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
269 Comments
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.
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 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.
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.
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
Two words: Thank you.
From a dairyman who feeds the world and proud of every American farmer.
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!!
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.
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
“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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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!
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).
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.
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.
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!
What a message! If only it was required reading for anyone who eats.
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.
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.
Ive never heard it broken down the way you said, I agree 100%
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Mike you are right on!!!!
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.
Thanks Mike!!! I greatly appreciate your fight for the farmer! We really need it these days!! Keep up the good work!
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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…..
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.
Amen and Amen!!! Enough said. Go Go Mike Rowe.
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.
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.
Thanks for writing this, Mr. Rowe. It was a great read.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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
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, 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.
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%.
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?
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.
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.
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!
Bravo Mike!
You know your meat and vegetables are coming from. My dirty hat is off to you.
http://livestock-id.blogspot.com
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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,
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
Thanks for the great article Mike!! You’ve hit the nail on the head!
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
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,
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!
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.
Outstanding!! More please
MIKE ROWE FOR PRESIDENT………….NOW!!!!!!
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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!!!!
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
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?
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.
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!
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!
As an Ag Teacher I just want to say thanks Mike. I appreciate all you have said.
Rob
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.
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
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.