Tune In To Reality

My family is addicted to a few of those reality TV shows. While we tend to steer clear of the shows with celebrities trapped in jungles or trying to dance the tango, we’ve become big fans of shows like Dirty Jobs, How It’s Made and Myth Busters.

Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe takes us to the depths of a city sewer or to the backside of a dairy cow about to be artificially inseminated.

How It’s Made shows us how they make all kinds of everyday things like springs, radios and bologna. The Myth Busters team tackles all types of urban myths and far-fetched ideas, testing them to see if they are busted, proven or plausible.

The shows are simple in nature and genius in design. They tell us a story. They give us the ‘what, why and how’ about many products that we use everyday. They show us reality. We just need to be paying attention and learn.

Maybe it’s time for some myth busting in agriculture.

It’s easy for people to take advantage of someone’s lack of knowledge, filling minds with fear instead of facts, and that seems to be happening a lot in agriculture these days.

Everyday, farmers use scientifically-proven methods to make a living, care for the environment, raise healthy crops and livestock and feed a growing world. Most would love to tell you about it. The challenge is getting us, consumers, to perk up our ears and listen.

What troubles me is the many self-proclaimed experts out there who are “educating” the public about modern food production. Many of these folks have an agenda.

I think everyone should choose what and how they eat. But I simply can’t agree with false accusations meant to misdirect and misinform people to forward a certain agenda.

For example, I recently watched author Jonathan Safran Foer talk about his new book on a popular daytime talk show a few weeks ago.

The author of acclaimed fiction books, and a vegetarian, had decided to write about farming and food. In the process of the television interview, he made incredibly wild accusations such as how the H1N1 virus developed in hog confinements and how farming was to blame for every environmental problem, from water quality to air pollution. The scope of blame was wide, while his knowledge base and perspective seemed incredibly narrow.

When the host asked how he knew this and why the rest of us didn’t, he accused farmers of keeping their methods secret and how lucky it was that he had taken the time to do the research.

Well, I’m busting this myth and no television show is needed. The information is out there and it always has been. Why not ask the expert instead of the spin factory?

Farmers will tell you their stories. They will tell you how they raise those hogs, what they feed them, how they keep them healthy, where they are transported on the big trucks you see on the interstates, and more.

Farmers will tell you all about the dirty jobs they do to produce healthy food for us and they’ll tell you exactly how that holiday ham is made at the processor and you’ll find out that it’s no myth.

All it takes is your time and interest to learn the truth.

Then you can make up your mind about what to eat and feel confident with that decision. But don’t let other people make the myth for you. Tune in to reality.

Visit these sites to get the real facts about food production:

www.bestfoodfacts.org
www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=yourag.home

Written by Heather Lilienthal
Heather is an Ag Commodities Writer for the Iowa Farm Bureau.

Remembering Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday. Through no fault of its own, the day devoted to taking inventory of our countless blessings remains forever sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, the nation’s most popular retail extravaganzas. Thanksgiving doesn’t feature costumed children trading jokes for candy. The day has just one parade and no decorated trees, hidden eggs or bowl games. And have you ever heard someone sing a Thanksgiving carol?

Like it or not, we don’t spend a lot of time being appreciative. Instead, we desire what we think we deserve, grouse about the things we have that could be better and worry about situations that, quite often, never materialize. We quibble about trivial matters, like what football teams will play in Pasadena and who created the Internet, and minimize the truly significant things in life… including life itself.

E.P. Powell, author and professor, once said, “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men. But be careful that you do not take the day and leave out the gratitude.”

Indeed, we have so much for which to be grateful.

This Thanksgiving, let’s pause and remember the nearly 2.4 million men and women who are serving our country on active duty and in the reserves. This includes nearly 120,000 troops currently stationed in Iraq and more than 60,000 in Afghanistan. Let’s praise them for their selfless sacrifice, pray for their safety and families and salute them for their noble service and dedication. (To send your note of gratitude to our service men and women, log on to www.amillionthanks.com or www.letssaythanks.com).

This Thanksgiving, we pause and reflect on the blessing of family. “The only rock I know that stays steady,” says American businessman Lee Iacocca, “the only institution I know that works is the family.” Sure, few are perfect and too often we take family for granted. Yet as friends come and go, family remains constant. That’s a good thing especially in a world where many relationships are fleeting and change is constant and unrelenting.

Finally, this Thanksgiving, we pause and give thanks for the availability of wholesome food. As we prepare to gather around the dinner table this holiday, more than 1 billion people worldwide are undernourished due to a combination of severe food shortages and the global financial crisis. In addition, the plentiful food we’re blessed to enjoy is very affordable thanks to the dedication of farm families who live and work in Iowa and throughout the country. This year, U.S. families will pay 4 percent less for Thanksgiving dinner. A nationwide survey conducted by shoppers on behalf of the American Farm Bureau finds that a hearty meal for 10 including turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings will cost an average of $42.91 compared to $44.61 last year. That’s less than $4.30 per person, or about half the price of a movie ticket.

Remembering Thanksgiving isn’t easy these days. The pace of life is exceedingly quick and there are many things vying for our attention (including those can’t-miss pre-Christmas sales starting at 4 a.m. Friday, Nov. 27). Yet it’s worth our time to pause and reflect on our many blessings, not the least of which are freedom, family and abundant and affordable food. May we never take them for granted.

Written by Aaron Putze
Aaron is the Executive Director-Public Relations Officer for the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers.