Monday, June 20, 2011

Your Food- Made in America

What does the food you eat, the wise words your mom bestowed on you in your youth, and bathing suits made in China have to do with farming?  Sounds crazy but keep reading……

Here is a short video of a crop duster flying on a treatment
to help the wheat crop against the disease called Rust

If you were like me when growing up, your mom probably said this, “if _____ (fill in your own friend’s name) told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it? No, well I thought so! So no you can’t go _____ (again, fill in your own answer) & don't believe everything you hear.” Tonight I was watching ABC news and it had segment from a lady in her bathing suit, saying she couldn’t find any clothes made in the USA, they all came from China, India or other foreign countries and she wanted America made clothes! So here is my rationale and it’s because I want you to know that hyped up media sells stories. Think about it. It’s because of the media hype on “corporate factory farms being evil, farmers hurting their animals, and farmers poisoning their land & you with bad chemicals” gets your attention and sells newspapers. It also lures people into going to the Food, Inc kind of movies (which made $71Million) and donating their hard earned money to organizations thinking they are helping poor animals (see Humanewatch.org). Basically it gets down to this, farmers are highly regulated by the FDA in what we use on our crops, no other country has these kinds of regulations, which is why I try not to buy food produced in other countries – who knows what is used in their food production and I want safe food just like you do. I am a mom and farmwife whose livelihood depends on growing the best and safest products for human consumption. I am the farmer who would not poison her kids, grand-kids, family, or you with bad chemicals or unsafe farming practices. I am the person who cares about what my family eats and what you eat.  Really, it is that simple.



A picture of the plane and our wheat fields

This is a marker the plane puts down as he makes a pass when flying on a treatment
so he knows where he has been 

Here is the deal, when you hear about new books or movies telling you that we can “repair our relationship with animals” or “buy organic if you don’t want to be poisoned” blah, blah, blah…. It’s because if  they scare you, it sells and they make money. Then the downside is the scare tactics are used to have new laws & regulations passed that hinder the farmer and make production costs go up. What does that mean for you? More of your hard earned money buying food and then if production costs are too high, then the farmer goes out of business. Currently, the USA enjoys the lowest cost of food than anywhere else in the world. 
*According to the FDA, no signicant differences
has been shown between milk deried from rbST
treated and non-rbST treated cows
The ending to this blog is…. just like your mom says, use your God given brain to sort fact from fiction and think about what you read, hear and see in the news - then ask the true source from those of us who produce your food (ask Farmer, Inc), as we are the experts who have science, logic and facts on our side. If the American public doesn’t want to buy their clothes from China, then do you really want your food coming from a foreign land because regulations and anti-Ag groups make it hard for farmers to put food on your table? No, well that’s what I thought.

As always, thanks for reading this, stop by again and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions.  Also be sure to check in to the combined farm blog site, http://www.farmerinc.net/ for more good blogs. As a side note, I will be working on a book that will showcase the farm blogs from all over the USA... so I'll keep you posted on that new project.  All my best, Gayle