders Under 40

I have to brag just a little bit today. Stacy and I were honored by Cattle Business Weekly last week by being named to their annual list of the Top 10 Cattle Industry Leaders Under 40. It's a list that they began putting together just a few years ago, but it has quickly become a great honor to recieve.

To say the least we were excited when we found out. The things that the people on this list are doing have impressed me every year. You can follow the link above to see who the others on the list are.

Thanks again to the Cattle Business Weekly for selecting us.

Pollan's Views To Be Balanced By Others at Cal Poly

Controversy erupts over Michael Pollan's Poly lecture
Harris Ranch Beef chairman calls for 'balanced forum'
BY KATHY JOHNSTON

Nationally known sustainable food expert Michael Pollan will now be part of a panel discussion at Cal Poly on Oct. 15 rather than giving his planned one-hour lecture. The recently announced format change comes on the heels of a letter to Cal Poly President Warren Baker from Harris Ranch Beef Company Chairman David E. Wood, threatening to withdraw a pledged $500,000 donation for a new meat processing facility on the campus.

“I find it unacceptable that the university would provide Michael Pollan an unchallenged forum to promote his stand against conventional agricultural practices,” Wood wrote in a Sept. 23 letter to Baker. The invitation “caused me to rethink my continued financial support of the university,” he wrote.

Pollan is the award-winning author of An Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, and appears in a recent documentary, Food, Inc. He is a Knight Professor of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism.

The Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium, which invited Pollan to speak at a free lecture at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15 at the Performing Arts Center on campus, will now present “A Conversation with Michael Pollan,” which will also include Gary Smith, Monfort Endowed Chair in meat science at Colorado State University, and Myra Goodman, cofounder of organic vegetable company Earthbound Farms.

Baker replied to Wood in a Sept. 28 letter, “We are diligently working to create a more balanced forum for October 15. … Our singular goal is to provide our students with a full perspective on how the agriculture industry is working to be efficient in its production techniques, and to make sure that our students are familiar with the full range of ideas that are being advanced today.”
Each speaker will make opening comments before accepting written questions from the audience.

Harris Ranch spokesman Michael Smith, assistant to Wood, said in a phone interview from the beef company’s headquarters in Selma that a decision about funding for Cal Poly’s meat facility “has yet to be made.” Smith, a Cal Poly agriculture alumnus, said many alumni will be coming to the forum “as a show of force about the direction the College of Agriculture is taking.”

Smith said, “People across the nation are upset. They are saying enough is enough. This is bigger than Michael Pollan.” Read More

It’s very exciting for me to see that people are willing to stand up and defend agriculture and the need to grow enough food for everyone to eat against Michael Pollan. Three years ago when I would tell people about this guy and the lies and sensationalism that he used against my family and industry, most had never heard of him. Today, people are starting to realize that what he is promoting is reckless elitism. His plans would result in less food produced in a less efficient manner. He has tried to sell his ideas by blatantly misrepresenting the truth about modern production agriculture. And it’s not because he hasn’t seen it for himself. I spent two day with him back in 2002 as he was learning about the beef industry. But rather than sharing that knowledge with consumers, he chose to scare them instead. If he was the high quality writer that he’s given credit for, he wouldn’t have to sensationalize his stories to sell his books. Congratulations to Cal Poly and the alumni, who were instrumental in making sure Pollan’s one-sided half-truths aren’t the only story being told that day.

A Crazy Week

It seems that everything is coming down on this one week. Between our regional Central States Fair that I have duties at, ultrasounding more of our cows, and a regional energy meeting that I ahve been asked to speak at, the blog is going to suffer.

Today I am going to be sitting on a panel representing ag's interests in climate change and energy legislation. It is sure to be fun and I am excited that they agreed to include ag on the panel. Originally that wasn't going to happen. The panel is also going to include someone from Al Gore's group Repower America. It will certainly be interesting. To see more about the meeting today click here.

So in the meantime, be patient with the blog and I will hopefully catch up later today or tomorrow.

Article about Advocates for Agriculture

Cattle ranching couple speaks out for production agriculture
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
By Jeannine Otto

STURGIS, S.D. — Even in the constrained say-it-in-140-character environment of Twitter, Troy Hadrick can describe why he and wife Stacy travel the country speaking out on behalf of U.S. agriculture, farmers and ranchers.

“I think we just need to do a better job of showing people who we are and what we do,” he said.

Hadrick and his wife are the faces and voices behind Advocates for Ag.

The South Dakota couple, the product of farming and ranching families, are some of the newest voices speaking out on behalf of their chosen profession.

They are doing that with face-to-face presentations and by using the tools of their generation, a Web log and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to spread their message to thousands about farming and agriculture.

Under the Twitter name of TroyHadrick and on Facebook as Advocates for Agriculture, Troy addresses a variety of topics related to agriculture and farming and current topics.

He’s been doing the blog for 15 months and only recently started a Facebook fan page and using Twitter to get his message out.The success is in the numbers — He has more than 2,700 fans on the Facebook page and an ever-growing number of followers on Twitter, and on his blog, www.advocatesforag.com, the Hadricks’ message is getting out. Read More

I wanted to feature this article about Advocates for Agriculture because it’s all of you that made this possible. If we didn’t have such loyal readers on the blog and engaging fans on Facebook we couldn’t do what we are doing. It’s the passion for agriculture that all of you exhibit on a daily basis that keeps us striving to do a better job for you. There is no possible way that Stacy and I can tell the story of agriculture all by ourselves. It has to be a team effort that requires the hard work and dedication of all of us. Thanks for all that you do. We are making a difference.

Anti's Attack Advocates for Ag

I'm trying not to chuckle as I type this. If you read yesterday's blog posts, you saw that I shared a story about the American Indian Tribes voting to support domestic horse processing. It has become an issue for them and they have gotten involved to make their voice heard. Apparently the mere fact that I shared this with you has made me the target of an emotionally driven, over-zealous crowd of people that disagree.

Thomas Lee Trevino from Illinois, along with a few others, took it upon themselves to lead an attack on me yesterday for posting my opinion on the subject. Apparently it's ok for him to do so, but not for people that disagree with him.

Rather than talk about the issue, the folks on this forum have decided to attack me personally. For starters, they began by linking my integrity to the quality of my website. Then they started to attack the sponsor of an event that we talke at three years ago. This was the first time that Stacy and I had ever presented in this fashion. It was a 25 minute talk that focused on teaching farmers and ranchers how and why it's important that people know where their food comes from. Never once did we talk about the issue of horse processing at that meeting.

They also don't appreciate it when I expose HSUS and PETA for what they are doing. Along with that they claim that I am anti-organic, that I have launched a negative PR campaign against the movie Food Inc, and care more about money than the health of the American public. I'm not anti-organic, but I have tried to educate people that this method of production isn't a viable way to feed and clothe 9 billion people. If people want to raise and buy organic products, I don't have a problem with that.

The fun doesn't end there though. As with most people that lack a good argument, they resort to name calling in order to make themselves feel better. Mr. Trevino says that I am a circus act and that anyone that would listen to me is also probably a member of the Jeffrey Dahmer fan club. He continues by claiming that I once told him I was from Montana and had that listed on our website, but have since changed our story and now claim to be from South Dakota. This "lie", he claims also shows my integrity. Mr. Trevino, I have never claimed to be from Montana. I am proud to say that I was born in South Dakota, went to school here and have lived my entire life in this great state. I don't recall ever having a conversation with this man, and besides that, what would I have to gain by claiming I was from Montana?

To wrap it up (so far) he goes on to suggest that I am probably cheating on my taxes and hopes that someday he can hit me in the gut without me seeing it coming. In order to do this, he suggests that everyone study me, learn my patterns and then expose my tactics.

Here's the good news. We are all lucky to live in a country that we can talk like this. There are many people in this world that don't have that luxury. I think it's also a telling insight into the mentality of these folks that would like to outlaw horse processing, at least some of them. If they would like to discuss the issue more, I am happy to do that. But it appears they would rather claim to know what I say when I present to groups and call me an evil liar. It's unfortunate that Mr. Trevino and the others would rather make up stuff about me than discuss this important matter. If you'd like to know more about me, you could just ask.

I'm a rancher with an opinion. I'm sorry that offends you.

UPDATE: Sometime this afternoon, Mr. Trevino decided to delete his original post where he stated that he wanted to punch me when I wouldn't see it coming. I doubt he had a sudden change of heart, but it's been deleted nonetheless. So in case you haven't seen it, here is the orginal post.

Tommy Lee (Trevino17)

With BIG mouths and anyone ignorant enough to listen and believe them.

Speakers like Troy and his Wife.. Hit the road flapping there lips to people who think these people really care. Please review and get familiar with there website and the actions we must counteract. You will see just how much they charge for there mouths to flap..

The have also increase there blogs to welcome horse plants.

While spreading the same lies that the Dover article that was recently printed.

http://advocatesforag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=6

Theres no need to contact them because there minds are made up.. They are all on a mission to support horse slaughter what ever the cost..

The best thing for us to do is monitor and learn there patterns to counteract and expose there tactics.

Im cutting my own foot here, but also to expose the subs and tax breaks they get in Ag.

livestock property breaks, Tractor licenses, Taxes, Titles, Insurance for road usage, CRP spendings etc. I have a ton load of uncollected taxes we can hurt the Ag and Farm Bureau..

I know there are spies on here but only release this to people you trust.

I would love to hit them in the Gut.. and them not see it coming..