Katelyn Thomas English 1103 Doctor Griffin Final Draft 12 November 2013

In a speech from 1978 Paul Harvey said, And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

In past times children were brought up knowing that agriculture is way of life, however this is not necessarily the case any longer. For many families agriculture used to be very important and it was a given that their children were going to be involved in it as well. In todays time the majority of the American population does not value the agricultural processes. This is very concerning because this is where our food and many other products come from. The population does not understand all of the hard work that goes into a field of grain, corn, or cotton. What the population does understand is they want their fresh fruit, clothes, and other products as soon as they can get them and as cheap as they can get them. This is where my problem comes into play. I think that the decline of agricultural awareness is a growing problem, and it is something that I would like to change.

In many parts of the country there are groups of local farmers that gather to discuss the ever-changing world of agriculture (mine happens to be the Lee County Area Famers). This community, much like any of the other groups of famers in the country) is a group of local farmers from the surrounding areas. In their meetings they discuss farm safety, new technology, and the ever-changing rules and laws in agriculture. The members of this community know each other, and have the same feelings towards agriculture. I have found that not all of these groups have something in common; they are worried about the decline of the importance of agriculture. Agricultural awareness is a concern in many states across the US. There are many other communities working to come up with ways to spread agricultural awareness. All of the groups have one main focus, and that is helping the family farm survive. These people have grown up with agriculture. It is the only thing they know. They were raised learning the dos and donts of a farm life. For the older generations they have always farmed, schooling was not seen as something important. The next generation was brought up to understand that schooling was important, but the farm was going to be there when they finished and one day it would be their job to take it over. Then todays generation is raised to believe that school and studies come first. Many parents want to take care of everything they can so their children can focus on school, and make something out of themselves. The majority of parents just want their children to have more opportunities than they did and to live a better life. Why is it that this has changed so much? At one point agriculture was a way of life, and now it is like all everyone wants to do is get away from it. People have

these stereotypes for farmers and people working in the agricultural fields. They do not see the jobs comparing to a doctor or lawyer. Terms affiliated with farmers maybe rednecks or hicks people from the backwoods that do not value education. This however is not correct. There are discoveries in biotechnology that go towards agriculture all the time. An example is the production of seeds that resist weeds or do not have to have much water to survive. There are plants grown to have the largest possible yield without having the plant break in half. Agriculture is important and more people need to understand that. To have an appreciation for agriculture, education about agriculture needs to begin at an early age. During the 1800s and into the 1900s agriculture and family farmers were how people made their living. During these times children were not encouraged to believe they could be whatever they wanted to be. During this time they were taught the value of hard work. The children of todays generation are encouraged to be involved in multiple activities, and be a well-rounded person. They play on t-ball teams, take gymnastics, and have play dates with friends. It has been instilled in these childrens mind that if they just try their hardest that is all they can do and everyone is a winner. This is why todays generation is known as the Trophy Age. While it is important to be flexible and well-rounded, how are these children going to be grounded? They have grown up getting basically whatever they want and not having to do the hard work to get it. This is much the opposite for the children of the 1800s-1900s. These children were basically brought into the word to serve as farm hands. With so much work to be done, and not enough money to pay for workers this was the solution. The children of this time were not found on

baseball fields or winning trophies. These children could be found in fields topping tobacco, collecting eggs from chickens, or gathering manure from the cow barns. They were not exactly encouraged to gain an education, because as far as their family was concerned they had everything set up and the children just needed to learn how to take over. The education of agriculture in school has changed over the years as well. In the 1800s-1900s math and history were not seen as essential, and therefore if there was work to be done on the farm that is where children would be found. Today school attendance is extremely important and something that is focused on. Back then if a child was able to go to school they were probably sent to learn more about new agricultural methods that could be brought back home to use to benefit their family. In todays time children are learning math equations, conducting science experiments, and speaking different languages. It is no longer essential for a child to learn how to take after parents, but that they need attend school so that they can be better off than their parents (Ruggles). All of these changes do make since. As time has progressed certain things such as agricultural have been strayed away from, and things like technology have become essential. Small farms and family farms are nearly becoming extinct. There are so many larger commercialized farms that the smaller ones cannot compete. One of the articles that I found discusses the problem of small farms not having a fighting chance. This article talks about the smaller farms not being able to keep up with all the demands of the ever-changing agricultural field. There are so many rules and regulations that go along with running a farm and trying to sell a product. There are

certain chemicals and techniques that can and cannot be used. If a farmer is lucky enough to get on board, in other words get a contract, with one of the larger companies they should be in good shape. With a contract there is stability because there is certainty that once a product is produced there is going to be someone to buy it. On the opposite side of that if a farmer does not produce what is stated in their contract they are going to be hurting. There is a fine line that must be walked. For the farmers who decide to go the contract route they are probably going to be covered if something does go wrong, but along with this the farmer has to do whatever the contract holder stipulates. If the farmer chooses not to go down that route they are basically assuming all responsibility for whatever happens. This is where being a larger farm versus being a smaller farm makes a difference. As a larger farm if everything does not go just the way as planned one year there is going to be a little something to cushion the fall. If it is a small farm it is very likely that they hold all financial responsibility. This can mean one of two things If it is a good year the farmer will have a profit and will be able to pay off his debts, but if one year the weather is bad and his crops just fail to produce he are going to be out of all the money and time he has invested because there is no product to sell (Carter). This article talks about a solution to this problem. The article discusses the government becoming involved so that if in fact one year everything does not go as planned there will be something there for the small farmer to fall back on. Now I said this is just something the article discusses because in actuality it says that it does not seem very likely that this will happen, it actually goes on to say that we are basically moving in the opposite direction of this. The government is becoming more involved

and supporting the larger commercial farm while the smaller family-owned operations are just falling through the cracks. If this continues there will no longer be the family farm and it will be safe to say that agricultural awareness will be completely forgotten about. It is not the huge commercial farms that care about children and the American population being educated on agricultural processes. The people that are concerned about this are the smaller farms; the farms that have been in the family for generations. These owners of these farms are the ones who know what it is to put in hard work and face rough times. These are the people who break their back just to break even. It is not fair for them to have to try to cater to a population who just wants to demand for what they want not caring what has be done for them to get it (Scott). This raised another question. Obviously people are not educated about agriculture right now, but do they even care to be? I have asked people a variety of questions including questions like do you know where your food comes from? Do you know what agriculture is, and if so what do you know about agriculture? Have you ever seen a farm? Are there farms around your home? Have you ever been to a farm? What I found amazed me. I had answers from all points of the spectrum. I had some people that said their food came from a grocery store, and while this is true obviously it was not grown and produced there. Some people said that there were farms and fields around their homes, but other than looking at them they did not know anything about agriculture. For the people who could name some of the crops that they have seen they did not understand that different crops are planted at different times during the year. People did not understand that a crop does not just

come from planting seeds and hoping for some rain. People were actually surprised to find that before a crop can be harvested the fields soil must be tested to make sure the nutrients are balanced, it must be sprayed to kill the weeds, it has to be disked before it can be planted, it may have to be sprayed again before it can be harvested, and then that not necessarily all of the plant is used when a crop is harvested. This does show some promise however. Even though the people did not understand these processes before I explained them they were amazed and curious once I did. Maybe it is not that people do not care about agriculture, but maybe that they just do now have the means to learn more about it (Block). After this I began researching ways to make people informed, and some of them proved to be very interesting. In North Carolina many county fairs are considered agricultural fairs, and at these fairs there are booths that display agricultural statistics. It may not seem that posters with statistics are very beneficial but it is amazing to see the number of people reading these posters while they are waiting in line or passing by. One of the most impressive booths is at the North Carolina State Fair. At the North Carolina State Fair there are entire tents dedicated to agriculture. In these tents there are multiple hands-on activities and informational set-ups to learn North Carolina and general agricultural facts. There are all types of people looking at these displays. There are people of all colors, professions, interests, and ages. These ways of educating people would be beneficial if there are a large number of people attending the fair, and the set-up grabs peoples attention. If not, all of the work to set up the booths and tents is a waste because no one is getting anything out of it.

One of my ideas went along these lines. As I was working on my project I thought that the Lee County Area Famers could set a date for the community to come out to a day of fun-filled activities. This may not be very successful at first or it may not even be successful at all. The point of these family fun days would be to get other people from the community out and learning about agriculture. If people in the community see it advertised as an agricultural event they may turned away because they do not feel that they fit in with this community. I would want for everyone to feel welcome, like they could come out and enjoy themselves without being judged by anyone else. One other option I found is very interesting and literally creates a win-winwin situation. In this situation a small family farm has a contract with a school to be able to sell their food to them, and in turn having the farmer come in and teach the children about agriculture. This ties together multiple aspects. For the small farm there is a sense of security because they have someone that will be purchasing their crops. The is great for the school because not only will they have fresh food, but it is locally grown. This food comes from their community not a large commercial farm. By doing this they are benefitting people in their community and supporting local agriculture. This can be linked to a large movement in North Carolina and this movement is known as Got to be NC and it is referring to North Carolina agricultural products. It does not stop there though, once the contract is made, a local farmer is benefiting, and a school has fresh local food products to serve to the students the farmer comes in to teach the children about the process. This would be more likely to stick in the childrens minds because not only are they learning about

something other than reading, math, or science, but also they are seeing the actual product. The children are learning about the process and importance of agriculture, and they are getting to enjoy the product. This is very interesting to start this process in elementary school, because as a child gets older there are agriculture classes to choose from in middle and high school. Many students do not choose to take these classes because they have no connection to them and think that they are useless. By starting agricultural education at a young age the child begins their schooling with learning about agriculture, and if it is something they are accustomed to it is more likely to be something they will decide to study later because they have some background information and are not walking into the subject blindly. Participation in the events may not trigger someone to drop everything they are doing and want to go into an agricultural field. This is the beauty of agriculture, not everyone has to be a farmer. There are so many jobs in the agricultural field. There are concentrations for animals, plants, seeds, business, production, consumption, marketing, and the list goes on. Even then if none of these concentrations interest someone there are other means to support local agriculture. Something simple and not requiring actual commitment or involvement in agriculture would simply be buying seasonal fruits and vegetables from a local produce set-up. This gives the farmer someone to sell their products to when they cannot afford to compete with another commercial sized farm. Not everyone is cut out to be a farmer, and the point of my project was not to find more people to become farmers. If there is one thing I wanted to accomplish with this project it is to make more people informed about some aspect of

agriculture. It may only be one person that got one fact from everything I talked about, but if that one person would tell someone else and on and on it would be incredible. If this were to happen there would be a change. Even if people decided not to take some type of action they would know about agricultural and if that happened maybe they would appreciate the hard work that my family, friends, and so many others have for others for such a long time. The rest of Paul Harveys speech goes as follows, "I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.

"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.

Works Cited
Block, Daniel, and E. Melanie Dupuis. "Making The Country Work For The City: Von Thunen's Ideas In Geography, Agricultural Economics And The Sociology Of Agriculture." American Journal Of Economics & Sociology 60.1 (2001): 79. America: History & Life. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Carter, Nicole. Agriculture, communities and rural environmental initiative: can small family farms and large agribusiness live peacefully in Pennsylvania?, 2007. Online. Ruggles, Steven. "Multigenerational Families In Nineteenth-Century America." Continuity & Change 18.1 (2003): 139. America: History & Life. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Scott, Roy V. "The Rise Of The Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association In Illinois, 18831891." Agricultural History 32.1 (1958): 44-55. America: History & Life. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.