More Than Just a Farmer.

More Than Just a Farmer.

Growing up in southern Iowa on a Cow-Calf and row crop operation I never could picture myself doing anything else. Every Saturday I would wake up help Dad do chores rush home and do chores with my toy tractors. Although I’m maybe a little old to be playing with toy tractors, I still enjoy farming and the always famous ranching. But as I have had the opportunity the to travel the great state of Iowa it has become clear that farming does not hold the same prestige as other occupations. The phrase, “Oh I just want to farm when I grow up” or “They just farm.” is all too common. Now, what makes someone want to feed, fuel, and clothe all of us for the lowest percentage of return on investment since the great depression, the most deaths on the job in any industry, or the low appreciation by the public and others alike. Farmers, unlike popular belief, don't do their job because it is easy or they get rich fast, farmers and ranchers do it because they have a passion for taking care of livestock, and leaving the land in better shape than they found it. Many farmers are doing amazing things and need to be thanked for the work that they do and I think that it is time that we start here and now.

Farmers take care of the environment. Every day farmers and ranchers wake up and walk onto the land that they work, take a shower in the water from the river from their land, and tend to the livestock that feeds all of our families. Across the state and nation, it is more clear than ever before that the American Farmer is striving to leave the land in better shape than they found it. With programs like the NRS or Nutrient Reduction Strategy, farmers have cut the runoff of nitrogen into waterways by almost a third. Yeah so what you say, well this strategy is completely voluntary and has only been supported but never mandated. When the voluntary measures that farmers are taking to reduce their impact of 8% total American pollution compared to American factories with 51% of the total pollution the farmers and ranchers are showing just how committed they are.

Farmers drive the American economy. Agriculture supplies 23 million people with jobs in the United States, that is larger than the automotive industry. Making up the 17% of the total jobs in this country we like to give the credit to the agriculture but what we must always remember, we wouldn’t have the agriculture industry without farmers. Now the national stats are crazy but when we look at our local communities, every time a dollar is spent in towns it is spent 7 times over in the industry. Now they don’t by just by seed and tractors, but also, wire, post, fertilizer, oil, fuel, iron, pipe, water, the list goes on and on always driving the economy forward.

Farmers feed the world. The biggest question that I hear on a common base is how will we feed the world, with 9.6 billion people that will be on earth by 2050. When we look at how far we have come it is amazing. In 1920 farmers fed 19 people, by 1970 farmers fed 26, and today they feed 155 people. Today we grow almost 13 billion bushels of corn in the United States, more than any other country in the world. With 75% of supermarkets having over 3,500 corn products in them and with Americans consuming one-third of the United States corn supply farmers feed more people than McDonald's every day.

Now today the next time you read an attack on farmers and ranchers on social media take time to defend the people that do more for you than they get credit for. And if you farm today thank you for all that you do every day because it is truly more than just farming.

Chase "CD" Brinegar

2018-2019 Iowa FFA Association State President