A Good Talker

When I was in high school my math teacher told my mother I was a “social butterfly.” Since then I have often been diagnosed with, “the gift of gab.” This usually meant I simply talked too much, but my lack of fear to stand in front of a group and express my ideas has started to come in handy.

I had the chance to talk to the local Kiwanis Chapter a few weeks ago, they meet on Mondays at noon at the local bowling alley. They are a dedicated group of volunteers doing good work in our community. At each meeting they have a speaker talk about their occupation or some topic that has been in the news.

This visit to the Kiwanis, the topic was modern agriculture. Many of the Kiwanis had grown up on a farm, or had even farmed themselves. I did not have to explain to them that the labor saving changes we have made to our farms are a good thing. They agreed that farmers should be proud of this progress. Changes in agriculture are the reason milk and other healthy food is affordable. I told them about my own family and how I farm different than my grandfather did, but my values are the same as they have been for generations.

That was on a Monday, on Thursday night I went to the County Zoning and Planning meeting. They were proposing a few changes that might jeopardize the preservation of farmland in our agriculture based county. When they asked for public comment, I simply said that I had moved to this county because I wanted to farm, that I had left a place where they grow more houses than corn, and I hoped our county wouldn’t end up that way.

At the end of meeting and older fellow came up, shook my hand and said, “I heard you at the Kiwanis too, you’re a real good talker.” It was so kind of him to support me and to go out of his way to let me know he was impressed. But, as I left the meeting all I could think to myself was, “I just want to be a good farmer.”

Besides a healthy and happy family there is nothing I want more than to be a good farmer. I often feel that I am the wrong person to stand up and speak for farmers, my family and I have only owned our farm for four years, and while I grew up on a farm and have spent all of my 34 years involved in agriculture, I still have so much to learn. Shouldn’t the spokesperson be an accomplished seasoned farmer? I am not qualified.

But there are so few of us, less than 2% of our society has jobs directly associated with farming. Someone has to tell our story.

There are farmers who can stand up and give a speech or for that matter write a blog, but most of us would rather be in our barn taking care of our cows, or in the shop tinkering with the equipment to be sure it is in good working order. Not to stereotype, but most people who farm do it because they love the work, and the independence. Often they choose this as a living because they’d rather deal with animals or crops than people.

So, those of us who are “good talkers” need to help tell the story of the “good farmers,” who are quietly caring for their land and animals, and producing enough food to feed us all.