Letter to the editor: Reader waves to farmers to say, ‘Thanks’

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To the editor:

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, then you know farmers are the plague.

Seriously, haven’t you noticed? They are the cause of poor water quality, the killers of monarch butterflies, the reason for displeasing smells, the cruel slaughterers of animals, the spreaders of disease like avian influenza, and they are at the root of the ever-so-evil GMO.

Read any newspaper, refer to popular social media posts and ask any altruistic CEO, politician or advocacy group trying to combat the empire that is agriculture—the support for this position is abundant.

And that’s why I wave to farmers.

Out on the highway as I’m driving to work and out on the gravel as I am coming home, I wave to farmers sitting up high in their tractors, sprayers, combines and grain-hauling semis.

I wave to say, I believe in you. I believe in your ability to make educated, wise decisions for our environments. I believe in you to give animals a decent life before they enter into our food system, and I trust you to make ethical decisions so food is safe for my consumption.

I wave to farmers to say, Thank you. Thank you for the long hours you put in the field, away from your loved ones. And thank you also to the husbands, wives, sons and daughters of farmers for their sacrifices. I may not be the farmer’s daughter, but I am marrying the farmer’s son, and I miss him like crazy on the long days when he doesn’t return home until after I’ve gone to sleep.

I wave to say, Be careful out there. Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States. Accidents happen every day in agriculture. Equipment rollovers, grain entrapments, livestock incidents—there are risks at every turn as our farmers feed and fuel the world.

I also wave to say, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that even if you avoided GMOs, farmed organically (which doesn’t mean what most people think it means) and allowed all your animals to be free range, the same people who curse you today for your practices would curse you tomorrow when food becomes scarce and, consequently, costs rise. I’m sorry you’re in a position where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

So I wave to farmers just in case they feel like no one is on their side anymore. I wave to say, I know we still have obstacles to overcome, but you’re not alone. I wave to show you still have a community of supporters and AGvocates. I wave because you’re the heart and backbone of the great state that is Iowa.

I wave to farmers, and I hope others will begin to wave, too.

Caitlyn Ryan, Perry

4 COMMENTS

  1. Careful. In your praise of farmers, you are as disrespectful of their critics as you claim their critics are of them. I don’t care what you think. If the farmers were half as responsible as you say, Iowa wouldn’t have the worst water quality in the nation. Swine CAFOs are the equivalents of small cities in terms of waste production and should be regulated in like manner. Many farm chemicals used here are banned in the EU, which has seen the return of its honeybees. GMO foods and products are also banned in Europe, whose people have more access to fresh, healthy food than the average American. Be reminded, the family farmer is virtually an extinct species and has been since the 1980s. Most who survived did so by gobbling up their neighbors and signing exclusive contracts with Big Ag corporations. This has not only been detrimental to the environment but has also impacted the health and waistlines of the country and all this by either ignoring or rescinding half the antitrust legislation ever passed since Teddy Roosevelt.
    No, I don’t dislike the Iowa farmer . . . but I sure hate what he’s been doing.

  2. I wave at farmers, too. And for many of the same reasons. I wave at the woman going to the office, too, because I know she works just as hard to keep her family fed and comfortable. I think your assumption that if farmers “avoided GMOs, farmed organically (which doesn’t mean what most people think it means) and allowed all your animals to be free range” is wrong in its conclusion that people would go hungry and prices would skyrocket. Larger AG operations have gotten away from crop rotation practices that have been proven beneficial to production, insect control, and weed control. Instead there is a monocrop culture that is reliant on pesticides, herbicides, and applied nutrients that often end up downstream. Farmers care about their land and how it is tended. There aren’t enough farmers left. There are too many industrialists who seem to care more about the corporate bottom line than doing the right thing. Farmers are great. I know some wonderful farmers. Sometimes those who support this over-industrialized ag production forget what a farmer is.

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