The last time I was in Indianapolis was the summer of 2003. I remember it pretty well because I was still
sulking about The Colts being moved there without my permission and not quite over their inglorious departure from my hometown of Baltimore twenty years earlier. My bitterness melted away however in nearby Plainfield at The National Chimney Sweep Training School, the site of my very first Dirty Job. There, I was instructed in the fine art of “flue maintenance,” and engulfed in 
flames while attempting to extinguish a raging creosote fire from the top of a rickety demonstration platform. Things went downhill after that and by the time I finally left town I was unrecognizable, concealed under a thick layer of ash and soot, with no plans of ever returning to The Crossroads of America.
Of course, in those days I was unrecognizable on a daily basis. Dirty Jobs would not debut for another six months, and I had no reason to think that anyone would watch when it did. I was wrong about that, and I’ve been wrong about a great many things ever since. A few months ago in fact -
proving once again that my plans and my life have little in common – I returned to Indianapolis a lot cleaner, and a lot less anonymous, to deliver the keynote address at The 82nd National Convention of The Future Farmers of America (10/21/09).
For those of you who don’t know, The FFA is an organization of 500,000 
teenagers, most of who look like they fell off the front of a Wheaties box. Wholesome, polite, and impossibly well mannered, these are the kids you wish you had, diligently pursuing an adolescence of agricultural acumen. Unfortunately, I arrived at their annual convention with the same level of planning and forethought I brought on my last visit, (i.e., none,) and found myself pacing in the wings twenty minutes before my appearance, trying to arrange my thoughts into an “inspirational and G-Rated message.” Luckily, I happened to glance down at the “FFA Briefing Packet,” recently handed to me by one of the organizers, and found some inspiration on page 4.
“The FFA currently faces an image and perception problem. The previous name of the organization, “Future Farmers of America,” lends itself to stereotyping by the public. The FFA faces a continuing battle to redefine itself against narrow perceptions of “agriculture,” “vocational” and “farmers.” The name “FFA” is now used instead of “Future Farmers of America.”
Incredible. Have we really become so disconnected from our food that farmers no longer wish to be called farmers? Apparently, yes. The FFA has determined that most Americans think of farmers like those actors in Colonial Williamsburg – smiling caricatures from Hee Haw and Green Acres, laboring quaintly in flannel and denim. From what I’ve seen, they’re right. Over and over I hear the same thing from farmers I’ve met on Dirty Jobs. Technical advances in modern agriculture now rival those of Silicon Valley, and today’s farms are more efficient than ever, but no one seems to have gotten the memo. No one seems to care.
The question is “why?” and fifteen minutes later I was on stage, trying to provide a sensible answer to an audience of 55,000 future farmers who preferred to be called something else. I talked about the power of labeling and the dangers of typecasting, from Hollywood to Iowa. I relied upon my own mistakes and 
misperceptions to make my points, (no shortage there,) and told some stories about the education I’ve received in the course of shooting Dirty Jobs. I don’t know that I was 
“inspirational” per se, but at the conclusion I was presented with some lovely parting gifts, and left the stage to thunderous applause. In short, I had a blast, and think the kids did as well.
Later that night though, I discovered that there had also been some grown-ups in attendance. Some very serious grown-ups who run the kinds of organizations that actually put the food on our plates. People like Chad Gregory. Chad’s a big shot with The United Egg Producers, and claimed to have enjoyed my comments immensely. He is also convinced that the PR challenges facing groups like The FFA are not only real, but critically relevant to anyone addicted to chewing and swallowing things.
Chad believes we have started down a slippery path that will forever change our nation’s food supply. He talks passionately about the need for people to get educated about the realities of feeding a growing population, and
foresees a time when our country imports more food than it ships out. Chad says that without massive awareness and sweeping change, egg production in California will be all but eliminated by 2015, and that thanks to recent ballot initiatives, the process has already begun. He points to the confusion around the “free-range” issue, and the power of groups like The Humane Society, who have taken their agenda to a whole new level. According to Chad, one of their intended goals is now the elimination of all US animal-based agriculture.
Chad wasn’t alone. Walking around Indianapolis I had dozens of similar encounters with a variety of people, all deeply concerned about the future of food production in this country, and frustrated that the relevant issues have been framed by well-funded political organizations with very specific agendas. I listened to stories from agri-scientists about environmental groups fiercely opposed to biotechnical and chemical breakthroughs that would dramatically increase food production worldwide. I saw literature from PETA that likened beef production to “genocide.” And a young farmer named Travis told me about a $1,200 fine levied by OSHA, because the bottom rung on one of his ladders was bent.
As I spoke with various farmers that evening, I realized that I had asked the wrong question. “Why?” is too easy. Obviously, today’s farmers need a PR Campaign because they are beset by an army of angry acronyms, each determined to change modern agriculture in a way that better reflects their particular worldview. The better question is “How.” How is it that 300 million Americans – all addicted to eating – have become disconnected from the people who grow our food? What new priorities have captured our shared concern?
The answer depends entirely upon whom you ask. PETA has one response; The Sierra Club has another. The Humane Society might see it differently than The EPA, and Greenpeace has a different reply than OSHA. Fair enough; it’s a free country. But how did these organizations get so much power? Are their arguments really that compelling? Are their leaders really that charismatic? Are their members really that enlightened? Or has our prosperity created a toehold for ideas that would have simply died on the vine one or two generations ago?
Imagine The HSUS successfully closing down California egg production back in …1960. Or in the same year, imagine OSHA fining a family farm $1,200 for a bent ladder. Imagine telling hungry Americans decades ago that environmental policy would make it impossible to maximize food production. I’m not looking for a fight – really, I’m not. I understand that different things are important to different people, and I don’t begrudge anyone’s right to champion the issues that matter most to them. But what’s more important than eating? What’s more important than feeding a hungry planet, and supporting the people who grow our food?
On Dirty Jobs, I’m no expert, and I’m even less of one here. But I have a theory, and it goes like this – all jobs rely on one of two industries – mining and agriculture. Every tangible thing our society needs is either pulled from the ground, or grown from the ground. Without these fundamental industries there would be no jobs of any kind. There would be no economy. Civilization begins with miners and farmers, and polite society is only possible when skilled workers transform those raw materials into something useful or edible.
I started mikeroweWORKS.com, because I think we’ve become disconnected from that basic premise. I think we’ve simply forgotten about the underlying industries upon which all else depends, and as a result, created for ourselves a vocational identity crisis. Our collective definition of a “good job” has evolved into something that no longer resembles Work, and that has detached us from a great many things, including our food, and the people who provide it.
Could this be the root cause of the FFA’s “perception problem?” Could our warped view of the modern farmer be just another symptom of our warped relationship with work in general? It’s just a theory, but how else can we explain a country that marginalizes and stereotypes the very people we depend on most? From what I’ve seen, most people like farmers. Most people like food. The problem is Work. We’ve spent decades trying to distance ourselves from traditional notions of Work. And who embodies Work more than The American Farmer?
If Chad’s right, U.S. animal agriculture is under siege, and we’re well on our way to getting our eggs from China and our beef from Brazil. Perhaps this would please The Humane Society. Perhaps PETA would like to see those items removed from menu’s altogether, and that’s fine. People often disagree about important matters, but without context, the bigger issue gets lost. This is our food supply we’re talking about – not the size of a chicken’s cage, or the resistance to chemically enhanced soil. We already rely on the world for our energy. Do we really want to rely on them for our food as well?
I auditioned the other day for the voiceover on a TV commercial about the American Farmer. (Yeah, I still audition.) I don’t recall the whole thing, but it started out like this – “Every year we demand more and more from our farmers. More food from less land. More food from less energy. More food from less labor. And every year our farmers deliver.”
I believe that to be a true statement. I also believe that as a country, we haven’t made it easy for them. Two percent of our population provides the rest of us with all the food we need, and we behave as though it’s our birthright. Like nothing we do can threaten the abundance. It seems to me that as a country, we could do a better job of supporting the people who feed us. And we could start by acknowledging the incredible challenges facing The American Farmer.
But I digress.
All I really wanted to do was congratulate The FFA for their good work, and thank them for inviting me back to Indianapolis. I spend a lot of time these days talking about the importance of getting dirty – mostly with white-collar workers who don’t really know what I’m getting at, which is fine. Preaching to the choir doesn’t do much but bore the choir, so I rarely take the opportunity to talk to groups who already “get it.”
However, there is something to be said for occasionally finding yourself in the company of like-minded people. And every so often, if you can get your thoughts organized in time, it’s fun to address the rafters and deliver a message that gets 50,000 enthusiastic future farmers to stand up and holler back with unbridled gusto.
Such were my last three days in Indianapolis. Good for the spirit, good for the ego, and far superior to crawling down a flaming chimney.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
- Mike
234 Comments
I did get to watch it in progress streamed on their channel with blogging going on as it happened. Mike you blew them away You did a couple keynotes and I am curious what you got as gifts . One looked look a personal jacket, and the others , you never said. The energy in that place was coenergized by each other. I hope you live blog a speech sometime and take questions for people who are in the moment so to speak but unable to be there.
One of the best groups of Mike Rowe Workers .
Bev
Brilliant! Trust me when I say some of us white-collar folk do very much get it. While I think there is vast room for improving the conditions many livestock are raised and kept in, I fear the day that we become totally reliant on other countries for providing everything we need to survive. We are already too far down that road now. I just hope there is time and motivation to turn it around. Thanks for getting this message out!
It’s so refreshing to finally hear these sentiments expressed–gives me hope for a better tomorrow. Now we just need someone to start talking about the value of senior citizens in the workforce, and we’ll be good to go!
My Uncle’s a farmer, his son is a farming equipment exec, my dad, though an electrical engineer, is built and works like a farmer. I get it. I was in college when I realized the difference between ‘real’ work and just earning a paycheck.
I respect people who work for a living and that’s why I’m so happy my daughter asks to watch ‘Dirty Jobs’. I want her to respect people who work for a living and I’d respect her if that’s her career choice later on down the line.
Mike-Your message should be a PSA that’s run each night before the evening news for as long as it takes until every man, worman and child in America can recite it by heart! THANK YOU for being an advocate for Amreican Agriculture!!!!!!
Mike, thank you for recognizing the amazing work the American Farmers and Ranchers do for this country and others. Last time I looked, all people need to eat. We depend on our farmers and ranchers to provide the food we need. And you are absolutely correct when you say we’re well on our way to getting our eggs from China and our beef from Brazil. As Henry Kissinger once said, “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.” We, as Americans, can not let that happen. Thank you for you for being an AgVocate!
When I moved into the township where I live 15 years ago, my neighborhood was entirely surrounded by fields of corn and potatoes. With the exception of one farm (which is itself now up for sale) every other farm has been sold and been replaced with housing developments and Wal-Marts. It’s shocking and upsetting to see all these farms disappear, primarily because the farmer can no longer afford to grow his crops, and the next generation is not interested in taking over. When I see produce in my local food store that has been shipped from China (or wherever) it breaks my heart. That is why I try to patronize the local farmers markets as often as I can. Not only does this help to keep them in business, it guarantees that the overall quality of the food purchased will be as fresh (and safe to eat) as possible.
I love meat, milk and eggs and was in the audience in Indy when you knocked it out of the park!
In 1900, ~40% of people in the U.S. lived on a farm. Today, less than 1.0% do. That means the average U.S. farmer is feeding about 150 American’s plus exporting safe, wholesome and affordable food to countries who want and need it.
Thanks for celebrating with our future farmers and giving them hope vision to keep feeding America and the world. Keep it up!
Mr. Rowe,
Thanks for the motivation! I’m a High School Ag Teacher, and I was there in Indy for your speech. Now, some 6 months later, my students are still talking about your message. Usually they don’t remember what I said yesterday, so it gives all of us hope that we have some people like you on our side.
You are one fantastic “Ag-infotainer”! We Ag Teachers love your message, and our students love your delivery. It all makes for a great educational package. Bravo to you for getting your facts straight and talking loud to the American public. Please come back and visit us soon.
Keep up the good work,
From the “Heartland”
I think you’d be the perfect “voice” for the American Farmer. People would listen. I hope they chose you for that commercial.
Mike, I couldn’t agree more! As a former State FFA Officer and current veterinary student I try to convey how important our producers are. It’s frightening to me that even in our veterinary colleges students do not realize the importance of the American Farmer. What’s worse is that we, food animal veterinary students, are having to fight to keep our programs alive. I guess people value their pet more than their food; not to mention their pet’s food.
I live in Indianapolis but couldn’t go because I wasn’t a member of the FFA.
Mike, I am a current agronomy major at a small liberal arts school in Ohio and we are currently debating this very subject. After attending several speakers on “organic” farming and anti big agriculture, which to me does not sound like the answer for 3 million farmers to feed 300 million people, we decided to host a Food Symposium that was pro conservation tillage and healthy eating. One of our speakers we got to come out was Dennis Avery, who speaks about feeding the world with chemicals and ag technology and is apparently a very controversial speaker, as i found out when we had 17 of our professors sign a petition for him not to come. These are the same professors who are bringing an atheist to our quaker college without question. How is it that people, who claim to be open minded liberals, are not willing to listen to someone who is speaking about the future of our food system, but find it more important to challenge the foundation of our school and country? I’m not saying they have to agree with it, just think that people need to step back and look at reality. With population growing we are going to need ag advancements that produce yields unheard of by todays standards while conserving the soil. I believe in order for people to criticize our food system they shoud try being truely hungry, and try to be helpful instead of dissing it. As Daniel Webster said- “When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” Thanks for supporting the American Farmer. Sincerely, Thomas
I just shake my head whenever things like this are mentioned, as it’s so mind-boggling to even consider it all. Coming from a farm myself, having been born and raised and also coming from many generations of farmers on both sides of my Mom and Dad, I had never realized, as a kid, that so many people are that removed from agriculture and from the knowledge of where their food comes from. Sadly, I had only started realizing this only a few years ago. And as a kid, you tend to grow up with these biased opinions and views that you get from your parents, and when suddenly something like what you wrote about, and what I learned from reading books like Omnivore’s Delimma, it just makes you step back a couple paces. It was when I realized that only 1% to 2% of the population are farmers or are kids that grew up on a farm that I realized how incredibly lucky I was (and am).
You mentioned that many farmers hate being called farmers because of the intense stereotyping and prejudice that is present among many people when they think of farming. My Dad was EXACTLY like that; he despised being called a farmer. I didn’t know why (nor asked), but now I know.
I consider myself to be a future farmer because I have already made “big plans” to get back to my roots on the land that my mom and dad still own. I am also interested in advocating agriculture to the general public, and particularly advocating beef agriculture since it has taken quite a heavy hit with the EPA and the FAO putting the blame on the poor cow for being the “major” problem for global warming. I haven’t the incredible nerves of steel, like you have Mike, to stand up in front of an audience of thousands and preach my views to them; instead I hit CyberSpace from the comforts of home and try to do my advocating that way. I don’t know if my messages are going to the right people or not, but I’m doing my damndest.
Thanks for the post Mike, it was very inspirational!
” And as a kid, you tend to grow up with these biased opinions and views that you get from your parents, when you have lived in your “perfect” little world. But then suddenly I read something like what you wrote about and books like Omnivore’s Dilemma, and it all hits me like I slammed into a brick wall, and I have to reread it again and again to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, and to let it all sink in. I still find it hard to believe that so many people don’t care about where their food comes from. And I still find it very hard to believe that people are making a big fuss over politics and religion and completely ignoring the looming food crisis that no doubt will be coming soon, if it ain’t here already!” (In my previous comment I had this grammatical error that I had to correct, plus add a bit on to!!)
You said,”If Chad’s right, U.S. animal agriculture is under siege, and we’re well on our way to getting our eggs from China and our beef from Brazil. Perhaps this would please The Humane Society. Perhaps PETA would like to see those items removed from menu’s altogether, and that’s fine.” If I read this right, I hope that you aren’t saying that it’s fine with you if the USA goes vegetarian, because it sure ain’t fine with me. And I don’t live in the USA. I could write a whole essay on why I believe that meat shouldn’t be excluded in our diets, but I will keep it short to just this: If we completely excluded meat from our diet, we’d be more closer to starving ourselves to death than what the world is experiencing now, and I believe we’d be in bigger trouble with environmental concerns due to excess of soil erosion and “mining” of soil nutrients with constant cropping than if we stuck with a balance of livestock (particularly free-range, grass-fed) and crops.
I hope I never live to see the day that the FAO and the EPA have succeeded in extermininating animal agriculture.
Again, thanks Mike for the blog post.
Mike,
I was one of the 55,000 FFA members in that audience. I must say, you alone made convention worthwile, let alone the rest of the things. Above, you talk about it being nice talking to a group that “Gets it”. Well, it was nice for once to have a speeker that “Gets it”! Thank you so much for comming to the 82nd National FFA Convention! You are an inspiration to a lot of FFA members!!!
Mike,
First things first, I was in attendance for your brilliant speech at the National FFA Convention. I was very pleased with the message that you delivered. I am an FFA member from Minnesota. It may seem funny, but I have noticed that there are even some farm kids who don’t necessarily want to be associated with agriculture, it’s just not the cool thing to do. I must say, I am from a farm and proud of it, but what about them other kids? I believe that these young children that are conforming to societies standards could be one of the biggest challenges that agriculture faces. We who are involved in agriculture need every voice that we have, plus more, in order to reestablish a connection between today’s consumers and production agriculture.
What if, tomorrow, you went to the grocery store, and there was nothing on the shelves. Nearly every product that we buy contains something that is a result of agriculture. For example, did you know that most citric acid is derived from corn syrup? Or, that most sweeteners today are high fructose corn syrup? Now look on the label for the foods in your cupboard and see how many of them contain one of those two ingredients. It would be interesting to see what would happen if everyone in agriculture would just stop producing, even if just for a day. Maybe then people would start to realize the vast importance of this critical part of the economy.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Mike. I wish more people thought like that. I can’t stand the idea of getting eggs from China. I’ve seen frozen vegetables at the grocery store from China. That is just wrong on so many levels. We need to support our farmers. Thank you!
mike: overall, i really like what your doing with mikeroweworks.com. but i have to say i think you are off base here. in 1960 there were actually family farms still around that raised animals humanely…current factory farming is NOT humane nor should it be supported…it is an offense against nature! smaller, sustainable farming is the only way to ensure soil integerity and therefore future production and nutrious food. i am not a veggie, i eat meat…but i refuse to support the way our current food system allows the horrible treatment of animals and the total disregard to the environmental impact of those huge, industrial farms. the united egg producers commment that egg production in CA will be elmiinated by 2015 is utter BS!! people have to realize that they are going to have to pay the real price of food…not the false government-subsidized price. i’m disappointed that you were so easily sold by “chad” and his smooth talk…you usually can see thru smoke and BS better than that. i suggest you read The Ominvore’s Dilemma and watch Food, Inc…because if you really think that “chad” is the person to be listening to, you are mistaken.
btw…i love and support true american farmers…i buy all my meat/eggs/butter locally. i encourage everyone to do the same. support your local farmers!
Mike -
I had mentioned this one before in a reply to you, but my 16 year old son was there at that convention. At our home in Kansas we had the opportunity to watch parts of the convention live, so I wanted to be sure to catch your keynote address. I want to thank you for the upbeat and positive outlook you gave to those kids, and well, to all of us. Good, hard, honest work, be it a dirty job or not is what this country has always been founded on, and its nice to see that someone who is a celebrity ‘gets it’.
Thank you from a grateful mom.
Pat
You are so right Mike. Those acronym groups should only worry about the “simple” parts of farming:
1. Are the animals managed in a way to keep them healthy and produce a healthy product.
2. Are the people working in a safe enough environment. (i.e. Dangerous conditions mitigated in a reasonable way [Bent ladder rung... you've got to be kidding])
3. Are the farmers working in a way that doesn’t damage the future of farming (i.e. Using too much/the “wrong” kind of pesticides, Culling so many of the animals that they will become extinct, etc…)
After those “simple” things (which the farmers are already managing out of simple self preservation) they can go jump into the less pleasant byproducts of pig farming!
THANKS MIKE!!!
I’m the ag teacher and FFA Advisor at Audubon, Iowa. I was in Indy and heard you speak. You did inspire but I’m a little sad that good old fashioned common sense has become so rare that it’s inspiring. None-the-less, you did a great job, my students still bring it up.
A couple of points: Let’s not forget that the American Agriculture industry feeds the world. Nearly 7 billion people are served by ag. My question to groups who would cut our production (to alledgedly be more environmentally friendly or humane) is who gets to starve? The American farmer is the worlds greatest environmentalist. Their livelihood depends upon it. Our water is cleaner that is was 30 years ago and our soil is in far better condition.
I’m a little disappointed with FFA. The real reason for our name change was to do a better job of encompassing the entire agricultural industry. Future Farmers is frankly too narrow. It does not include development of new products, food processing, marketing, distribution or any of the other facets of the industry.
Again, thanks. Thanks for being a champion for agriculture, the working American, and common sense. Also thanks for noticing how great our kids are.
Eric Trager
Karen, I was wondering if you would be willing to define what your notion of a ‘Factory Farm’ is. As a rancher and farmer, I hear this term constantly, and I honestly don’t know what people are picturing when they use it. Certainly it is a catchy buzzword, but what does it really mean to you?
I will also post this over in the Farming section of the forum, to avoid muddying this comment thread, but your input would be appreciated.
Mike,
I’m a member of the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce. We host an annual event called “The Business Solutions Workshop”. At our committee meeting tonight (5/4/2010) I suggested that a perfect speaker for our 2011 Workshop would be you! We don’t have 50,000 members but you are the face, voice & advocate for ALL small businesses (not just the dirty & dangerous). If this sounds like something you would like to do please let me know.
Mike-
Thank you for this article! My husband and I farm in Missouri and it is so nice to hear someone outside of agriculture speak up on our behalf! Thanks for helping to get the real story of agriculture out to the public!
Sincerely,
Karisha
WOW! You bring tears to my eyes! You get it! And you have the platform to share it! My daughter was there, and generations of my family have lived the life. Thank YOU!!! And Thank You too, to all who have commented.
This was an extremely good insight into the world of Future Farmers of America. I grew up in mining towns all my life, due to the fact that my father is a geologist, and I can understand the frustrations that are faced on a daily basis. I pray that this will help ignite a fire under all of us to become more active than those who oppose eating good food! Thank you!
Two words…Thank you!
Thanks, Mike.
I grew up in agriculture — a dairy farm in Florida. My husband and I now raise 100% grass-fed cattle and strawberries. (We are trying to expand our offerings and our neighbors seem eager for it.) I just came in to take a break from our U-pick field and found your post.
Thank you for using your amazing talents to educate others about agriculture. We need more “fans” like you who will step up and speak out on our behalf. We can talk about ourselves until we are blue in the face, but when an “outsider” speaks, it hold more credibility. Thank you
Mike,
Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you!
Your support of agriculture is amamzing! As a wife and mother I understand how important it is to bring safe, reliable, and fairly priced food to my families table THREE times a day. As a Farmers’ Wife, I applaud your effort to keep agriculture in the forefront of our society! It is amamzing the number of people who don’t understand how it is their food got the grocery store, and why it is that any given day they can walk into that neighborhood store and be able to choose from an abundace of vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy and much much more. Instead, many just compliain that prices are continuing to rise without any reagard as to why.
I am a member of California Women for Agriculture, an all volunteer organiztion comprised of over 2500 women. Our group has two sayings that sum up what ag. is to this state and country. 1) If you eat food and wear clothes, YOU are involved in agriculture. 2) Farmers pay retail and sell wholesale.
The first saying, self explanatory. The second…let me quickly break it down for you. Our farmers need to fertalize and keep our soil, crops and feed supply safe and free from mold, bugs etc. in order to produce enought food to feed this wonderful country. In order to do that they must pay reatail for all of those services. And, unlike any other producer of a product or service the Farmer is not allowed to forward this cost onto the conumer. Farmers are not able to set the prices for their product, they must accept whatever price the market will bear!
So again… Thank you, as a celebrity what you say publicly can be met with much criticism. and let’s face it, ag is a controversial topic. Your support is amazing, Thank you for putting yourself “out there” and educating our neighbors.
Amy Gore
Mr. Rowe you are my hero! I am a young person who lives and works on my families dairy farm. I am proud of what we do and always will be. However, I’ll addmit I am concerened for the furture of American Agriculture. It means more than you’ll ever know to have someone from the outside stand up for us “white collar” folks. To tell the truth of what we do and why we do it. To show the world we care deeply for our animals and we cherish land we work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done and will keep doing.
Naomi
My husband and I are dairy farmers and I have to say I am proud to say I am a farmer. Thank you so much for your support. It was so nice to hear positive comments about farming. Right now is a hard time for dairy farmers and it was uplifting to read what you wrote. I hope more people see it the way you do so farmers who want to continue to be farmers will be able to do so. Thank you so much again!
Mike-
I was born and raised on an Iowa farm and am doing research in agriculture at a land grant university in the Midwest. Generally I agree with your message. However, you cannot ignore the science, proven again and again by responsible researchers, that some practices used in agriculture today are polluting our planet.
Less than an hour ago I watched a huge herbicide applicator spray chemicals on the 65 acre corn field that is just 30 feet from my house. It was windy and I watched those chemicals drift into the creek at the edge of that field. That creek is part of the water supply that serves an urban area of more than 250,000. I know the residents of that urban area are tired of paying more and more for water because the water processing plant has to spend more and more on equipment to clean the water they drink. Water is in fact a more vital need than food and we can’t produce food without it.
Yes, all farmers have a bad rap right now, but there are reasons for that and until those who pollute the water, soil and air step up and accept responsibilty for the impact of their practices, all farmers are going to continue to get a bad rap.
My challenges to farmers who read this is to think about what impact their practices have on all those who they share the water, air and soil with on this planet. There is lots of research and information available to farmers on how to reduce the negative impact they have on the environment, but they first have to accept responsibility for the fact that their actions are causing pollution.
Thanks for listening
i was there in that crowd. i was inspired. and as an active ffa member i do alot to promote the future of farming. agriculture is no longer cows, plows, and sows. its everything!
Outstanding comments Mike. I grew up on a small dairy and have worked in ag all my life. And I will for the rest of my life too. Thank you for you clear commentary.
The FFA kids do not get enough attention. I tell my non-farm friends that if they’re worried about the future of the nation, they should attend an FFA convention. They’ll be totally impressed.
Thanks Mike,
As someone who grew up on a dairy farm, it is very nice to have someone with the audience and the respect that you command talk so highly of the people in agriculture. I wish that you would go on farms more often with your show since that might be the closest some people will ever get to a farm. I wish that everyone could learn more about what groups like the HSUS want to do to animal agriculture in the United States. A website that might be good to check out is humanewatch.org. Keep up the good work mike and I enjoy your work a lot.
I’m not sure whether you’ll read this or not, but there’s a new not-for-profit organization that is trying to help America’s farmers create a strong, unified identity. This group seeks to educate farmers on public relations and outreach over the Internet. It started as a group of dedicated social media users who coordinate weekly moderated discussions on Twitter.
http://www.agchat.org/
Also, as someone who served as a founding president to an FFA chapter just two years ago, thank you. Support like what you’ve shown is what farmers these days need.
Thanks for the support Mike. Thank you to all the farmers that feed the world.
“There is a difference between work and a job. Work makes you tired, a job gives you something to do” My grandfather, farmer of some 70 plus years.
I have two daughters in FFA and their leader makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to enjoy being in FFA. I loved being in FFA and thought my daughters would too. Not dissing FFA, just the horrid leader.
ANYWAY – I am an avid FFA supporter. I believe in all they do and USED to stand for. They are falling short just as the Trade World is falling short. It’s because of what is happening in the world. The computer and games and tv’s are making our kids stupid. Sorry to say but they are.
Think back to when you were a kid. IF you are over 30 you will get this. You played in DIRT with TRACTORS and played HORSES and cowboys and Indians and got dirty and wanted to learn to drive that tractor when you got older and …… does this sound familiar? Now our kids are sitting in front of a TV, not mine mind you!, but others, and watching that tractor play in the dirt and watching horses and watching cows and NOT watching cowboys and Indians. They don’t get dirty anymore. They don’t use their imaginations anymore.
My girls, they STILL play in the dirt. They still play horses. They KNOW how to run that tractor. They get POOP on them on a daily basis and say “darn” and brush it off wiht their HANDS and move on to the next project. Yes, they wash their hands! My girls can not only think outside of the box but don’t mind getting dirty. They like getting dirty and think it’s natural. How many of you can say your kids can and will do that?!
Mike has it totally correct. We are loosing the workers that made the USA what it used to be. I say used to be as it no longer is. It is now a computer generation that has lost it’s hold on what’s important.
Remember family values? I know, what’s that.
Remember the dining room table? Again, what’s that.
My girls have a RECORD player!!! Yep, records. Those HUGE discs that play and sound scratchy and are absolutely the perfection of music. They love their record player and use it on a daily basis.
Now I’ve raved about my girls. Who’s going to take the challenge I have issued, yes I issued a challenge, and take the computer and tv and video games out of your family and put in some dirt! Go to a ranch and have your kids clean some horse stalls! Go to the FFA and ask if your kids could tour the animal facilty and volunteer to clean out the pig poop. Hold a baby pig in your arms, snuggly!, and listen to it scream and cry and squirm and fidget until you put it down. Realize that that baby pig will poop on you too!
A little poop never hurt no one! Do not fix my english as I meant what I say. No one has ever been hurt by manual labor.
I am a janitor and maintenance person at a HUGE vineyard. I do more manual labor then 90% of the folks in the world. I say 90 as most of them think manual labor is cleaning their houses. NOT! Those of you who know manual labor know exactly what I’m talking about.
Stand up for those of us that keep your world running behind the scenes as Mike has so perfectly been pointing out to the world for years now. We are here and we want to make the world a better place and we need help! Get your kids dirty. Let them learn that manual labor won’t kill them. Let them decide to be an electrician instead of a lawyer. We have enough lawyers anyway.
I’ve rambled long enough.
Thank you for being brave enough to be honest in this new world of taboo. I grew up in small school, 60 kids in my grade and FFA was the biggest thing going, next to band. (I suppose to some we were geeks,
but happy geeks.) It has been a few years since then, but I think at that time we took FFA for granted because it was just another part of life in the Iowa farm community I grew up in. It was something expeted and its importance rested within that. Now, everything is different as things tend to become. Somehow that importance has been undermined by many things that have changed in the farming industry over the years. Thanks for reminding us that standing up and saying ‘hey, wait a minute’ is not only OK but the right thing to do. Never think that you or this site fail to matter. Thanks again,
Midwestfarmgirl-
Way to go Mike, You are sooooo correct.
MIKE ROWE for PRESIDENT!!!
WOW! You sure you live San Francisco Ca.?
Hi Mike,
I enjoyed your blog post, even if I don’t agree with most of it. The reason Americans are disengaged from farmers is because farming–at least intensive animal agriculture–is now done behind closed and locked doors. This is both an issue of animal cruelty, and one of sustainability. Did you know that 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the livestock industry? (http://51percent.org/) I haven’t seen every episode of your show, but I’m just wondering if you’ve ever done a Dirty Jobs episode on a factory farm? I bet not, because almost no one can get into these farms to see what really goes on. It’s pretty disturbing.
I grew up in an ag-friendly household (my mother is the Exec Director of our state’s Grain Producers Assoc. and Pork Producers Accoc.) and I was the Fair Queen at the county fair one year. Now, I’m a strict vegetarian, almost vegan… because I know what modern agriculture really is. And I really don’t think it’s the farmers’ fault; I’m not villainizing farmers. It’s the industry’s fault; the ag lobby is probably the most powerful in the country. We have to revamp the system and put the power back in the hands of farmers, not in Washington.
Thanks for your work (and I love your show)
Whitney
Thank you Mike. Thanks for being a part of the mainstream media and still speaking the unspeakable. . .speaking FOR the farmer! We farm, both grain and livestock, in Illinois, and there’s always a lot of sighing from the farmers around here when someone else comes out against our livelihood. My family applauds your ability to see that life on the farm is neither Hee Haw nor is it a big cash-cow (pardon the pun). We are hopeful that more folks will see that our country cannot survive without the agricultural industry.
I myself have even started a blog (http://webelfamilyfarm.blogspot.com) to try to educate my friends and family in all things agricultural, while learning myself. Farming is more than just cows, corn and combines. There’s so much more to understand before trying to regulate it with legislation, or take a stand against the farmer. My hope is that more folks will seek to become more educated, not informed, as the information is skewed at times. If not, we’ll all be eating food that is not safe, or grow our own, all the time, and in Illinois, December is not the greatest time for anything to survive.
Thanks again, and keep up the good work!
Emily
If we get rid of animal agriculture, where does our food come from? For some reason, getting something in on a ship makes everything okay? What better way to see how your food is raised then to look out your back door and see the hard working men and women of agriculture producing it! I will have no idea what conditions or methods of production are being used across the world. Apparently, some feel that if it isn’t grown here, it must be better? Yeah…. in some cases it maybe cheaper, but at what cost? What are the labor conditions, welfare of the people, animals, and crop growing conditions in these other countries like? Out of site.. out of mind. As a former FFA member and current ag educator, we need to be telling OUR STORY!!! Why don’t we get the headlines like PETA and the Humane Society.. because it doesn’t have the distorted shock value that brings in ratings. Maybe we need to figure out how to make that work in our favor.. not against us.
I agree with your statement of identity crisis, the FFA should be proud to be called Future Farmers of America, I didn’t understand why they decided to change this years ago, Other than there would be a substantial draw from an ever increasing urban population. I grew up on a dairy farm, and I don’t regret a day of it, Our family ties to that piece of ground made me what I am today. The FFA organization has shown myself,along with millions just how big and important agriculture is to this country. I think people have the right to support any organization they choose, But If you are going to support them, read about them, good and bad comments, make your own educated decision. Do not just support them every time they show you a puppy or kitten that needs affection. There is a bigger picture to all of this, What are they doing for your local humane societies, and shelters, when did they recieve a check from your contribution to these larger organizations. You will find out the reality of the animal you feed! Agriculture is changing, and you are right about asking farmers to do more with less, the sad truth is the american farm family will soon be extinct because of falling profits. Soon corperate farms will be the only food you eat. Think about what that does to a rural community. Not having those farm families supporting local towns, Schools,and Churches. Large farms getting supplies off of freight trucks with little local purchasing. This is the Direction society has pushed agriculture. Also look at the way your future workforce is being raised. Very few are taught the value of a good days work. 30 years ago rural areas were teaming with strong, well mannered kids. The loss of these farms does more than you see on the surface, it will change the very way we educate our future workforce. We need to return to a country that is proud of what we can produce. Strong Agriculture leads to a strong America.
Mike, many thanks from a feedlot owner/operator. My husband and I own and work on our 4,000 head feedlot which would be considered by some to be a factory farm. I guess by “factory” the general population means that there are more than a dozen head of animals sleeping every night in a barn. We need more voices like yours to help us get our stories out about who we are and what we really do. We take the care of our cattle very seriously as well as the land we farm. We can have healthy debate about consumer concerns IF the consumer is not fed BS by HSUS. Even though we have technology and machinery that our grandparents would’ve loved we still work very hard with long hours, few days off and can get very dirty! Thanks, again and God Bless you and all of those in food production. Joan Ruskamp, Dodge NE
Hi Mike have you ever thought of running for congress there in the good ol U S A ! reckon you were born to do it you understand the people & there needs you listen which is more than some people in congress do, I live in australia & I tune in into your show dirty jobs love it & now I have just read about the future of farming you are right in so many ways. I will continue to tune into the hard facts on hard work, & get into the issues in the office I will pass this on to a few of my friends for a read thanks mike for making my day bright cherrs lisa from OZ
Brilliant Mike. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m glad you’re a grounded person, and understands the American Farmer.
Mike,
I work in the agriculture industry every day and experience all the amazing things we can do to feed a hungry world. This PR problem goes beyond just our nation’s food security. It is the key to world peace(or lack thereof). We can not expect to have peace on empty stomachs. We have to ability to feed the world and be “green” at the same time if we will not let junk science and fear regulate our innovation into oblivion. Thank you for your comments. They are refreshing! I will help you in any way to continue to get the word out.
Mike
Smyrna, DE
As a dairy person from MI, I appreciate your ability to show farming in a good way and bring attention to issues that are important to us. Farming is a demanding, yet rewarding opportunity to contribute to the world. Thanks again. Diane
Thanks Mike. I was an ag educator for 34 years in east Texas and west Louisiana. I still find it hard to believe that an occupation so rare that provides such an important commodity is not celebrated and revered as it should be. I enjoy your dirty jobs show and hate I missed you in Indy and your keynote address.
I am in complete agreement with you. I work for the Harford Soil Conservation District in MD. We provide help to the farming community by helping them keep our streams and water ways clean. They do 100 times more for our streams and waterways than any other person I know because if you ask people that live in neighborhoods if they have ever had the soil tested before they started putting tons of fertilizers and pesticides on their lawns they think I am crazy or have never heard of having to do that. The farming community has been given a raw deal for a very long time but they still believe in what they do and still keep providing our food and milk even though they do so at a financial loss most of the time!
The small farmer today has got it rough,…just like the old “mom and pop” grocery stores that used to be on every street corner in every town until the “big box” stores came along and wiped them out. The small farmer is fast disappearing because of “big box” agricultural enterprises that DO HARM our environment with their mass productions particularly of livestock and meat-food animals and eggs. It is Big-Ag giving farming a bad name and it is the small farmers suffering for it.
Here is a wiki of the UNs agricultural report and I am pretty sure the type of farming they are refering to in the report is not the kind of farming or agriculture that we think of as being traditionally American; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock%27s_Long_Shadow
Like everything else in our country, agriculture and farming is being taken over by big corporations like Smithfield who owns a HUGE pig-farm in Mexico that is thought to be linked to the outbreak of H1N1, and Monstanto who dictates to the farmers now what kind of seeds they can use. The farmers today are no longer free to use their own seeds! If anyone is to blame for the “black eye” our farmers are suffering today, it is Big Corporate Agricultural enterprises. Goodbye USA,…hello United Corporate States of America!
Mike ~
I love your enthusisim and passion for the agricultural society, keep up the great work! Coming from a farm background on both my parents side and having the opportunity to grow up on one myself, I never relized how disconnected our general public was and still is to the agricultural community. We need to shout this message on the rooftops and I agree 100% with an earlier comment about having this broadcasted on television till we have it memorized! I work with farmers everyday in the swine industry and after swaping stories and getting their question answered, I hang up with a heavy heart. If we don’t start doing something to promote the advances in equipment, technology, etc. within agricultural we might as well throw in the towel now because in the next 5 – 10 years we will be relying on the rest of the world to feed us when we should be standing on our two feet and be responsible for ourselves.
Mike– Thank you. As a proud FFA member and one of the ones at home on the farm, you did an amazing thing,
Mike,
I wanted to thank you. We have beef cattle, and most days the outlook for agriculture in the US is bleak. Between all the activist groups who would see us all become vegans, and the government cutting funding for important ag-based programs; it seems most days like there aren’t very many people out there who appreciate what we do. And, that we do it for much less than it’s worth, that we do it because we have a love for the land and the animals, and get a sense of satisfaction from knowing that we feed the planet.
It is nice (after seeing all the stars backing PETA and the HSUS) to see you really speaking out for the people in agriculture and mining related work.
So again, I say THANK YOU!!!
Jennifer
Kudos Mike! Thank you for standing up for not only our farmers, but all HARD working people out there. I live in a rural community where my husband and I are raising three boys. We try each day to teach them the value in working hard. We love to watch Dirty Jobs (it gets recorded so we can watch it again and again) to see all the jobs that are done day in and out without so much as a Thank you to the workers. You are truly an ambassador for the blue collar worker. If you are ever down Nebraska way, you will be more than welcomed at our home. Keep up the good work.
The only thing I’d add to agriculture and mining is forestry. Which also takes the Earth’s bounty and makes building materials and fuel. Good stuff.
Mike:
I’m a farmer family daughter and work in agricultural PR. Several friends of mine from the business attended the FFA conference and heard your talk. From all reports, it was extremely well received and far from last minute like you would have us believe.
But I digress as well. I just wanted to say thank you for getting this important message to those beyond the choir. It’s very much appreciated.
Go Food. Go Farmers.
Mike, I too would like to thank you for “getting it.” When you speak above about the identity crisis faced by agriculture, I think one major aspect you need to hit upon are the labels that so many farmers face. Organic, conventional, factory, family, diversified, sustainable, local – they’re all just labels that do nothing but drive a huge wedge right in the heart of our farms, and seek to divide us and pit us against one another. Those of us in the daily grind of agriculture know that these labels serve only as marketing ploys, or attempts to vilify what we know as caring, successful farms. None of them accurately portray or describe our farms today; none of them accurately indicate food quality, superiority or quality of animal care on the farms.
Special interest groups like HSUS & PeTA can get much of the blame for playing this “name game” – it helps further their agendas, whatever they may be. But farmers, too, are guilty of it. And instead of pointing fingers at one another and judging other farmers who “do it different,” we need to unite and celebrate the fact that together, we feed our nation & our world. It will & does take all of us together to accomplish this feat.
The truth of the matter is, 98% of farms in the US are family owned & operated. Whether they have 30 beef cows in an organic grazing operation, or 3000 dairy cows in a CAFO, these farmers ALL work hard to ensure the health of their animals, and want to bring a safe, nutritious & affordable food product to consumers tables. Putting a label on them does nothing but paint an inaccurate picture and create fear among consumers.
I don’t think agriculture is as broken as the “food thinkers” would have us all believe. At the base of it, we ALL want the same things – healthy people, healthy communities, healthy food, healthy animals and healthy soil and water.
It is so important to include farmers in conversations about the future of our food. Not just the farmers whose ideas you agree with, but some you might think to be too conventional or status quo.
I really hope to see you as the PR face of agriculture – I’ve said for years I thought you were the perfect man for that job.
THANK YOU Mike Rowe!!! Our son was in the audience at audience at the FFA convention last fall. He said you were great, but we had no idea what an understatement that was. You have put into words the exact feelings we have. We are Wisconsin Dairy Farmers, and you can speak for us anytime. Thank-you for being an advocate for us!
Thomas Edison once said “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Great job Mike!
Unfortunately, the typical American citizen lacks any real knowledge of where their food comes from. My young cousin amazed us on a visit a few years ago when at 10 years old she truly believed that chocolate milk came from brown cows and white milk from white cows. While that is cute at first, when you think about a 5th grader really not knowing something as simple as where does milk come from it’s more than just scary.
We live on a farm, and have two young children. We do our best to ensure that they know and understand exactly what goes in to production, where things come from, and how to properly care for our animals. Unfortunately, for every two children who get this there are 200 who do not.
THANK YOU MIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent Mike,
Thanks for your inspiring and well thought out comments! You have a supporter in California!!
My daughter was in the audience during your presentation. She was there with Columbus FFA as a Student Teacher. Her graduation Dec. 09 from Texas A&M with honors gives her family great pride. She follows her parents and a long family line of farmers. She called me on return to the hotel room, so totally pumped by your presentation.
As an Ag Economist, I too, am very concerned about the disconnection the general public has with their food supply. We have become so technology driven in all areas of our economy, we need that technology to feed our growing population and that of the world. We are also blessed to have so many great choices of food sources. Those that wish to limit agriculture’s ability by their personal viewpoints must consider the world beyond their own neighborhood. Abundant and safe food is best grown by the farmers of our country. We have the ability to trace food induced problems. If we import the vast majority of our food we quickly loose the ability to trace food problems. Let us keep our food production at home. Our industry employs 24 million citizens outside of actual production agriculture. That is more citizens then are residents of Australia. We can not afford to loose those jobs.
Thank you Mike for your support of FFA and agriculture.
FFA Alumni who loves the organization!
Incredibly well written. Mike, ever thought of running for public office? Please don’t. We need people like you to speak out with common sense and be a leader.
You were out here in the Duvall, WA(Snoqualmie Valley)area for an episode with 5 Mile Quarry. When I moved out to the Snoqualmie Valley in 1989, we had 67 dairy farms. Now the Valley has less than 10. I’ve watched the farmers be vilified from the county government and regulated to death. As an insurance agent that insures the Washington Holstein Association, my ties with the farming families of this comminuty remain strong and filled with pride in their hard work and determination to bring forward healthy dairy products to families in Washington. I’m very glad they picked you as their Keynote speaker, and good for you for seeing their potential and plight. Good luck to all our food growers.
Does Mike know that the primary opponents of the HSUS is the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which is cited on the Activistcash link he provides. I wonder if Mike will next be speaking out against the Americans with Disabilities Act and MADD, who have also been targets of the CCF
Well said, Mike!!!
Agriculture needs a loud and collective voice – keep talking!!
I went to buy pickles today….and had to look for 15 minutes to find a brand made in the USA. I spent a lot more money. Recently grown right here in the PNW, Nalley now imports their pickles from India!! INDIA!! Why do I have to pay more for a domestic product that my family is perfectly capable of growing. well, I guess it’s time to get out the cookbook and finish putting the seeds in the ground. ugh…India *sigh*
thank you mr. rowe thank you for acknowledging the modern farmer and all the difficulties and obstacles they face in an effort to feed this country. i am no farmer just a kid that grew up and works on one but believe me what you said makes me proud of all who i know that are. again thank you wayne
You are absolutely right about the agenda of HSUS and of PETA, which are one and the same. If you do your research, you will find that these groups are no friend to your dogs and cats (esp PETA!) and they are no friend to agriculture either.
Thank you Mike Rowe…My name is TJ Casey,I am also known as Montanas singing cowboy…I was born and raised on ranches in Montana,Wyoming,and Oregon…Been around cows and horses all my life…The good Lord happened to give me the talent to sig and write my own music and lyrics…I also go into schools and I teach Poetry,our western heritage and Cowboy Culture…These are very important parts of who we are and where we came from.Did you know that there is a big percentage of kids in America that don’t even know where there food comes from?
Just letting you know..if you would ever need help getting this info out to the masses,I would be willing to help…I also have a radio show called Americas Cowboy Review…and a foundation I started to help ranchers and farmers in need after natural disasters check it out and Blessed Trails…
I am the Ag instructor/FFA advisor in Parkersburg ,IA and this was a brilliant piece of writing. All people in this country would be better off if they read this and really took an interest in how the food they eat each day gets delivered to their plate. I plan on reading this to all of my freshmen ag students for years to come. Thank you for being a voice for those of us who do so much for all people. There is no nobler industry than the ag industry and I am so proud to be associated with it.
I got a chance to see your address miike. i was at the convention. i am a member of the Sandy Oregon FFA chapter and am the Mt.hood District FFA Vice President. i just wanted to say that i admire you and hold you in the highest respect. i thank you for not only entertaining millions of people with dirty jobs, (huge Fan by the way!) but also giving that address and helping spread the word about our ever growing problem. thanks mike.
- Josh B
Mike-
Thank you for speaking out! My family has run a dairy farm in Western NY since the days of our nation’s Civil War- through hard times and harder times. My mother, father brother & sister -n -law work tirelessly to keep this family farm running, and it is not easy in today’s world. My husband is also a farmer, former FFA & 4-H member who graduated top in his class, but decided to bypass a college education for his love of farming. I also work part-time for our county 4-H program, which includes these great kids that you speak of above (including two of my own).We are in this career called agriculture because we believe in what we do..it’s nice to know you do too!
Thank you!! I am a veterinarian student and grew up on a small familiy farm…it is very true that farming is being threatened by people that are totally disconnected from their food source. I grew up helping my mother give farm tours to K and pre-K children and a trend emerged over the years: less and less new what the animals were, let alone what they were used for. So, thank you for having your head on straight, aka having rational thoughts that follow through.
WOW! CONGRATS MIKE!!!! I’m glad someone gets it. I was in thee FFA all 4 years in high school and attended national convention twice, and I loved it! The FFA is a wonderful organization and it is in trouble (along with our American agriculture industries)!
Mike, YOUR THE MAN ! Thank-you. Glenn
I only wish I was able to attend the National Convention. Both of my children are in FFA and it truly is a great organization. We are also farmers, small but we are farmers, and what Mike said was so right. All these special interest groups are making harder and harder for us and all the restrictions and everything that the government is putting on the farmer is sad. With out us theworld would go hungry. I hope that one day Mike that you could have a TV show to educate the people on how important we are. I truly know that I would have liked listening to you and so would my kids. I hope that there will be another time. Thank You for sticking up for us farmers!!!
THANK YOU! I grew up on a family farm, and I find myself often telling people much of what you said above.
just a simple thank you Mike!
Thank you Mike Rowe! Your voice of reason is always good to hear. Common sense is something that gets looked over way too often today and you have a way of explaining an issue that brings things down to earth. I hope you get as many chances as possible to say what you’ve said above to the American public.
Mike, U THE MAN!!!!!
I am the Ag Teacher in Rayne, Louisiana, and was one of the lucky ones present when you gave the awe-inspiring speech about….What else? COMMON SENSE!!!!!! I grew up in Agriculture and have seen many, i repeat MANY, close family friends go broke farming. My father was worried he couldn’t provide a proper living for his kids if he farmed, so he works for the FSA…..Giving Farm Loans!!! It seems all i know is Agriculture everyday, in everyway, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!!!!It is a sad sad day when our farmers must quit farming because they, of all people, can’t put food on the table!! My students still talk about how awesome you were, and I must agree. Mike, it is awesome to have a celebrity of your caliber on our side. Keep it up and God Bless!!!!
finally! Somebody gets it!! With all the negative publicity from Oprah to CNN I can’t believe there is a celebrity out there that actually gets it! Being a farmer should NEVER be something your ashamed of. It is an honest living. Thank you so much. If only your message could reach people that don’t already understand this.
THANK YOU MIKE!!
I have tears in my eyes at the thought of what is happening to the American farmer. And tears in my eyes because of what you have said. Standing up for them…shedding light on the situation…THANK YOU MIKE!!
Megan
Mike, ya did good. Please take every chance you can get to inform people about the REAL Humane Society of the U.S., PETA, and every other organization that is out there with an ultimate goal of ending the consumption of meat.
I live on a small family farm – has been in the family since the Civil War, and yes, my son is embarrased to admit he lives on a farm at school. This, in a town of 10,000.
We take every opportunity to right this wrong, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that you are championing our cause. Thank you for “getting it.”
There are a few bad farmers out there, and those are the ones that the networks just love to put front and center on the national news. Too bad they don’t show the farmer who stayed home from his sons band concert because he had a cow in labor, or the wife who spends the entire night in the barn with the ewes lambing – and then gets the kids ready for work and leaves for work herself. As a whole, farmers LOVE and DEVOTE their lives to the animals they raise. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Wake up America.
When i was a kid, we had a farm in Mississippi. I remember reading a bumper sticker – “Never criticize a farmer with your mouth full.” I liked it. And it kinda stuck with me.
Rock on Mike!
Shelley from Louisiana
As one of the endangered farmers out there, thank you. Please get the message out.
It would be interesting to take a quiz to DC to test legislators, their staff and agency personnel, and to big cities to test “city folk” to find out if they can identify what part of a cow milk comes from, what part of a piece of wheat you eat, what part of a of plant a potato comes from, if a raspberry comes from a tree or a vine, and how long it takes for a green bean to grow from planting to harvest. I best most people (especially in congress) would fail miserably.
Thank you from a family farm in Michigan.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Thank you for caring enough to write that article and sharing it with your audience.
As an Ag Teacher who was in attendance during your speech, I can attest to the response that your message brought from the members in attendance and I am sure that you received the same response in the other sessions. I know it was a packed house each time you spoke. Thank you so much for realizing the importance of agriculture and modern agricultural practices to the future of this country, and I am glad that someone of your stature has become an advocate and spokesperson for our nation’s most important industry. Your shows are a big hit with my family and my students, and I know of numerous ag teachers across the country who incorporate “Dirty Jobs” episodes into their curriculum. As an industry, we need to be more proactive and less reactive in getting the true message of agriculture to the general public, and it begins with educating the younger generation. Thanks for all you do to promote agriculture and the working man. Keep up the good work and come back to visit us soon!
Mike- Thank you! My husband and I are dairy and crop farmers who want nothing more than to be able to continue a family tradition we grew up with. As I anticipate the birth of our first child I fear he will not be able to choose a life in farming as it gets harder and harder to make a dime doing so. It is so refreshing to have someone in the public eye saying something other than negative comments directed towards the American Farmers. I hope you will be heard by many. Thanks again!!
Jamie
THANK YOU MIKE ROWE!! Your support for the farmers is greatly appreciated here in North East Ohio! If only more people thought the way you do, America would be a better place! Thank you again!
As a farmer’s daughter and an ag teacher, you message hits close to home. I supplement video clips of your show in my lessons and continue to be an avid watcher of yor show. Keep up the good work up and thanks for tooting the agriculture horn!
I don’t suppose you could run for President could you? It’s great to know that someone with a public presence understands what this country “should” be about. I grew up on a dairy farm, I was involved in FFA as my children are, and I work in our area soil conservation office helping the very farmers I grew up around. Thank you for voicing what many of us already know.
Mike,
Thank you for being a supporter of the FFA. It is the greatest organization in the world. The FFA needs people like you to be a voice for them, because some voices are louder than others. My whole family loves your show especially my 9 year old. To him you have hung the moon. You inspire many people and I am thankful that you are using your voice for agriculture. Thanks!
Brandy
You hit the nail right on the head. Americans are being led astray by rich groups of people that don’t care if eggs are 9 dollars a dozen. These people are living on family money and have never done a days work in their life. Their days work is seeing what they can do to change America into what they envision as being a perfect world, even when they are so removed from reality that they have no idea what a perfect world is. These same groups are making laws that will forever stop family traditions of hunting and trapping as well as raising and competing with gamefowl. The United States Constitution is suppose to protect everyone from extremest like this but instead they warp and bend it to suit their fancies and the legislature backs them up by passing laws that although are unconstitutional still have to be challenged and defeated in the court to be struck down. The everyday citizen doesn’t have the extra money or the time to do this because they have to work 40 hours a week. Someone needs to stop this before it gets more out of hand than it already is.
Mike
WOW! Thank you so much for putting up this article. I have lived in a small ranching community my whole life and I was a proud member of the FFA. So many people do not realize the dangers that surround farming and agriculture. Most people are ignorant on where any of their food comes from. They think that every thing just comes from the stores. People that move next to a farmer, dairy, feedlot, etc want to complain about the noise and smell of everything, but they don’t take the time to stop and realize that all of those things were there first. They want to complain about the noise and smell that a cow makes, while they are eating a nice fat, juicy steak. The world today is so involved in technology and big fancy buildings and resturants and shopping centers, that they totally forget to stop and think about where all of that stuff comes from. When I was in FFA we did a program for the elementary students where we asked them one main question. When is a cow more then a cow? Not one of them could answer the question. We started showing them things that are cattle by products and they couldn’t believe it. When you tell them that a lot of the food they eat is grown in the ground they don’t believe that either. I don’t know how anyone else really feels, but I don’t really want to get my food from some other counrty and have to pay two to three times more for it then you do here. Shouldn’t we try and take care of our own country before we go taking care of other countries? Thanks again for this wonderful article. I wish that I was still in the FFA and could have seen your speech in person. Thank you so much for GETTING IT.
mike,
thank you so much for visiting us at national convention I am a big fan and when I heard that you were going to be there I was even more excited to go and I loved the message and hope to see your agian .
-Robert Lux
Welcome to the fight Mike. If PETA and their friends get their way, We’ll all hungry, naked, sterile and dying out.
PETA want’s you to let your children die to save a rat.
As an Ag Teacher I just want to say thanks Mike. I appreciate all you have said.
Rob
The FFA and agriculture are huge parts of my life and it frustrates me that our lifestyle and livlihood are attacked on a daily basis by individuals my family and myself work so hard to clothe and feed. Thank you for recognizing this, thank you for being such an advocate, and thank you for supporting American agriculture and my family!
Thank you! I grew up on a small family farm and saw first-hand the hardships that come along with it. Farmers are truly some of the hardest working people in America and don’t get enough respect and credit for the work they do. While there may be some large production farmers who make a lot of money, the majority of farmers do not and some barely make ends meet, if at all. And because they are the nicest people on earth even after working 18+ hour days, they will never complain or ask for help – it’s just not who they are. So thank you Mike Rowe for standing up for farmers!
We raised three children on the farm, and in FFA, and will never regret it. What we do regret is that it is unlikely that any of the three will continue the tradition. There just isn’t money enough in farming the land to attract the next generation, and the 24/7 nature of the beast is a big factor as well. I do worry about where our food will come from within the next 20 years…I wish more people were as concerned as we farmers and Mike Rowe.
Mike there is only one thing that I disagree with in your statement: we need farmers & miners and truck drivers. Without the truck driver every ounce of food produced in Iowa would stay in Iowa and not be processed into groceries that are sold in New York City. I come from farm stock (no pun intended) and have worked in the transportation & agriculture industries all my life. You are right, the world will soon be dictating what the bread basket can produce and what it can eat. What’s wrong with this picture? Too many export rules and not enough import rules and I believe in free trade, but free for whom?
You go Mike!! I’m from Baltimore originally and grew up in Harford County, MD. I agree about the Colts and the FFA.
My husband and I were school teachers at North Harford High for over 30 years before he died. He worked with the FFA and Ag. students and he loved them and their work. We need more good people like you to help.
Stay strong -
Chris
Thanks Mike! I work with farmers everyday and it is sad how we, the consumers, take our food supply and the farmers for granted. They raise food animals, what is it about that that confuses people. There is a difference between companion animals and food animals – note the adjective before the word animal. It is nice to see that people like yourself – celebrities – understand and appreciate what American farmers do everyday so we have high quality, economical protein to eat. Keep up the good work and THANKS AGAIN!!!!
[...] back at Mike’s appearance before the National FFA Convention last fall. I encourage you to read the whole thing. Tags: Vilsack Talks 2012 Farm Bill Comments are closed. Powered by WordPress | [...]
As someone who is heavily involved in the promotion of agriculture and natural resources as a career to thousands of high school and college students (and a farmer’s daughter myself), I am thrilled, no proud, to know that Mike is on our side. Amazing!
I was in the audience when Mike Rowe spoke at the National FFA Convention. He was spectacular. It’s great to hear someone of national recognition (not just in the agricultural world) to agree with agriculture. Someone who isn’t the person who regularly works the cattle or seeds the field, but understands our plight. Thank you, Mr. Rowe. Thank you on behaf of FFA, Agriculturalists, farmers, ranchers, my state of Wyoming and myself. Thank you for continuing to support our way of life.
You should get together with Chef Dan Barber…together I think you two could change how we think about food and work and put us back on the right track.
Mike is a little behind the times. The organization changed its name when *I* was in FFA, and I’m getting ready to have my 20th class reunion. It wasn’t because we were ashamed to be called farmers; it was simply an acknowledgment that agriculture and ag education have a much broader scope and don’t only benefit those students who will be farmers.
Thanks for the support of FFA. However, industrial methods aren’t feeding the world now and are only making the situation worse. Alternative and organic methods are the only reliable way to feed ourselves. See Anna Lappe’s new book, Diet for aHot Planet, http://www.takeabite.cc/book/.
Mike, THANK YOU!!!!!! Thank you for your words. I have been in agriculture my whole life. My dad was a beef man. I married a Dairyman who also farms. We live on our land and are feel very blessed to do the job that we do. Being in California, we have come against some strong regulations, but that is ok by us because we want to farm and dairy the best possible way. We love our cows and strive to maintain health in our herd. Your article was inspirational and It reminds me that we need to tell our stories because if we don’t, someone else will. They don’t know my story so I don’t want them telling it! I’m not ashamed to be a farmer. Our lives have been full of hard work and family. We wouldn’t have it any other way! Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Rochelle De Groot
Proud Dairy Farmer
MIKE ROWE FOR PRESIDENT………….NOW!!!!!!
Outstanding!! More please
As a community developer in a rural part of the great midwest, how refreshing it is to read something so well thought out and applicable to our entire nation. Kudos. I wasn’t raised in rural America, but I live here and this is where I have chosen to raise my family. The work that people do in these communities enables our country to survive and prosper. Sometimes I think our legislators and other persons in power need to take a step back and really think about what drives our economy. It clearly doesn’t all happen in Washington.
Mike,
Farmers in general are quite, modest people, who only really talk about their bull, the number of bushels per acre, or taxes. You don’t find them on the street corner touting signs that campaign for agendas. One reason is they have a “real job” that requires lots of hours a day and they receive little to no thanks for their toil. Farmers are proud of what they do for a living but asking them to brag about their operation is like asking a super model to muck stalls, probably want happen and if it does it will take some work. How do I know this, I am a proud farmer’s daughter and sister. I was raised on a dairy farm in the deep south were I learned about God, life, death and what hard work really is. These days I work daily with farmers and vets that care for animals and the land they live on. Some of the farmers are starting to get their “feather rustled” and working with local, state and national governments to promote sound agriculture legislations. However, we do need a voice that’s out there in the media, on TV. and radio. Thank is enough for the stance you are taking for US Agriculture. My husband and I watch your show all the time and you ask for new show ideas, well they all are dirty jobs, but how about a series on food, fiber and fuel production. One amid at educating the average American who is 2-3 times removed from the production setting. Until next time, thank the God Lord for the farmers who grew it and the hands that prepared it!
Mike, Thank you for a very moving blog in suport of our food producers. I completely understand the plight of the agriculture industry in regards to the HSUS and PETA agendas, as we are fighting the same agenda in the pet industry.
mike, i hope you continue to shine a light on FFA and Farmers in general. Visiting with my state representative the other day on this very issue. He commented to me that how could we expect the general population to understand how tough and hard it is to make a living farming, when even our own kids don’t have a clue. We didn’t want them to work like that, never knowing what the weather would throw at us, never knowing if the price received would even pay the cost of production, let alone make a profit.
louis
Thanks for the great article Mike!! You’ve hit the nail on the head!
[...] The barrels come by way of a North Carolina pickle company; of course, the cucumbers weren’t American. I’m sure the barrel isn’t made in American either. Ugh. This reminds me of the Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) article I read this morning on the future of farming. [...]
Mike,
Well said!!
I recently retired from a career of being an agriculture teacher/FFA Advisor that began in 1969. My career also included 8 years as full-time dairy farmer. I worry about how American Farmers will provide our food and fiber in the near future.
We as Americans have to reject the asinine attitudes and regulations with which the extremists have bombarded the air waves.
Thank you for addressing the National FFA Convention. I attended my first one in Kansas City in 1973 and my last one at Indianapolis in 2008. (Still gave me goose bumps to see all those blue and gold jackets assembled in the convention hall.)
Thank you for expressing my thoughts so eloquently.
Sincerely,
Tom
Mike,
I had been wondering who that guy is that is trying to tell me how good Ford is and now I know and I also know it appears you have a good head on your shoulders. Your comments were forwarded to me by a company coworker and I enjoyed them very much.
I am a former Ag Teacher of the 70’s – early 80’s and then a County Extension Agent until 1990. The last twenty years I have worked in the fertilizer industry trying to improve the efficiency of farmers as they face the availability of less land, increasing regulations that increase their cost of doing business without significant impact on safety or environmental protection. I don’t know of anyone that enjoys the environment more than a farmer. I digress from my original intent.
I was sadden to hear that Future Farmers of America was changing to FFA, I knew we had taken the first step on a slippery slope. We began to compromise our ideals and deminish our self esteem without mounting an educational campaign to demonstrate our value to society. What the Future Farmers of America did others have followed, distancing themselves from what they are to be called something many don’t know what it is and thus is less likely to attack it.
We are on the slope and are gaining speed. If all phases of farming don’t unite soon and apply the brakes we will crash. Once a farmer has gone out of business it is almost impossible to start up again due to the capital cost involved and that the land he once used is now under some form of development. If your comments and others like it don’t begin to inspire enough to push the tide back we will experience the pains of developing countries around the world. They can’t feed their own populations, how are they going to feed us?
Keep talking, keep working.
Jerry
Mike,
Thank you for your honesty, integrity and willingness to state the facts, get dirty, and sweat along with the rest of the hardworking people in our Country who still take pride in their work and still say “God Bless America”.
Connie (I have always lived on a farm.)
I’m late in reading this article, but wanted to let you know how much I appreciated it. I grew up on a farm and my father was one of the smartest men I ever knew (constantly frustrated with weather and broken equipment, but smart!)I moved to Chicago after graduating from Purdue and felt discrimination for the first time. Some people thought differently of me after they found out I was a “Midwest farmer’s daughter.” It’s sad when the FFA and farmers in general need a good PR person, or at least someone who shouts louder than the other guys for a while. Things have gotten VERY messed up.
Thank you for paying attention to the fact that we have become a nation that has the luxury to be concerned about the welfare of the animals we eat. Indeed, every group has its own agenda, but it is stunning how many masquerade as one type when their mission is another. My life is animal welfare oriented, having co-founded a facility designed to empassion people about caring for wildlife and protecting ecosystems for the future. Many more radical groups have a flashy, catchy message, and people join them assuming they do what their promotional material indicates–like save puppies from shelters. This is often not the case. We strongly encourage people to support local organizations whose missions they can confirm and whose impact is visible. If giving to a national organization, we encourage them to check on Guidestar online to view their tax returns and see how much goes to the cause versus administration or political lobbying.
I have been stunned in recent years to see the cultural shift to a nation that believes we are entitled to safety. We expect the government to regulate us into perfect protection, from safer cars to tested medications and foods to inspected factories and patrolled schools. In fact, we have such an expectation of safety that people make hobbies of extreme sports that could be deadly, and place the most value on jobs that incur no physical risk at all. The jobs that wear at our bodies and put people at risk for the benefit of the whole society, like mining or running massive farm equipment, are often among the lower compensated professions. My grandmother’s generation would never have understood this transformation.
There is no better organization for kids than the FFA. My daughter was a member and our family is a lifetime supporter. These kids deserve more respect…they are intelligent, well-spoken, well-mannered and hard-working. This is something our society needs desparately. We have a family farm in addition to our “real jobs” because farming is a noble and necessary ambition. It was the first job that God gave to man when he gave Adam his “to-do” list. I am proud to be a farmer and a “white-collar” worker. And when I retire from my “white-collar” job, I will still be a farmer.
Bravo Mike!
You know your meat and vegetables are coming from. My dirty hat is off to you.
http://livestock-id.blogspot.com
Mike – have you ever thought about running for President – yeah, of the whole USA! We will support you, make posters, hand out campaign buttons!…whatever it takes to get you in office. I’m a Lady Farmer who raises wine grapes and turkeys and along with my hubby, we are concerned about the regulations which limit our ability to farm. Keep sounding off ~ we need some good people on our side! Thanks Mike!
As I get older (not that 28 is all that old), I am seeing that every time I turn on the tv there is a reporter or politician or a representative for some organization who is claiming to speak on my behalf based on the fact that I am a woman or white collar or whatever-without even knowing where I stand on the issues. I think Mike’s right when he says that there is a big disconnect between society at large and where our food comes from. I think most of us (including myself at times) take the position of what is presented to us in the media without looking at the other side or researching the issue to see whether or not we agree.
A lot of us go to the supermarket and fill our carts without a thought of how that food got there or what it is made up of. We just take for granted that it will always be avalailable to us at a reasonable price and that may not be true.
I think that times are changing (obvious comment I know) and I think that we need to really take at look at what is happening in our backyards and make sure that we can live with the consequences of our policies, laws, and sanctions upon our farmers, whatever they may be.
Thank you, Mike, for a thought provoking and straightforward discussion on the problems those who raise domestic animals face in this country. Just like the farmers, dog breeders (and I am VERY small scale, breeding 1-2 litters a year, at most) like myself are a tsunami of legislative assaults funded by animal rights groups like the Humane Society of the United States and PETA. The FFA and others involved in animal husbandry don’t have the kind of money rolling in to pay lobbyists and fund full out assaults on anyone who has anything to do with animals. And the most frightening thing is that legislators are buying into the animal rights agenda and voting these laws into existence. I hope that my great grandchildren have the fortune of owning a companion animal but with the current trends, I am fearful that this may not be possible.
I wish more high profile people, such as yourself, would speak out. The vast majority of the public doesn’t have a clue what it happening.
What will the 98+% of the population do: when all our food is imported; Mexico, Central America and South America form a “Food Cartel”; The USA invades one or all these countries to force them to supply us with cheap, safe, abundant food; their sons and daughters are killed in a war to obtain food; there is a push to develop alternative food from petroleum. Once farm land is paved with concrete and strip malls, there’s no turning back. Will they allow the land currently in protected wildlife sanctuaries to be plowed up for food production?
Great article. A few of the comments here have shown how misinformed people are, like the one from “Whitney Hoot” who says 51% of greenhouse gases are from livestock. This is totally untrue. The EPA itself says agriculture contributes a total of 6%.
Mike, let me start by saying I truly enjoy “Dirty Jobs”. It’s great to see a program that is truly reality based, your insight and comments sometimes make me burst out with laughter.
My daughter ( A previous State Officer) sent me a link to this site knowing I would find your views of the FFA & farming today very interesting. Her mom and I were both in FFA back in the day where we learned valuble life skills being involved in Parlimentary procedures, Ag Forum, Public Speaking, Job Interview and other projects.
I remember Ashley telling me a few years ago that FFA no longer stood for Future Farmers Of America, I thought well thats alright since a lot of young people involved did not have the oppurtunity to grow up on a farm nor would they all become farmers, but the knowledge and skills they can obtain through participation with this organization will prove to be invaluble in life. It never occured to me that someone could take offense to being called a farmer. What profession could possibly be more respected or self fulfilling and what better environment to raise a family.
This country was at it’s greatest when the majority of the people within it’s boundries could personally relate to the family farm or ranch. These kids grew up strong and healthy, learned how to work and the value of a dollar. They also respected there elders and didn’t feel they deserved to have anything they hadn’t worked for.
Thanks Mike for your positive involvement with the FFA and farming in general.
You Go Mike. My husband and I farm in Eastern Arkansas and have for over 30 years. We are very proud to be a part of that 2%. I have a bumper sticker that to me says it all,simply: “NO FARMS, NO FOOD.” I wish I knew where I could more of them. Thanks for your support of agriculture. God bless you and God bless the American Farmers.
Christie Howton
Mike – Right on!!! We milk 60 cows twice a day in Meadville PA. We are currently fighting a local borough (Blooming Valley PA) that is trying to prevent the shipment of our milk through “their” borough. The State Of PA is in the process of enacting legislation to limit who can drive a tractor, where, and what weight. We have insane milk prices manipulated by really big business and backed by the US government (Deans Foods, Dairy Farmers of America, and Krafts foods each own 90% of their respective markets). We are losing farmers at an unprecedented rate. The average age of the American Farmer is now 55 years . . .We are importing milk proteins from accross the globe, around the tariffs (its an “nonmilk” product, per the USDA). No one knows where their food comes from – just look at the labels “manufactured for Walmart, Bentonville,AK”.
I suggest we need to do the following: 1.) require labelling as to country of origin for all foods – this will at least let my customers that care choose. 2.)Establish that food production is a national security issue. 3.) Accept that there is no free or fair trade in agriculture and support our farmers like other countries do. 4.) Educate, educate, educate. We need national advertising to combat PETA, Humane Society, Greenpeace, etc. Come to my farm and see the cows – they are treated like royalty, like poeple, and are HAPPY to come and get milk . Yes, we have happy cows in Pennsylvania. So – I say RIGHT ON. I am ready and willing to help with the fight to save the American farm and farmer!!!! Ken C
Yea yea and yea. Go Mike! I agree to everything in your article. How fun to have the truth delivered about something we all should know something about. Wake up call number 6,458. Thanks.
Farming has become something of a battlefield in the last few years and its a hard conflict to resolve. I live and work on a small family farm where we raise confinement-free, grassfed beef and lamb, milk-fed pork, and free-range chicken, as well as produce Grade A (state inspected) Raw Milk. We raise our animals without the crutch of antibiotics and put the welfare of our animals above all else. It’s hard to support the portion of agriculture that raises animals in filthy feedlots, de-wings and de-beaks chickens so they will fit better in cramped battery cages. Not only is it inhumane, its producing food that isn’t healthy. That said, there are many, many farmers who aren’t organic or grassfed that are still doing things right. They shouldn’t be lumped in with the factory farms when PETA et al take a stand. Most of all, anyone who farms should take great pride in the title Farmer. I say let’s get out there and let people know that lots of us are well educated, articulate, and most of all invaluable to our world!
Here, here I have three daughters that went through FFA. Now those girls live in big cities and never miss an opportunity to tell their city friends what the farmer has to do to put food on their table. Have a son who was homeschooled he didn’t do FFA but did belong to 4H and has spoke at a number of schools in our county about the programs and agriculture. It is amazing what people don’t know.
j
First, Mike I know that you think you don’t know much about a whole lot, but the time you have spent traveling the country and working alongside all the people who do the jobs that not too many people want to do or even know about, has given you wisdom and insight into the heart of this nation. My husband is a diesel mechanic who works at the mines in Wyoming. It’s a good job and allows us to live as we need. Now, with this country moving in the direction that it is, I have to wonder what is going to happen to that job. The big wigs and lobbyists and special interest groups want us to rely on the rest of the world for the basics, food and energy. Basically, they want the rest of the world to have us by the you know what, without so much as a say from the people. Of course they know what’s best for the rest of us right. I believe in progress and I believe in change, but not to the detriment of this nation. I would not want to live any where else in this world and I would hate to see the very foundations that make this nation great crumble.
To all the American Farmers and furture Farmers, I would like to say THANK YOU! I could not thank you all enough. I’ve tried my hand at gardening with some success and only for a family of four. I could not imagine haveing to provide enough food for a nation with all the restrictions and limitations put upon you. Thank you again.
I’m not a typical FFA member. I have never lived on a farm or out in the country. I’m glad that I joined the FFA when I started High School because I have learned a lot about who I am. Thanks to the FFA I’m not as shy as I use to be. In FFA you learn a lot more then just cows and plows. I don’t like when people always think that the only people that join are farmers. We learn about alot more than just cows, like we learn about leadership and so much more.
I agree with everything that you said. There are many issues going on in our country now that is caused by what we have done. There are a lot of things that have been going on that effect food that we produce or other people produce. Many people that are not involved in agriculture, or that could car less, don’t realize that if we can’t grow food then we can’t send it off to stores, so you ca n buy them later to eat. Many farmers could understand the many problems in just running a farm, its a lot of hard work and they could probably, most likely, relate to the issue. There is also quite a few farmers that disagree completey to what you are saying, whether it’s they don’t have that kind of issue or they have a even worse issue then what you subscribed. Whether the case I agree completey even though I have never lived on a farm I can still relate to some of the stuff you explained.
Thanks for writing this. I think you are completely right. If we took away egg production and cattle production in the U.S. many people would not know what to do, and that would be more jobs lost to the American worker. I also agree that farmers dont get the credit they deserve, they are the ones who produce the milk we drink and the food we eat and do a lot for people they dont even know. I dont understand PETA and those other organizations, like not being able to slaughter a horse to eat. Horses are not pets they are livestockand you should be able to slaughter ones and eat them.Some horses thats all they are good for because they are so crazy and mean,and other horses that are so old they are in pain, so why dont we kill them and not let their meat go to waste.
Thanks,Jesse
Agricultrists around are nation may call themselves by a diffrent name. You hear people all across the nation that are invloved in agriculture use their own special title: RANCHER, FLOURIST, EQUESTRIAN EXPERT,CONSERVATIONEST, FISHERMEN, VET,AG TEACHER, JOURNALIST, GOVERMENT WORKER, SALESMEN(OR WOMEN), AND FINALY FARMER. There are many more job titles that go along with the world of agriculture. But most people do not realize that, when they think of agriculture they think of some hick with a pitch fork that has a eigth grade education, this is far from being the truth. In America just like the field of agriculture their is an eclectic grouping of individuals. The American farmer does not like being labled by a person who is living off of his hard work and dedication and has probably never had to worry about any thing more then cancelling their pedicure.
There are so many people out there that don’t understand what farmers do everyday to bring food for the table or just keep America healthy. So many groups like PETA think that nearly everything a farmer does includes torturing animals or treating the economy bad. Yeah PETA doesn’t eat meat, but if it wasn’t for all of our farmers and soon-to-be farmers, we would have practically nothing. The FFA is an organization that is training young people how to be better farmers and help grow America. As being a current FFA member I know that not all of us are farmers and won’t be farmers in the future. Some of us may become Vets,or maybe a person that works with soil, or even, raising organic turkeys. The point is the FFA is a growing organization and without us becoming agriculturalists, most of the world would be lost in some way. Without agriculture, like Mike Rowe said, we all would be lost. Agrculture is needed in the world and if it disappeare, so do we.
i’m an FFA member and i love it. but i don’t live on a farm, i live in a neighborhood in town. so many people believe that the FFA is all about cows and plows and it’s not. i get so tired of people saying that that’s all its about. its also about leadership and teaching young people the importance of farming. people don’t understand that if it weren’t for farmers they wouldn’t be eating. i don’t understand why people in America these days don’t show our farmers more respect. organizations like OSHA come up with ridiculous ideas like fining people for a bent ladder rung. PETA always thinks that everything the farmers do is hurting the animals and in reality farmers don’t. society is always demanding more and more from the farmers then when the farmers provide, society doesn’t show respect. these days housing developments our taking up our farmland and farmers have to learn to produce more with less land. its not fair to the farmers. thank you mike.
Thanks for writing this, Mr. Rowe. It was a great read.
Mike–You get it! I once read a sign I committed to memory: “In spite of all our technical accomplishments, we still owe our existence to a 6-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” Thanks for understanding and thanks for the basic logic you employed to arrive there. Agriculture can use all the help you can give us. (Hope you got the voiceover job, by the way)! Lastly, I was never an FFA member, but you characterized that audience correctly. Hard to be anything but optimistic when you look out upon that crowd.
Yeah MIKE! Lets here it for the Boy. He speaks so loudly for us. We (farmers) need his voice. Thank you a million times and keep it going.
Amen and Amen!!! Enough said. Go Go Mike Rowe.
Mike,
This is one of the best articles Ive read in quite a while. I am very proud to be an American farmer and to continue my family’s tradition. Everyday I pray my boys will be able to follow there fathers foot steps just as I have and as my dad did. Unfortunately today’s society is making that harder and harder. People have forgotten where there food comes from, they have also forgotten to care where it comes from.
Thank you for addressing the P.R. problem of ag america. Most of the farmers I speak with are truly puzzled that so many people can understand so little about their food. There is a gap that is so wide, I don’t know how it can be bridged. When I hear Ivory Tower faculty members promote the return to the family farm that raised cattle (beef and dairy), is own hay, grain, veggies, chickens, etc. etc. because that is superior to the specialized production of only one or two or three products per ranch or farm, I shake my head. I’d like to encourage him to go back and hand write all his lectures by candle light and read books copied off book by book by hundreds of monks. I’m sure this scholar walks to work and rides horseback coast to coast. After all, the carbon foot print of a horse is much less than than of an airplane…..
I am glad to see someone take intrest in the backbone of America. As a lifelong farmer myself, I have a major fear for our future generation. Things have gotten so competetive that it is not a finacially sound decision to choose a career in farming. I farm full time but I also have to keep a full time public job to support my family. Kids growing up today are not taught the values of survival that we learned as children. FFA is the last resource that can save the way of life that got us this far. The American farmer is a dying breed that is being pushed out of todays society, and that would be devastating to our country. We must find a way to preserve our way of life in order for life to prevail.
Tim
Alabama farmer
I’ve never been a farmer but my wife breed dogs as a hobby and I’ve spent the last eight years fighting the animal rights movement’s effort to eliminate pet animals from American life. I’ve followed the growth of their attack on farming since Wayne Pacelle took over as HSUS CEO in 2004.
The most difficult thing about defending our rights to own and breed pet animals is that so few pet owners and breeders ‘get it’ about the threat posed by HSUS and the rest. This part of the anti-animal war goes back about 20 years and we pet folks are STILL divided, though the last few years have seen considerable progress. It is enormously heartening to see farmers catching on so fast and already ahead of us in some ways.
One point that seems to be difficult: HSUS is a competitor who wants all of you gone. Aggressively promoting actions to get rid of farmers and farm animals is not only how they make a major part of their money, it is the ‘red meat’ that they toss to their hard-core faithful. As long as HSUS is respected as ‘The Humane Society,’ they will win some victories every now and then, until animal agriculture is destroyed.
Farmers (like some pet animal folks) tend to be ‘live and let live.’ We all just want to do our work and get on with our lives. This, however, is truly total war: When it’s over — hardly more than a couple of decades from now — either HSUS will be “Gee, are they still around?” Americans will be importing nearly all of our food and our country will be in VERY deep trouble.
It is not enough to tell our story. Although it is an obligation to our animals and our better selves to constantly improve our methods, that too is not enough. We must also work to explain to the general public just who HSUS is, and what they want to do. Organizations can help, but the most important part of this is done one-on-one: Tell your neighbor, your dentist, your kids’ school counselor, ESPECIALLY tell your lawmakers. We cannot turn the corner toward victory until most Americans know that HSUS (and PeTA and the rest) are anti-human, rather than for the animals and that in fact they do almost nothing that actually helps animals.
Half of one percent of HSUS’s income goes to care of animals … the rest to lobbying, litigation, and raising more money. Even their retirement fund gets a lot more than then use for or give to animal care.
Finally, MANY THANKS to Mike Rowe AND to the writers of the 157 previous comments: I read every one, was inspired by many and educated by more than a few.
And — speaking as a regular eater — THANK YOU AMERICAN FARMERS! And thank you FFA: You don’t mind if I call you Future Farmers, do you? I’m too old to be making changes like that unnecessarily.
Mr. Rowe,
Thank you so much for being an advocate for the agriculture industry. Having grown up in the cattle industry I have always had an ‘inborn fondness’ (to quote the FFA creed!) for agriculture. After getting through school I started working to promote the beef industry and I really had my eyes opened, even now 8 years into my professional career. I am amazed at the views that people really have about agriculture. Thank you for making a difference to our industry. It’s about time people start to get THEIR eyes opened as to how the food appears on their table. And thank you for not only believing in us, but for televising it, making sure that more people are getting the message.
Tami
Colorado
Mike:
Wow, you should serve as a spokesperson for Agriculture! You would make a great liason to the world outside of Ag. Thanks so much for your insight!
Tim Andersen
Thank you Mike – this article means a lot and I can’t wait to share it with farmers in my area that are suffering from unfair persecutions by animal rights organizations.
[...] Incredible. Have we really become so disconnected from our food that farmers no longer wish to be ca… [...]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please become the spokesperson for the face of agriculture, Farm Bureau. A lot of people have latched on to dirty jobs and the way you have exposed blue collar America and I really believe that if something like this made it on to national T.V. in the shape of a telethon, minus the money, people may start to think differently about agriculture and the true purpose behing our farmers and the FFA.
Thanks Mike!!! I greatly appreciate your fight for the farmer! We really need it these days!! Keep up the good work!
If you really want to know what this is all about – everything that seems so over the top in this whole “change thing” I have a couple of references for you.
First read Paul Ehrlich’s “Population Bomb.. Then read the collected works of Thomas Malthus.
Finally go onto to YOUTUBE and watch the videos by Ted Turner and Bill Gates about the need to rapidly reduce the human population on the planet.
Then consider what this means for all of us who aren’t billionaires.
Mike you are right on!!!!
Hey Mike! We welcome you and your crew over to our Ranch for the next round-up!!! Let’s go! Let’s get down and dirty with beef and real cowboys! I dare ya! Ms. Bowman
As a future Ag science teacher and former FFA member (who twice attended National Convention) I have to say thanks for speaking there. I’m sure the students love it!
Ag does have some labels that are unfavorable (although not totally untrue in some cases), science has a very important part in agriculture. However, we have approached a point in our food production where we no longer weigh the health and environmental cost/benefits, the main production decision is based on cash – an unsustainable way to make such important decisions.
It is a ‘misconception’ that we need to produce more food every year. The worlds agricultural output exceeds the world populations dietary needs. More people die from too much food, rather than too little. Meanwhile, our agricultural policies that allow us to treat our livestock and land this way actually make us sick. I am certainly not a fan of PETA, HSUS, or GreenPeace, but I am a fan of sustainable agriculture and environmental protection.
The FFA and Agriculture are filled with innovative people, but if we want an image make-over, then we are responsible for it ourselves. Small, family-run farms are statistically more productive than large mono-culture farms. They provide a wider variety of produce and animal products, are better stewards of the land and their stock, and allow local purchasers to have a connection to their food supply – the proposed problem you mentioned in the beginning.
Again, I think it’s awesome you were at the FFA convention, support farmers and the hard work they do, but also keep in mind that Big Ag is looking out for one thing and one thing only and that is money. Their propaganda is not based in fact and, despite what it may seem, they have much deeper and more expansive political power than groups like PETA.
Great job. I couldn’t agree with you more. This message needs to be heard by all Americans. We’ve become so removed from what it really means to work and produce for ourselves. If it weren’t for the American Farmer and Miner what would we have? Keep up the good work, and any opportunity we get we need to keep sharing this message.
Well it seems like Mike Rowe gets want is really happening in agriculture. If he loses his job on ( Dirtiest Jobs) I for one would be very happy to have him be a spokesperson for agriculture.
My name is matt dwyer I operate a 75 cow dairy in South eastern wi. Reading this post by Mike literally brought tears to my eyes. There are times I sit down at night after a long day out in the barn or out in the field and I wonder if anyone out there really appreciates what I and my fellow farmers do for a living. And tonight I have realized the answer is yes. I guess I want to thank Mike first for bringing this up and second to all of you that support your local farmers. You really don’t know how much that means to us. We are so used to being honked at and having the bird flipped to us that at times we think that know one gets it any more. But some of you still do!!!
Matt Dwyer
Very well said, Mike – I love your program Dirty Jobs, and I knew there was a good reason that I like you so much. You seemed to be grounded in reality – and your commentary on your experience in Indianapolis with the Future FARMERS of America proved that to be true. These groups that you mention (HSUS, PETA, etc.) don’t stop with farmers – they are after our pets, and working animals (police dogs, search and rescue, bomb detection dogs, etc.) as well. Beware of words like pet “guardian” instead of pet “owner”, and animal “rights” instead of animal “welfare”. They are working thier agenda into the language and into the legislative bodies in the states, and now also the federal government. It sounds crazy and conspiratorial, but it is sadly true.
Mr. Rowe,
We watched a video on your speech to the National FFA Convention in my ag class today. I really appreciated the things you said about realizing who you were and doing something with your life that makes you happy and that you enjoy. Our teacher told us about social images in class and watching your video reinforced everything he said about the way people view you because of the organizations you’re in or the job you have. It hit f home for me being in the FFA and knowing first hand that people definatly judge you because of what you’re doing and after watching your speech i know that all that matters is that you’re doing something that you enjoy
-Erin
I really hope Americans get more involved in their elected officials. The Administration we have now is not good for farmers or for America. Americans need to be providing for Americans not China or foreign countries. We need to wake up before it is too late.
I grew up on a cow-calf operation in Colorado. Learned long ago that the only source of money is natural resources whether it be mined, grown, or harvested from the sea. Maybe now wind and solar. There is no other source and your comments are dead on. No jobs without use of resources, NONE. No economy without use of resources, NONE. We would just be another 3rd world country with many people wandering around trying to find enough to eat. The celebrities think they know all. How much fuel is consumed in getting enough people to and from a movie theatre for one lousy movie to gross $40 or $50 million in a week. And they think agriculture wastes energy. Problem is almost everyone in this country is 2 or more generations removed from the land and these realities have never entered their minds and probably never will.
Dear Mike
As a former FFA member and illinois state FFA office I love that some one in the lime light as your self can see and get the importance of farming and all it is and has to offer to the USA. There is a big road ahead for the FFA and the hole agriculture industry. It is sad that people can speek there mind and do so by changing things as laws or rules of how they have been done for years and to top it off they have know clue what they are talking about cause its what someone told them or what they have seen in a movie or on the news report of one person or comp did.
Very well put Mike!! It is nice to see a celebrity voice their opinion in a positive manner, especially towards agricutlture. Being an Ag Teacher and FFA Advisor it is very scary to see what is happening to our society even in a rural area like where I teach. Please keep going with this mission and spread your message as loud and proud as you can. I know 500,000 FFA members will support you!!
[...] http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2010/05/the-future-of-farming/ [...]
Good ‘not so common’ sense! What in the World has happend to us? I do know that in the schools today, if you ask children where the food they eat comes from, most say either the ’store’ or the refrigerator’, with no concept how it got either place.
As an alumni to the FFA, I had the opportunity to attend the National FFA Convention on several occassions and listen to the keynote speakers. Many of them were big names who delivered a great speech, but you could tell that they truely did not understand what the FFA was all about. YOU GET IT! We need more folks like you, who have a following of non-agriculture fans to help get the message out. As crazy as it sounds 500,000 FFA members can not do it alone. Thank you for carrying the message forward. Feel free to come and be a farmer any time you want on our farm in Wisconsin. I provide that offer to any of my non-farm friends. As a farmer and an agri-business person it is crutial that we allow everyone the opportunity to experience modern farming. Thank you.
Ive never heard it broken down the way you said, I agree 100%
As a farmer and former FFA member, it is refreshing to see a person of your magnitude take on the challenge of positive agriculture recognition. The students that you spoke before are not only faced with the challenges of negativity towards agriculture, but have to face those challenges from textbooks, teachers, and in class movies. Your words are well said and well received. Please keep up the good work and help agriculture deliver our positive message.
We’ll put Mike. I honestly don’t think it’s about agriculture itself it’s about what people don’t understand. People think that Milk comes from a store,eggs from a carton,meat from a freezer and we’ll you get the point. We are cattle ranchers in one of the most liberal counties in California Mendocino county. The people in our county feel it’s ok to legalize marijuana but not ok to give more jobs to the community by having a Processing plant for livestock brought in? It is amazing what this country has become. Thanks for the support. My son was a member of Future Farmers Of America and became a cattle producer also.
What a message! If only it was required reading for anyone who eats.
Mike,
I am very impressed with this article and the speech which was given at the National Convention. I, along with many others, am a recent college graduate who chose to stay in the field of agriculture for the reasons you mentioned in this article. With a little help from folks like you on a national level, it will be possible to change the perception of agriculture in this country. I am 100% on board with this message you presented and will do my part as local employee of agriculture to spread the message. If you ever need any help, I know many people who would jump in at any time along with myself. Thanks again!
Hey Mike – our world is a better place because of you and the work you chose to do. As part of an egg farming family, caring for hens that provide us with safe, wholesome, economical, nutrient rich food for a hungry population, I appreciate the awareness you’re bringing to consumers. People need to understand the truth & realities of modern science based farming and how farmers are good stewards of their animals and the environment. We’re working hard to educate in our communities, but it’s real people like you that can make it happen.
Thank you and thanks to Chad as well.
As a proud past member of the California FFA Association, and an Agriculture and Environmental Education student at UC Davis, I want to thank you for your inspirational speech at the National FFA Convention, and for your message above. It is people like you that can help be a voice for the youth in agriculture and the future of the agriculture industry. Everybody should know where their food comes from, and appreciate the people who were involved in the planting, growing, harvesting, packaging, and others who help get it to the plates of the America. It saddens me to see that even an organization for youth in agriculture have changed their name to alleviate criticisms and stereotypes. I am proud to represent agriculture and hope to influence the lives of many as an agriculture teacher, and just wanted to thank you for doing the same.
Grain framers have no control over the price they recieve for their grain. They only get what the market
offers at the moment (be it higher or lower). Unlike most workers that their wages remain constant, or they get raises. (Like cost of living increases). In the States where farmers own their farmland and they pay real-estate tax on the farmland, it seems to me that they are the only profession that is taxed to be able to earn their living. (I can’t think of another job where you are taxed to be able to go to work).
Mike, if these comments go directly to you, I want to say “Thank You” for you insight and your directive in you speech.. I just have read the article. I have been in agriculture and the meat industry all of my life and a member of the California Cattle Women’s organization for over 40 years. In 2004 at the age of 62 I returned to Chico State to add an Agriculture Teaching Credential to my California Life Credential. Without being political (however it is difficult) the hand of government has a lot to do with what is going on. The public is misinformed and fed fear about the safety of our food produced here. We could us a good PR Man.. Interested in the job..? Watched you on CBS Channel 5, S.F. Always enjoy whatever you do!
Mike: Just read your article, finished it with tears in my eyes. Right now we’re sleep-deprived and exhausted due to spring work. At 50-plus years old and uncertain that any of our grown children will ever take this 55-cow dairy in upstate NY over, we often wonder why we do this day in and day out. After reading many of the comments, I remember that we are in good company with our fellow farmers and producers. We need to ’speak’ with a louder voice than PETA, the Humane Society, and their likes. From the looks of your Indianapolis crowd, and from some of these comments I have hope. Now I’ve got to go and get some housework done before evening chores! Thanks for caring about us. -Joleen
You are right Mike, these groups will stop at nothing to put the livestock industry out of business. As a life long cowboy (yes we do exist) I am part animal behaviorist, part veterinarian and yes, possibly all crazy for keeping at such a low paying profession for over 30 years.
Anyone is invited to visit http://www.naturalcattlehandling.com. I am moving 150 to over 700 steers in each of these videos, and it is clear that the animals are relaxed, and even enjoying themselves. They may not change the minds of the hard core PETAiates but they stop the ones being converted.
Good job Mr. Rowe! This article speaks volumes and I thank you for putting it all together!! I love the FFA! I never had the chance to join but my husband is an alumni and our children are members. I simply love the effect it has had on them. The opportunities the FFA organization offers are amazing!
It has been said many times that we have been fed too well for too long. When food is scarce and people are unsure where their next meal will come from there are lots of things that no longer matter! Your article really points this out!
Thank you once again.
So glad to see that people are beginning to realize how globalization is taking over our food supply. Farmers are being run out of business by Mansanto. Genetically Modified crops are making us sick and will continue to do so unless we put a stop to it. Government is not going to do it so it is up to us!
Mike, it is not the farmers under attack. It is the giant corporations like Monsanto, that control farmers, leave them no choice of methods, impose toxic chemicals and potentially dangerous GMO crops upon them (and everyone around them and everyone who will buy their products) as well as forcing them to buy company-dictated equipment, livestock and seeds – and even buildings- to the point where they are barely hanging on. And as they go under, they are replaced not by family farmers but by managers as farmland is concentrated into fewer and fewer hands.
It is also notable that Monsanto exerts undue influence upon the governmental organizations that are supposed to be regulating it and its fellow agricultural giants, as Monsanto lawyers constantly gain high positions within the FDA, USDA, and Supreme Court.
Look up the term “economic treadmill” as it pertains to farming, and watch the movie “Food, Inc.” Talk to some of THOSE farmers, then come back and tell me about farming.
“But what’s more important than eating? What’s more important than feeding a hungry planet, and supporting the people who grow our food?”
I’ll tell you what’s more important, where the food comes from and how it is produced. The more important questions are. Is the produce from genetically modified seed produced by a Monsanto owned company, or one of their minions,like Dow? If it is then it is also “round up ready” which means a)they are toxic to handle on their own, and b)they must be sprayed with Round Up in order to produce a plant. Also, these seeds cross pollinate with organic seed, then Monsanto sues the farmers to bankruptcy for finding it on their land with on of their many trespassing spys. They have made it damn near illegal to use any seed but their own. Especially corn and soybeans.
Corn is an especially big problem, because it is fed to most livestock cows, chickens, pigs, and most recently fish. This is not the natural diet of these animals. Comsume these corn fed meat products in compination with the corn byproducts, like high fructose corn syrup and xanthum gum, which can be found in almost everything, and you get an American diet which is 85% corn. The reason the food is cheap is because corn and soy are subsidized by tax payers. So it’s not really cheap, it’s just we don’t get to choose where our taxes go, and we pay for it twice, just not all at the register.
Lets not forget cruel industrial farming, or practices like injecting cows with RBHt to make them produce more milk, RBHt is found to be toxic by the way and canada and the Eu refuse in in their country as well as genetically modified seed. Which leads me to my next comment.
In response to “we’re well on our way to getting our eggs from China and our beef from Brazil.” Depending on whether or not they use Monsanto seed and RBHt, I might welcome it. i would most certainly welcome it from Canada or the EU, due to their rejection of Monsanto and their products and practices.
In addition, the EPA and the USDA cannot be trusted. They are all run by people who are former employees of Monsanto. Check out the current head of the USDA. Check it out as far back as the Clinton Adminstration. They allow this into our food. In Europe, is it law that the list of indregients on the back of a product list wether of not and ingredient is genetically modified. The U.S. does not.
This is not the fault of the U.S. Farmer, however, some of them comply, and the government does not make it easy for them to make a living. Legislation upon legislation, especially environmental legislation, rapes farmers of the ability of practice healthy agriculture.
“Every year we demand more and more from our farmers. More food from less land. More food from less energy. More food from less labor. And every year our farmers deliver.”
We as a population do not make these demands; Multinational corporations, congress and the senate do. Thus, we need to make demands upon our law makers, to stop listening to these special interest groups and start listeing to people who are interested and educated in what they put in their bodies. Monasnto is starving and poisoning the world slowly with their their forced use of toxic seed and unhealthy industrial farming enforcement. So tell the Future Farmers of America to tell Monsanto and it’s minions to F*** off, and I think you’ll see a change in the additude towards farmers. However, it won’t start with the multinational owned media, so you won’t notice it at first.
The link for information on the Humane Society, was created (and funded) by the Center for Consumer Freedom..
These are the same people trying to convince us there isn’t an obesity problem in the US and that smoking is HEALTHY.
Check out this quote from the Journal of the American Medical Association about the CFC: … See More
“The activities of the industry-sponsored group, Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), merit particular attention. With an annual budget exceeding $3 million, the CCF lobbies aggressively against obesity-related public health campaigns, legislation to regulate marketing of junk food to children, and scientists who advocate for healthier diets. The CCF boasts that ‘[our] strategy is to shoot the messenger . . . We’ve got to attack [activists'] credibility as spokespersons.’ According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the CCF is funded primarily through undisclosed donations from companies such as Coca-Cola, Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Wendy’s, allowing them to support unsavory lobbying practices while claiming to be responsible corporate citizens. Is the food industry simply not to be trusted?”
Journal of the American Medical Association
by David S. Ludwig, Marion Nestle
October 2008
Mike, this was a great entry and I read it a few weeks ago. I come from the farms of Ohio and the lack of appreciation for the farmer is staggering. Farmers should be proud of what they do and vocal in educating the general public. The problem is stuff like a dairy farmer in my own state abusing his own cattle. This is the public’s view of livestock farmers and why everyone loses in the end.
I’m a Veterinarian. I’ve done both large animal and small animal work. I know exactly how hard working and under appreciated the American farmer is. Live stock is, for the most part, well kept and well cared for. Yes, we can improve their living conditions, but what the consumer needs to remember is that this comes at a cost. That cost will be passed on to the consumer. The farmer cannot absorb it. So when people complain about the cost of meat/eggs at the store, recall that you demanded better living conditions for the animals. Recall as well that imported food cannot be guaranteed in safety like food raised in the US. So important in this day and age when other countries don’t have health standards as high as ours! Kudos to the American Farmer!!
Two words: Thank you.
From a dairyman who feeds the world and proud of every American farmer.
I am a former FFA member and these conventions are amazing! I am also currently in the agriculture profession and am concerned about people allowing our country to depend on other countries to feed us. The U.S. has the safest food supply in the world and why in the world would we want to depend on other countries that still use chemicals that have been banned in the U.S. for years. This is calling for the importation of biological components that WE DON’T WANT! My other comment is, why would a farmer or rancher not want to take care of their land, their animals, and their lively hood due to the fact that this is how they make their living. I think every person in the U.S. should take advantage of picking some strawberries, hawling hay, changing irrigation pipe, or driving a tractor out in the dusty field all day like many farmers do, or riding a horse cross country to check cows everyday! This may help a few people wake up to reality. I enjoy the farming/ranching lifestyle and no matter what happens I will always have my animals to EAT and sell for others to eat. Thanks Mike for the great show, Dirty Jobs, we are trying to come up with some jobs for you on our place so you can come out to Eastern Oregon and enjoy the scenery!
Bethany
It’s amazing how hard work in this country is something that is now looked down upon. And even I wonder sometimes why I ,someone with a master’s degree, would have gone down a career path where I come home most days covered in dirt and grease and sunburnt. Deep down though I cannot imagine a job where I had to spend the entire day looking a computer talking on the phone. I watch the sunrise and the sunset and I see the seasons come and go. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
My husband has a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the school of agriculture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He currently works for an international company selling artificial insemination products for dairy and beef cattle. There has been such a decline in dairy farming in our area that it is a struggle to make ends meet. Thank you, Mike Rowe, for championing the American farmer. People have forgotten where our food comes from as you pointed out. It is nice to have such wonderful support from you. Why does the most important job, feeding our country, pay the least? Just a thought.
I’m from Garland, TX and I was one of the lucky FFA students who attended the 82nd National FFA Convention. I was thrilled to find out Mike Rowe would be speaking, but I was moved when I actually heard you’re address. Everything you spoke of and everything you posted above is absolutely true. I’m concerned about America’s Agriculture and the direction it’s heading. When I first got into FFA I wanted to be active in Cattle Production. I achieved that goal, but lost more money than what I earned and now college is a tight squeeze for me. I also faced my peers while in the FFA, they couldn’t understand how or why I had cattle in the city. Agriculture is everywhere you look, it’s the base for living, but unfortunately society doesn’t understand how a cow becomes a hamburger or how a seed becomes tree timber used in their house.
My son (a past FFA officer)referred us to this blog as we ARE farmers. You could not have stated the problems we face or issues relevant to everyone who eats any better. “How” is exactly the question. How do you get people to see the importance of what we do for THEIR survival?
Unfortunately, our cities are growing faster than our rural areas; therefore, people only see what is at the grocery store. Also due to higher population concentration in the cities our political structure has more representation from the cities than rural areas.
It was inspiring to see someone else who “Gets it” We hope you continue the fight and spread the word. THANK YOU from farmers and parents of FFA kids.
Thank you Mike. Working in the field of agriculture is difficult and having someone like you who is in the public eye speak out for the men and women who provide food, fiber and timber for the rest of the country is important. Your words were brilliant, thank you for standing on the side of agriculture.
Here, Here – you have said it well. So many people need to be reminded of this. I ask myself so often, ‘how is it that the most advanced educated & powerful country in the world cannot feed itself’. Another noteworthy point to this whole story is the farmer provides ‘fresh food’, not processed food like our giant food companies market & produce, i.e. Nestle & Kraft who provide processed foods that lead to the many health concerns of our adolescents and adults alike. Support your local farmer and remember it started with the earth.
Mike –
I received your link from my cousin, who is from a dairy farming family in Wisconsin. Her son continues the tradition; he is a nationally recognized guernsey breeder in Iowa. I spent many a day on my uncle’s farm helping with milking chores, watching as he worked from 4:00 a.m. until late each day taking care of the largest guernesy herd in Wisconsin at that time. The whole family was involved. It takes tremendous commitment and passion to work a family farm. I find it distressing that a myriad of special interests is so close to destroying what I remember as wonderfully whole and good. I believe your analysis is correct. People have lost perspective and the work ethic in the U.S. is suffering. Unfortunately, I see this daily. I don’t have a solution, but the problem is very real.
And to be clear, I love the work you do on “Dirty Jobs.” You’re crazy, but I applaud your willingness to show America what “real” jobs look like!
- Ellen Clark
Dear Mike,
I agree with you that todays generation is just one step away from not having local foods. I recently traveled into NYC for Agg Education thru New York Farm Bureau. We visit city elementary schools and discuss where food comes from. One of the main questions we first ask the children is where do they think milk comes from. The majority of children all say the store. Now most of them know (5-8years)all know from a cow, but we are seeing some that even do not know that. How sad.
PS I love your show!
Well said Mike. We need more people like you that understand the hard work and sacrifices farmers and others in the agriculture industry choose to make everyday. I am a proud alumnus of the NYS FFA and have started to make my career in the agricultural industry where I see the struggles facing the farms, not just from these activist groups but from poor pricing structure and overregulation.
So thank you for showing that you care and I hope that you are able to help notify the country that farmers and agricultural workers are some of the hardest working, proud and responsible citizens of this great country.
As a past President of a local chapter of the FFA ( Pasadena Texas 1991) and a present FFA alumni I would like to thank you. Mike you have brought to light a problem with American society. Most of society today has no idea that the produce, milk and meat products neatly packaged in the grocery store is the result of a farmers toil and labor. It did not spontaneously appear on the shelves by its own. People involved in agriculture today are not what was perceived 50-100 years ago. Bib wearing, toothles, illiterate backwoods people. Today, young adults go to four year colleges to gain knowledge in agriculture, to grow more with less and have equipment worth hundreds of thousands dollars to produce a product that many seem to think of as minuscule in their lives. I applaud any young adult who is thinking of persuing a career in agriculture and thank all that are currently producing a product. The best saying I have seen stated was this. It was from a Wendlands feed sign.” if you eat, you are involved in agriculture.”
I didn’t grow up on a farm. I knew where my food came from, but I didn’t realize the importance of agriculture or the impact it made on my everyday life.
Joining the FFA in 2006 changed my life completely. I am now serving as the 2010-2011 Nevada FFA state president and my life is devoted to educating students about agriculture and leadership within agriculture. Education is the foundation for success and in this case, basic survival. Would people advocate for confinement regulations if they knew they were taking food from the mouths of millions? Would they fight for animal rights if they knew how well farmers and ranchers care for their animals? The reality is that people don’t know. Without educating people about the importance of agriculture, we are doomed to fail.
I would like to thank all of the agriculturists, ag teachers, and supporters of ag for everything they do and for helping to guarentee that we have food to eat in the future.
Mike,
The American Farmer needs more voices like yours! How can a group of people that work 14+ hours a day, 365 days a year (often while losing money) defend themselves against groups that have millions of dollars and countless hours devoted to destroying them? Having voices like yours on our side is no doubt one of the best ways that we can get truth and logic out to the general public. Thank you!
Brilliant article Mike! The final downfall of the United States will come when we import our food. If another country wants to control us just cut our food off. We have enough hunger in this country without someone else rationing our nurishment. We can figure out ways around using foreign fuels or merchandise but don’t we HAVE to eat? God bless the U.S.A.
My grandfather was a farmer and my grandmother worked at a packing house all their adult lives in the central valley of California. As a little girl (late 70’s early 80’s) there were a few times when Grandpa let me ride in the tractor with him or irrigate after supper. I was also able to go visit Grandma at the packing house. She showed me how the fruit was sorted and packed. As a young adult, I was very involved with my ex-husband and his family’s olive orchards. From planting the infant tress to taking the olives to be sold and all being done with old fashion elbow grease (this was in the 90’s). Not to mention that during picking season you save some of those olives to cure at home. I recently visited California and drove around my old “stomping grounds”. What I saw was awful. Most of the local olive orchards had been replaced by new homes and some orchards were in the process of being literally ripped out of the ground. The Lindsay Olives you see on the shelf? They no longer come from Linsday. The packing houses (you could find one on almost every corner) now look abandoned with maybe only a couple running a few months out of the year. The farmlands that used to spread as far as the eye could see are now housing developments. What used to be a striving county now seems dried up; lifeless. It is terrifying to think that this could happen all throughout the United States. I don’t think people really grasp that farming in this county is our life blood. We lose that, and America’s heart will stop beating.
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU
Thank you Mike for your support. We are 3rd and 4th generation dairy farmers, struggling to make ends meet. It is troubling to see the fight against agriculture, the name calling (factory farms) and the ‘inhumane animal treatment’. It actually keeps me up at night trying to fight them. We are a large farm, milking 700 cows and under definition I imagine a “factory farm”. I do not use that to describe our family farm, but others do. There is nothing ‘different’ in a small farm, or large except for the size. The fundamentals of caring for animals and land are the same. Well, we don’t name our animals cutsy names (sometimes we do when they are really cute – “Heart Girl” when one has a spot that shapes into a heart). Thank you for stepping up to the plate and defending agriculture. I know a lot of people watch your show (it is great by the way) and hopefully, you can help us reach them. Like another wrote, we work 14 hour days, 7 days a week. Cows have to eat three times a day like we do, and they don’t hold their calvings to Monday through Friday.
Thanks on behalf of our two sons who we hope will follow in our footsteps. But to allow them to do that we have to grow to accommodate their future families.
Thank-you so much for your support! My husband and I operate a 600 cow dairy farm in NY with my parents and brother. We met showing cows in 4-H and both come from farm families. We love what we do and work hard everyday to take the best care of our animals and the land we operate. I agree with you the America has lost sight of the importance of agriculture in our country and our ability to feed the world. Do people really feel we will be better off importing food from other countries that do not operate at the same high standards as us? I want to believe that we as a nation have just become complacent-food is always there and plentiful, so there is no need to worry. Last year my family lost half a million dollars because milk prices were so low. We know families that have farmed for generations (not just dairy farmers) and are no longer able to keep going because of pricing or other issues such as regulations that push them out of business. There is a quote that hung in my parents office when I was growing up and now hangs in ours that reads “You can burn the cities and keep the farms and the cities will grow as if by magic but burn the farms and keep the cities and grass will grow in the streets.” Author unknown. I firmly believe in this and wish that more people would remember the values that made this country great, the most important being taking pride in working hard. Thanks again for your support.
Sincerely,
Heather Woodis
Well done, Mike, as usual.
Thanks, Mike. We (farmers) appreciate your support of our livelihood. It has been a tough couple of years for farmers but we will continue to produce a local, safe, affordable food supply so that people can still “talk” about farmers while their mouths are full of food.
Mike, the farmers of America couldn’t have a better advocate, and they’ve needed one for a long time! Please keep up the good work. Supporting farmers against HSUS and PETA really is a Dirty Job!
Mike,
Thanks for all the support. I am an Agriculture Teacher and the FFA really loves your support as well as all of the agriculture industry. Thank you for all that you do. If you are ever in California, we would love to have you speak at our state convention. Keep up the good work!
Mike, what an awesome article! I grew up in a farming family and my daughter works intimately with the farming industry. We need more voices like yours to get this message out! Thank YOU.
This is a message that needs to heard across this land, having a 17 yr old who has wanted to be farmer since he was able to push a tractor around on the floor, has been our inspiration to become active in 4H & FFA over the years, to take on livestock projects, like raising chickens & beef cattle. There is nothing like eating your own eggs & your own grain fed beef. We are just a blue collar family, living in an agricultrial area that is slowly seeing the family farms dissappear due to many resons, but those that are still active, still provide milk, meat, grain, eggs & vegatables to those around us. Those civic minded groups who are shoving these farmers out of business, have access to very deep pockets & lots of time to lobby for their cause, while the farmers have little money to fight for their cause & don’t have the time because they are working to feed these people.
My son still has that dream to be a farmer, the same passion he had when he was pushing those tractors around on the floor when he was 2 years old. His mother & I pray every day that his dreams will come true, we pray every day that his spirit isn’t dampened by the heart ache he sees & hears about the local & national farmers. His generation may very well see the end to what this country was founded on & I hope we wake up before then.
Mike I’m an ex-dairy farmer ,well not really ex I’ll be a dairyman my whole life . The thing about farmers, all farmers – dairy, wheat, hog, beef, is that we love what we do. Most of us were raised on farms and know that all life springs from the land . Most of us are 4th 5th 10th generation farmers . We are a different breed of people altogether. It seems like the elite class if you can call them that , peta the media, government, like to portray farmers as hillbilly morons . Well that’s okay if you don’t like us please boycott our goods, and don’t eat. I can’t put it any simpler than that.
Nicely done Mike. You are an American Icon when it comes to the working class, though there are fewer of us every day.
Well said. My biggest frustration, therefore challenge in my life is revealing the pride I have and feel everyday when I wake up to begin a day of farmWORK… You have put into words what I have observed starting with a first missed homeroom because I had to help deliver a calf (chuckles from all my townie classmates of course!)… I began using the power of laughter and storytelling to educate in a not so in your face kind-of way. Here I am 35 years older, still farming, still storytelling, still loving what I do. We have (as farmers) let ourselves be somewhat ridiculed, and have kept our head down instead of chin up so all could see the abundance of pride we feel each and everyday. We are an institution of knowledge, we instill a work ethic like no other, and more than anything we feed, water and nourish all our babies… wherever they reside. Can we say that of every single human in the world? I wish we could… Love this write up.
Hello Mike!
I so appreciated your article (someone forwarded it to me)….and as the wife of a fourth generation cattle rancher and mother of 3 former FFA-ers, totally appreciated your message here! I am also a writer/author and former high school history and English teacher, from a small high school, where most of the kids’ lives revolve around FFA. I so heartily approve of what FFA stands for and teaches.
As agriculturalists, in California, I cannot stress enough what is happening to us via the far-left movement. It’s no secret to us that there is an agenda to eliminate us from the economic picture of this great state. Sadly, most consumers do not get the picture, but have “bought” into the myths that abound! If only they could/would go RIGHT to the source (which is what YOU DO!) and ask REAL farmers and ranchers about what is happening. We are being asked to farm without water and produce without any profit….and few realize that farmers and ranchers ARE conservationists and care as much — more — than the average American about animal welfare, the land, our resources, our contributions. My husband used to think that he was providing something GOOD for the world; now we daily face a barrage of emotional attacks and he, for the life of him, cannot figure out what has happened. As a side note, we raise natural beef and try to remain on the “cutting edge.” We also provide a natural preserve for wildlife and waterfowl on our ranch, and few Californians realize that 75% of ALL waterfowl are protected by private landowners and ranchers, NOT the federal or state government. If we can’t make it on our land, that protection is GONE for wildlife must have wide open spaces.
Further, cattle are an environmentally FRIENDLY species. More than 85% of all grazing lands in the U.S. are not suited to crop cultivation AND they are natural fire retardants…wouldn’t it be great to find a natural way of curbing fires in the West? Cattle can consume fire-starting dry matter and turn it into a powerful food source. In addition, efforts to stop global warming have focused on reducing emissions, not in taking carbon out of the atmosphere (carbon sequestration). Cattle, like buffalo, can contribute to sequestration: grass takes in carbon from the atmosphere; grazing animals trample the grass into the soil and carbon is absorbed; new grass sprouts and the process is repeated over and over, absorbing more and more carbon. The cow is an amazing animal and can help us in so many ways!
Health-wise, for those “scared of eating meat,” there are 29 LEAN cuts of beef that are super-nutritious and heart-healthy. Lean beef has heme-iron (superior to plant iron), protein, vitamins B-6, B-12, zinc, iron, niacin, phosphorus. Beef is brain food for kids and too many kids in this country are anemic or low in minerals and iron that contribute to cognitive and learning growth. Too many teens and young mother are also iron-deficient. Lean beef can help in any diet and contribute to lean body mass.
So, that’s My soapbox!!
BTW, I love your show and we rarely miss it. That you support and endorse blue-collar people is a rare blessing and gift. We need more dialogue between those who look on us as poor cousins and as part of the problem vs. part of the solution!
Thank you for all your hard work and energy — and for taking on those dirty jobs! My husband rarely comes home without layers of manure, dirt, grime, or oil on his face, arms, hands, and clothes. I’ve often said I could challenge Tide or any soap producer who says they can get clothes cleaner than clean!!! Show me the clean!
P.S. I have a blog for those looking for more information and FACTS about cattle and beef. Check it out: whatsthebeeffromsouptonuts.blogspot.com
Again, thanks! You are a welcome and delightful voice. I hope you continue to support simple people like us.
As a former member of FFA and a current timber producer I found your article to really be spot on. We already buy vast amounts of lumber and plywood from places where we have no idea whether it is being harvested in a sound and sustainable manner and we think nothing of it. Here at home we protest those who wish to harvest timber and replant the land. My new cowboy boots were made in China and Lord knows what else. I applaud all the kids who are taking up vocational education and hope that we reward them well for their efforts. Keep it up!
Mike, thank you for your support of the American farmer and stockman. I am not against animal farming and ranching, either. I am both a farmer and a consumer, too.
[...] In furtherance of his support of farming, Mike is doggedly highlighting the issues facing America’s farming community through his website and specifically on his blog “The Future of Farming” [...]
Mike,
Thank you so much for your inspirational words that you gave to an organization that I have dedicated my life to. I’m an FFA member that was at the convention that you spoke at, and I truly loved it. I’ve been around agriculture all my life. I literally live in a corn field, my grandpas and dad are all farmers and my mom comes from a farming background. We also have 4-H cattle and pigs. Its getting harder and harder for us as farmers. And not only economically and all, but also steriotypically. We are not just dumb hicks that yell yee haw and ride mules around, we are people trying to feed a nation that isn’t educated about how exactly they get their food into the stores they buy them at. In fact, some people think the food just pops in their and that is where the food is produced. We need to start educating people about how important agriculture is in their lives or else we’re all going to pay.
We have to fight tooth and nail to keep the vocational programs in our local high school. The push is to center the curriculum around a state test that each year is re-vamped (a moving amorphous target). We are farmers ourselves and acutely aware that America needs to appreciate the various “trades” we can’t live without: mechanics (all types), plumbers, big equipment operators, welders & metal workers, general fabricators. I believe we have lost our way by making things too disposable versus “fixable” yet there is still an inherent desire to repair things rather than throw them away. We farmers- have we become too marginalized by the convenience food industry that transforms our crops into an unrecognizable foodstuff? I hope not! I agree there is a desided shift away from work and the pride of a hard job well done. We are also drifting away from the opportunity to work- prohibiting work- for youth. 18 is too late to instill a work ethic (for most) and football (insert whatever sport you want) practice is no replacement. Where is the individual accountability?
Mike- keep pouring it on-
Mike, thank you for bringing attention to agriculture.
I was in the crowd for your remarks to the FFA kids in Indianapolis and I plan to be in the crowd for your remarks to AFBF in Atlanta…I’m looking forward to it.
I heard a quote once: “Rich countries have many problems…..poor countries really only have one…”
Our capacity to feed our population is critical to our security as a nation…most U.S. citizens have yet to realize that fact.