With the uncertain political and economic climate we live in today, there is definitely one certainty at the least; farming today is anything but easy. Facing challenges with real estate, the EPA, water conservation, wild life conservation, animal rights, and a host of other political action group headline news subjects, Farmers must navigate many challenges. And to add insult to injury, Farmers and the other people whose jobs depend on Ag in general are often times represented as dirty, lazy, stupid, and scheming peoples who are only out for greed.
But let’s remember that one and a half percent of the American population feed this country of 300 plus million people as well as much of the world. And in California alone, there are more than 70,000 farmers and ranchers that contribute more than 40 billion dollars to the California economy.
Yet still the farmer is usually not viewed upon in the most inspirational way. So why do they do it? Why do they put up with the stress? Why go day after day in a profession that is attacked, belittled, and misunderstood as much as modern day agriculture? With such a thankless and besieged profession, it’s a wonder. Well let me tell you some of the reasons I encountered.
They do it for tradition.
The tradition of farming passed on from parents to children, a tradition of farming that helped found this very country if not all of civilization itself. From father to son, mother to daughter, for more than 10,000 years, Agriculture has had a place in every society, including our own. There may be differences in detail and technology along the way, but Farmers through and through all the same.
They do it for the heritage of it.
Many farmers are not first generation, and many more aren’t even just 2ng generation. Farming ones land and animals has been passed done from 3rd, 4th, 5th , 6th , 7th generation or beyond. Some families can even trace their lineage back to the founders of our great democracy. Its as much a heritage as a birth right. It’s a past that is every part of their very soul today. It’s in their blood and you can’t take that away anymore than they could simply give it up. It’s a legacy. It’s a memory and a feeling thinking about your parents and grandparents before you, that they just can’t give up on, and that they want to give to their children.
They do it for the pride.
The pride that one gets from taking a knee to their own animals or their own land, knowing that what they are doing is needed even though the rest of the world feels like it forgot about them. The pride you get when you’ve had a long day of hard thankless work, and made it one more day towards growing or building something good. The pride you get from mastering this land that God gave s to help the rest of humanity or at the very least your own family in some important way.
They do it because they can be their own boss and fulfill their own promises to themselves.
There is just something different about being so much more in charge of your own destiny like that. And it compels many of them to stay. They stay and they work and they work, and then they work some more, but they do it for themselves and their families. They do it at their own risk and reward.
They do it to feel alive and in love!
Through life and loss, birth and death, spring and winter, they do it because there’s some kind of feeling that they just can’t explain, that they get when they are working that farm, that ranch, or that livestock. It ties the world together for them, and it all makes since when they reap their progress. There something about that type of love and that type of living that they just can’t get enough of. It’s a need that they just can’t really explain. But who can explain love anyways?
Yeah, sure maybe it’s a hard and misunderstood job most of the time. And maybe it’s a job that barely pays the bills, even after you’ve poured so much of your blood, sweat, and tears into it. And maybe the most it ever pays off, if it’s a nice day at least, is that you get to enjoy being outside for a bit walking the field. But farmers are doing something that really does matter, something that can’t really be taken away from them. Thank you Farmers. And thank you Ag! Remember how important you are.
