The Bad Eggs

I have not tried to hide my distaste for anti-agriculture groups that spew negative farm propaganda to the masses. Their skewed efforts have convinced Americans to live in fear of their food and have forced inaccurate fabricated terms such as "factory farming" into daily conversations around the country. Worse still, the campaign has tainted the image of the hundreds of thousands of farm families across the US who are getting it right and are committed to producing a bountiful supply of the highest quality product for their fellow countrymen while creating the best possible situation for their land and animals. The negative media image that surrounds our agricultural system - the best one in the WORLD - saddens and angers me each time I hear inaccurate information casually tossed around throughout our daily lives.

That being said, I am told on a regular basis to find the good in everything that happens, no matter how horrendous the situation may seem. Finding something good about the attack on our production farmers and our food supply seemed completely ridiculous to me until just recently during a conversation about another topic entirely. A circumstance was mentioned up that parallels the current farm situation, and at that moment I found the good.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, American farmers have for decades been content to hang in the background of society, quietly going about the 365 day-per-year task of producing food for a hungry 310 million mouths (not to mention those who benefit outside this country). Unfortunately, while the industry advanced in the shadows of a rapidly changing nation, a small number of bad eggs (producers who misuse the land, mistreat animals, and ignore food quality and safety) were hitching a free ride in the shadows of the industry. Because agriculture was overlooked by so much of the population, few people took time to address the bad egg situation, allowing them to grow and develop unchecked. After years of their under-the-rug atrocities, these producers can be found with land and animal violations in numerous states - many bad eggs simply move into an area, destroy it, and leave once violations and legal issues make relocation necessary.

You do not need to be told by me that this behavior is irresponsible, disrespectful, and wholly unacceptable. Their lack of respect for agriculture has taken our honest, noble industry and muddied its image in the eyes of the public, effectively masking the awesome sustainability (yes, you read that correctly) and efficiency of modern agriculture and making the industry a whipping boy for health experts, "foodies", animal rights activists, and seemingly every other segment of society. Amongst all this tragedy, however, is the fragment of light I so recently discovered: so much attention is actually eliminating the irresponsible producers. They cannot survive under such strong scrutiny...legitimate farm organizations refuse to support them, consumers despise them, and everywhere they turn people are noticing and rejecting their improper management. Perhaps the attention I have spoken out so strongly against is actually doing something right. Maybe, provided a willing and open mind of the public and a little much needed industry direction, we can fight through the upheaval and come out an even better food production system because of it.

Similar to nearly every public issue, a lot has to change in order to make this happen. American consumers need to stop associating poor management practices, low food quality, environmental degradation, etc, with production agriculture. Such a misguided belief as that lumps the good guys in with the bad guys - each time they speak out against large farms concerned people are opposing both the unfortunate negative situations AND (unknowingly) the majority of producers who are doing a good job. If we manage to separate the false connection between horrific (but isolated) cases of poor farm management and productive (but well maintained) large farms, we will surely have a superior domestic food supply rather than a questionable imported one.