The great divide
It puzzles me why non-agrarian/city people think they can tell farmers and ranchers we have to be more ‘transparent’ and ‘open’ about the way we do our work. The fact is no matter what we tell them, they can’t understand anyway. They don’t know the meaning of words we use, have likely never set foot on a farm or a ranch. Indeed, the nearest many of them have been is when they fly above the countryside on a voyage from city to city. Just as country people would not go into a business in the city and tell them how to do their jobs, what makes them think they can dictate what we do?
Is there any other career where non-professionals — actually people with no background knowledge — seek to tell professionals how to do their jobs? Would a city lawyer with no prior experience, go into vehicle repair shop and demand to tell the mechanic which tool to use or how to diagnose a problem? All that would do is muck up the process.
That is what the anti-agriculture individuals and groups do. They complain about cow emissions and proclaim it is a hazard to the health of the planet. I have never heard that said about a dog or a horse. Could it be that these same people worship dogs and horses, but have somehow swallowed the line of the antis who proclaimed cows are the culprits?
Do you realize GMOs were created to placate the people who demanded a decrease in herbicide and insecticide use? It has been highly successful yet the same folks are howling louder than ever. The crops are tainted! Buyers are being poisoned! Yet the best one is the true one: consumers are being ripped off. Nearly everything these days — including some bottled water — is labeled “non-GMO.” I kid you not. The simple reason is people do not educate themselves, but rely on some internet guru who is anti-agriculture to fill their minds with nonscientific “truths.”
What about the people on the East Coast who say that everyone should take public transportation and not drive cars because vehicles pollute so badly? That may work where people live scrunched up and have the heavily taxpayer subsidized rail lines to ride. Out here in flyover country, there is not public transport. We are on our own if we want to even go to a grocery store. (Ours are 25 miles away.) The vast majority of these same people have never been in this region and if they did, they likely flew in. That takes the impact of how far it is to everything out here. We are used to it and have no problem with it, yet it gets old to hear them carry on about how bad rural emissions are. Our needs are different. You live your way; we’ll live ours. Quit bellyaching about agriculture.
Sanders writes from the family farm and welcomes questions at peggy@peggysanders.com.
