“Ninety-five percent of American farms are owned and operated by families — individuals, family partnerships or family corporations.” (USDA Census of Agriculture, 2022) It should not be surprising that there are so many people who have firm opinions — although often uninformed ones — about how animals are treated, what GMOs do, where milk and meat come from, the jobs of farmers and ranchers. Their opinions are far from reality but frankly, they don’t know any better.

It all goes back to the fact that fewer than 2% of the U.S. population is involved in production agriculture, that is, the individuals who actually raise the products. Back in the day, grandma’s day that is, Americans didn’t quibble over such things because they were busy making a living with their own jobs, or livestock and working the land. They also had an abundance of common sense. In fact that may be the most sadly lacking commodity from days past.

The sad thing is those outside of production agriculture have no idea of the truth. They read something on the internet and swallow it — hook, line and sinker — without questioning. An eye-opening fact is that 80% of the money in the farm bill is allocated to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which means food stamps. These funds have nothing to do with production agriculture, yet that is where the government puts the money

Americans now are so far removed from the reality of farming and the anti-everythings know it and take advantage of it. One Facebook friend was ranting about GMOs and when I asked her about them, she sent me a link to some “green” site; she didn’t know anything herself, just what she read on the site. That is not education; it is propaganda. The public is gullible. Articles written by the antis would make one think that every bite of food is laced with poison. The Agricultural Marketing Service has a list which you should read and note that there are many crops in which have only one variety that is GMO. Some varieties of 14 crops that have been genetically modified and are commercially available to date around the world: corn, soybeans, sugar beets, sugar cane, alfalfa, papaya, canola, cotton, eggplant, potato, salmon, apples (Arctic) and summer squash. (AMS.USDA.gov) Don’t paint them all with a broad brush rather read the list to learn what varieties are GMO.

For many years there were complaints that farmers were using too many pesticides. To counteract that, companies came up with the idea of changing the genetics of plants so they would be weed-resistant and not require the pesticides. The prevailing thought was that would please consumers. The antis, generally people who have never set foot on a farm nor gotten their hands in dirt, do not like that either, due to what they “learn” on the internet.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “The trouble with our low information, internet “educated” friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Sanders is a national-award winning columnist who writes from the farm in southwest South Dakota. Her internet latchstring is always out at peggy@peggysanders.com. She can be reached through her website at http://www.peggysanders.com.