“Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life.” Definition taken from Wikipedia - the Free Encyclopedia - online.
(In other words, farming)
When you are asked what you want to be when you grow up, farmer is usually one of the last things you expect to hear from a child. When a kid does say farmer, they get discouraged and are asked, “but what do you want to do for work?” The disconnect between people and their food continues to grow and the next generation gets told that being a farmer is not a career option.
I know kids that have gotten in trouble for talking about where there food comes from while at school. I couldn’t believe that someone could get in trouble for knowing where their food came from, but since then I have heard similar stories from other parents. Kids should know where their food comes from and so should their parents for that matter.
If people knew where their food came from, maybe they would have more respect for what is on their plate. Maybe when a child says they want to be a farmer when they grow up, it might be taken as a real career path and why shouldn’t it be considered as a real career? Do we not all need to eat? We all use dairy products, eggs and cooking oil. We use wool and cotton - the list goes on and on. Our society depends on agriculture for its survival, yet many in our society do not see the people who work in agriculture as equals. From the dairy farmer to the fruit picker, the sheep shearer to the ranch hand, these people are the ones who keep food on your table and clothes on your back.
It’s funny in a way that farming is not seen as a real career and seen as something you do when you can’t do anything else. The farmers and ranchers I know are innovative, problem solvers and inventors. They need to know how to mechanic, weld, and build.
Agriculture is important and the fact that society does not see it as important scares me. We are still seeing the younger generations flee from the family farm as fast as they ever have and new farmers are not stepping up to fill in the gaps. If the trend continues, we will be left importing all of our food stuffs. If this happens, all it takes is a transportation glitch, natural disaster, war or some other disruption to service and we are without. You cannot live without food. It sounds like I am being over dramatic I am sure, but have you been watching the news and seeing famine and food shortages around the world? This could be North America if we turn our backs on agriculture. It would not take much and food would not show up at the local grocery store, but if we encourage our youth to become involved in agriculture we might have a fighting chance to save our food system. Stand up for agriculture. Don’t discourage people from knowing where food comes from. They are our future.