About four years ago, I realized the extremely important
role advocacy plays in agriculture and saw the limitless value of telling my
story. I’m proud to share the stories about the small role I play in food
production while working alongside my father, husband and in-laws. I do this
because there are plenty of people out there that daily strive to push
consumers towards niche products such as organic beef, cage-free eggs or vegan
bacon (which is not really bacon, btw). While I’m all about choice, I don’t
like it when we suggest that making one food choice is safer, more sustainable
or better than another food choice—especially when it’s not true.
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| Inquiring minds want to know when they're going to be fed..... |
While things like the latest Chipotle video may be successful
at attracting press, blog hits and consumer interest, the one thing they fall
extremely short of achieving is creating constructive conversation about food
production and the wholesome goodies on our dinner plates.
Whether it’s this latest video or others like it, it
reiterates to me the importance of sharing stories about how food is really
raised today. I strongly urge all producers to continue to use your voice and tell the real story of farming –
right now there are consumers around the nation, and the world, putting their
Google skills to the test trying to find out information about how beef,
chicken and pork are produced and how livestock are treated. This is a critical
component of agriculture – while we may not all agree on the what is the
‘right’ way to do things, we can all agree that no one benefits from
denigrating farmers and ranchers other than the marketers and businesses
themselves.
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| Baby beef! |
Do you have pictures of you or your family caring for your
livestock? Put them online with a short story about the pride you have in
providing high quality care and producing safe, healthy food. That’s the real story of farming and
you should be proud of it.
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| When they hear the dinner bell (it's actually a siren) they come runnin'! As they pass by, we make sure everyone is present and accounted for - if not, we ride around the pasture to look for escapees or sick cattle. |
Farmers and ranchers have been sharing the story of
agriculture for several years and should continue to do so! Here are some great
examples of producers opening up the barn doors to all who wish to view inside.
Even if you aren’t a wizard of words, you can post a picture
and short sentence about your daily practices – a la Wordless Wednesday (or in
my case, Semi-wordless
Wednesday). Again, it is up to you to make sure that American consumers
know exactly how their food is produced and that they can be confident in
farmers and ranchers to do the right thing.
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| Podge is my role model for many things -- horsemanship, cattle care and his dedication to doing the right thing, even when it's not easy, are just a few of his outstanding qualities. |
Are you a supplier to
Chipotle, do you raise naturally raised beef or meet the Chipotle specs or know
someone who is? PLEASE comment below – I’d love to talk with you and hear your
thoughts on this!
Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~
The thoughts and opinions of this blog post strictly represent that of Brandi Buzzard Frobose and are NOT representative of any other entity or organization.
Labels: advocacy, animal welfare, antibiotics, beef, cattle, chipotle, drugs, factory farming, factory farms, family farmers, family farms, farming, food, food choices, livestock, marketing, meat, ranchers, ranching, scarecrow
