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Friday, December 31, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Jefferson Journal: NCBA 'disappointed' over food safety bill
Jefferson Journal: NCBA 'disappointed' over food safety bill: "From the National Cattlemen's Beef Association: WASHINGTON (Dec. 22, 2010) – The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Executive Dir..."
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Saving Baby Norman
Well yesterday started out as a Tuesday does for me in ky small town medical practice. See, with the three kids I take Tuesdays off now. So, my kids and I had planned to do their Christmas shopping yesterday. Their Daddy took the morning off from the farm and decided to go with us. So, as a farmers luck would have it we had three cows in standing heat that needed artificial breeding. Well, my kids made their list, and stuck to their budget getting presents for 15 family members.
After we were done, we went to the farm to take care of the cows. Once we got there, the kids practiced with the pony to the cart. And Brian and I had to go back to the barn and work with a calf I had noticed that was down. My father-in-law noticed the little fellow not acting right earlier that day and brought him into the barn, but by nightfall it was obvious he was in trouble. Now, please make sure you have the complete picture, I had dressed for a day Christmas shopping with the kids in dress blue jeans and a snow man sweater complete with Eisenberg pin, and here I am in borrowed bibbers and a borrowed Carhart coat packing a 35-45# calf out of the hay into the barn while Brian and my Father-in-law caught the cow in a squeeze shoot so we could milk her and get some nutritious milk into the calf. We ended up getting him to nurse and take a little bottle too. But it was not how I would have planned to spend an evening with our cows,but emergencies happen. I just need to figure out how to put a NG down a calf. See, cows seem to have different anatomy then people.
I'm the middle of all this, I started talking to the little calf, calling him Norman. For those of you that have seen City Slickers with Billy Crystal you will understand, and believe me even thought I grew up a vets kid in rural Tennessee there are days like last night that I wonder exactly how did I end up on my knees in cow s#@$ trying to save a cow named Norman,.when I would normally be home wrapping Christmas.
Being a farmers wife is great, you just need to remember to always pack your muck boots and warm clothes, you never know what you will end up doing.
Norman was better today. Able to nurse on his own, maybe he will make it. For now he is warm and safe in our barn with his Momma.
After we were done, we went to the farm to take care of the cows. Once we got there, the kids practiced with the pony to the cart. And Brian and I had to go back to the barn and work with a calf I had noticed that was down. My father-in-law noticed the little fellow not acting right earlier that day and brought him into the barn, but by nightfall it was obvious he was in trouble. Now, please make sure you have the complete picture, I had dressed for a day Christmas shopping with the kids in dress blue jeans and a snow man sweater complete with Eisenberg pin, and here I am in borrowed bibbers and a borrowed Carhart coat packing a 35-45# calf out of the hay into the barn while Brian and my Father-in-law caught the cow in a squeeze shoot so we could milk her and get some nutritious milk into the calf. We ended up getting him to nurse and take a little bottle too. But it was not how I would have planned to spend an evening with our cows,but emergencies happen. I just need to figure out how to put a NG down a calf. See, cows seem to have different anatomy then people.
I'm the middle of all this, I started talking to the little calf, calling him Norman. For those of you that have seen City Slickers with Billy Crystal you will understand, and believe me even thought I grew up a vets kid in rural Tennessee there are days like last night that I wonder exactly how did I end up on my knees in cow s#@$ trying to save a cow named Norman,.when I would normally be home wrapping Christmas.
Being a farmers wife is great, you just need to remember to always pack your muck boots and warm clothes, you never know what you will end up doing.
Norman was better today. Able to nurse on his own, maybe he will make it. For now he is warm and safe in our barn with his Momma.
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New Looks
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Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Better than I was and More than I am...
I have had a few days to think about what I wanted to write in this blog next, but I was listening to a Tim Mcgraw song that played at my wedding and I just knew what I had to write about. See, I am more than I was before I met Brian and I want to try to explain that.
I was blessed to be able to represent my county at this years Young Farmers and Ranchers State Convention in Franklin, TN, at the Outstanding Young Women's Competition. And I was even more blessed to do pretty well. I won for District 4 in our state and was up against some really outstanding awesome young women, but I would have never been there if not for my husband. The ladies that interviewed me really got me thinking about writing this on my blog too... it was on of my questions - what do I think that I have gotten the most out of YF&R? (or something close to that - I was a little nervous...) My answer is easy - my relationships with the great people that I have met and my love of all forms of American Agriculture.
When I met Brian, I was a senior in college bound for medical school. Yes, I had grown up on a farm and a daughter and granddaughter of vets, but agriculture never got a passing though in my head. And even worse, I tended to be a "organic food snob". Then came Physics class and a tall drink of water that was nicknamed "Fred" and I just knew I could not date a Fred but I found out from the professor that his name was Brian and I could date a Brian. Time passes, and we dated. He suffered through speeches about how I did not need a man, about how I was to be independent, and other such dribble drabble... And still he kept hanging on. One year and three months latter, we got married. And have been married going on 14 years and three kids worth.
But getting back to why I am passionate about agriculture and why I feel it is a blessing in my life... We had made it through medical school, with Brian working a full time job, and often driving home 2 hrs to bale hay or work cattle. Then through 3 years of residency, Brian still with a full time job and still with managing the farm - I did at least have the common decency to pick a medical school and residency close to the family farm, and then we moved home. Finally after much prodding, I went with Brian to a Young Farmers and Ranchers Fall Tour here in TN. It was the best decision that I have ever made about a trip. I met the nicest people, and made friends and even got elected to the state committee. Brian and I became active at the county, district and state level in farm bureau and YF&R. The more that I have learned about agriculture the more I have learned that this is a group of people and a cause and a way of life that I want to help fight to preserve. These people care not only about our farms, but our land, and our food.
I know it sounds trite but if you eat thank a farmer and I thank God every night that he gave me mine. Because without Brian I would never have become the person that I am. I have been blessed to be better than I was and more than I am every day that I get to spend in his world. And it is a nice break from mine. Don't get me wrong - I love medicine - always have and always will... but there is a certain grace and beauty in the American Farmer's Love of his land and his animals.
I was blessed to be able to represent my county at this years Young Farmers and Ranchers State Convention in Franklin, TN, at the Outstanding Young Women's Competition. And I was even more blessed to do pretty well. I won for District 4 in our state and was up against some really outstanding awesome young women, but I would have never been there if not for my husband. The ladies that interviewed me really got me thinking about writing this on my blog too... it was on of my questions - what do I think that I have gotten the most out of YF&R? (or something close to that - I was a little nervous...) My answer is easy - my relationships with the great people that I have met and my love of all forms of American Agriculture.
When I met Brian, I was a senior in college bound for medical school. Yes, I had grown up on a farm and a daughter and granddaughter of vets, but agriculture never got a passing though in my head. And even worse, I tended to be a "organic food snob". Then came Physics class and a tall drink of water that was nicknamed "Fred" and I just knew I could not date a Fred but I found out from the professor that his name was Brian and I could date a Brian. Time passes, and we dated. He suffered through speeches about how I did not need a man, about how I was to be independent, and other such dribble drabble... And still he kept hanging on. One year and three months latter, we got married. And have been married going on 14 years and three kids worth.
But getting back to why I am passionate about agriculture and why I feel it is a blessing in my life... We had made it through medical school, with Brian working a full time job, and often driving home 2 hrs to bale hay or work cattle. Then through 3 years of residency, Brian still with a full time job and still with managing the farm - I did at least have the common decency to pick a medical school and residency close to the family farm, and then we moved home. Finally after much prodding, I went with Brian to a Young Farmers and Ranchers Fall Tour here in TN. It was the best decision that I have ever made about a trip. I met the nicest people, and made friends and even got elected to the state committee. Brian and I became active at the county, district and state level in farm bureau and YF&R. The more that I have learned about agriculture the more I have learned that this is a group of people and a cause and a way of life that I want to help fight to preserve. These people care not only about our farms, but our land, and our food.
I know it sounds trite but if you eat thank a farmer and I thank God every night that he gave me mine. Because without Brian I would never have become the person that I am. I have been blessed to be better than I was and more than I am every day that I get to spend in his world. And it is a nice break from mine. Don't get me wrong - I love medicine - always have and always will... but there is a certain grace and beauty in the American Farmer's Love of his land and his animals.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
One Hungry Planet
Been at Tennessee Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers meeting and found this information for all my nonfarmer friends about how important farming is to our Country. This quick video is full of facts about agriculture.
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Saturday, December 4, 2010
A long day
Well, its been a day. I am lying here watching Sherlock Holmes with Brian and am happy with the day. I made it into the top ten in our state for outstanding young women's competition and now I am just going to have fun with the discussion meet.
I got to talk to a great panel of three judges from Farm bureau about why I have so fallen in love with agriculture and the people involved in it. It was fun to explain how I ended up in this role of Agvocate and rural family doctor.
Then Brian took me to Carabas for diner - braised beef short ribs and a nice Shiraz from Argentina make me happy that there are farmers in this world.
Night Night...
I got to talk to a great panel of three judges from Farm bureau about why I have so fallen in love with agriculture and the people involved in it. It was fun to explain how I ended up in this role of Agvocate and rural family doctor.
Then Brian took me to Carabas for diner - braised beef short ribs and a nice Shiraz from Argentina make me happy that there are farmers in this world.
Night Night...
First sound bites from Congress Senate Ag Committee about 2012 Farm Bill
Farm Bill Statement from the Senate Agriculture Committee Chair
Opening Statement of the Honorable Blanche L. Lincoln, Chairman
Hearing on Expanding Our Food and Fiber Supply through
a Strong U.S. Farm Policy
June 30, 2010
"Good morning, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will now come to order.
"This is the first in a series of hearings to help this Committee prepare for the next farm bill. We will be taking an inventory of what we have and ensuring that it is working properly, but doing so with our eye on the future of farm policy.
"I want to thank my very good friend, Senator Chambliss, for helping me organize this hearing; for being a great partner on this Committee; and for being a steadfast advocate for our nation's farmers and ranchers. America's producers are blessed to have such a great friend in their corner.
"I also want to thank my other distinguished colleagues for their attendance today and for all the work that they do on behalf of rural America. This has always been a bipartisan Committee where we put problem-solving and people above partisan politics.
"We are privileged to have some excellent witnesses today. I very much appreciate Secretary Vilsack, Dow Brantley from my home State of Arkansas, and all of our witnesses for being here to offer their unique perspectives. I look forward to hearing from each of you.
"I am honored to be the first Arkansan to serve as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Agriculture provides a job for 1 out of every 4 Arkansans… and contributes more than $15 billion each year to my state's economy.
"I expect that each and every one of my colleagues around this table has a similar story to tell about the importance of agriculture to their State's economy and jobs, both on and off of the farm.
"Of course, the farm bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress considers on behalf of rural America and our nation's farmers and ranchers.
"In the 2008 Farm Bill, we made some significant new investments in nutrition, energy, conservation, rural development and other priorities while maintaining the integrity of the farm safety net.
"In the next Congress, we will be writing the 2012 farm bill. In this process, we will have the opportunity to build on the good things that we have accomplished.
"This first hearing will focus on how well the current safety net is working for our nation's farmers and ranchers. As we begin our discussion, I want to share five points that will guide me when deliberating the next Farm Bill.
"First, I am proud of our farmers and ranchers. They work hard. They put food on our table, clothes on our back, and fuel in our cars and trucks. But, today, our farmers and ranchers not only have to cope with unpredictable weather and unfair global markets, but they must also suffer from abuse on TV and in the newspapers from folks who really ought to know better than to bite the hand that feeds them. Our nation's farmers and ranchers need to know that they will never have to apologize to this Chairman or this Committee. We appreciate the work you do every day and we are on your side.
"Second, these Farm Bill deliberations should not be a Washington command-and-control, top-to-bottom approach to policy. President Reagan used to say that ordinary people see things that work in principle and wonder if they work in practice, but economists see things that work in practice and wonder if they work in principle. In the same way, we in Washington may know what policies work in principle. But, it is our farmers and ranchers who know what works on the ground. The good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth. So, it is important that we use them in that proportion. And, it is also vitally important that the safety net features of the 2012 Farm Bill come from the kitchen tables of places like Stuttgart, Arkansas and Cando, North Dakota rather than tables like this one.
"Third, we need to look before we leap. More than anything else, I think most American farm and ranch families simply want steady, predictable, supportive policies coming out of Washington… and for us to otherwise get out of their way. Huge policy fluctuations, mixed signals coming out of Washington, and the uncertainty that these things create make it very difficult for our producers to compete, invest, and plan for the future. So, rather than start from scratch or from some new fangled idea cooked up in Washington or in some college professor's office, we need to reassure our farmers and ranchers that we will start where we left off: the 2008 Farm Bill. If we can do better by our producers in 2012, great. But, if not, current law serves as the benchmark from which we will work.
"Fourth, we need to get more creative. The safety net provided under the 2008 Farm Bill is not perfect. It can and should be strengthened. But Congress does not even have to wait for 2012 for that to happen. In fact, Congress does not even have to act. For instance, back in 2000, Congress provided USDA with very broad authority to develop and approve new tools to help producers of all crops and from all regions better manage price, production, and revenue risks. We need to use this and other authorities to their absolute fullest. For example, if we could get every farmer in this country to 85% revenue insurance that is affordable, we would go a long way in filling the holes of the current safety net. I know my rice farmers are working toward this goal and I suspect farmers from other States are doing the same thing. Let's make it happen.
"Finally, I was reading an article the other day about the OECD and rethinking its objective to move away from promoting policies that discourage food and fiber production toward policies that help us meet the needs of a planet that will one day in the not too distant future host 9 billion people. I believe that this consideration needs to be our overarching objective as well. Too often, it takes a crisis to remind us of the essentials in life, basic as they may be. But I do not believe it is wise for us to wait for a crisis to value our domestic food and fiber production.
"Mike Rowe, the host of the popular TV program, "Dirty Jobs," had this to say about the importance of production agriculture: "All jobs rely on one of two industries—mining and agriculture. Every tangible thing our society needs is either pulled from the ground, or grown from the ground. Without these fundamental industries there would be no jobs of any kind. There would be no economy. Civilization begins with miners and farmers, and polite society is only possible when skilled workers transform those raw materials into something useful or edible."
"It is from this perspective that I will approach the 2012 farm bill.
"Again, I look forward to hearing from Secretary Vilsack and all of our distinguished witnesses, and I now yield to my good friend, Senator Chambliss, for any opening remarks he may have."
Opening Statement of the Honorable Blanche L. Lincoln, Chairman
Hearing on Expanding Our Food and Fiber Supply through
a Strong U.S. Farm Policy
June 30, 2010
"Good morning, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will now come to order.
"This is the first in a series of hearings to help this Committee prepare for the next farm bill. We will be taking an inventory of what we have and ensuring that it is working properly, but doing so with our eye on the future of farm policy.
"I want to thank my very good friend, Senator Chambliss, for helping me organize this hearing; for being a great partner on this Committee; and for being a steadfast advocate for our nation's farmers and ranchers. America's producers are blessed to have such a great friend in their corner.
"I also want to thank my other distinguished colleagues for their attendance today and for all the work that they do on behalf of rural America. This has always been a bipartisan Committee where we put problem-solving and people above partisan politics.
"We are privileged to have some excellent witnesses today. I very much appreciate Secretary Vilsack, Dow Brantley from my home State of Arkansas, and all of our witnesses for being here to offer their unique perspectives. I look forward to hearing from each of you.
"I am honored to be the first Arkansan to serve as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Agriculture provides a job for 1 out of every 4 Arkansans… and contributes more than $15 billion each year to my state's economy.
"I expect that each and every one of my colleagues around this table has a similar story to tell about the importance of agriculture to their State's economy and jobs, both on and off of the farm.
"Of course, the farm bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress considers on behalf of rural America and our nation's farmers and ranchers.
"In the 2008 Farm Bill, we made some significant new investments in nutrition, energy, conservation, rural development and other priorities while maintaining the integrity of the farm safety net.
"In the next Congress, we will be writing the 2012 farm bill. In this process, we will have the opportunity to build on the good things that we have accomplished.
"This first hearing will focus on how well the current safety net is working for our nation's farmers and ranchers. As we begin our discussion, I want to share five points that will guide me when deliberating the next Farm Bill.
"First, I am proud of our farmers and ranchers. They work hard. They put food on our table, clothes on our back, and fuel in our cars and trucks. But, today, our farmers and ranchers not only have to cope with unpredictable weather and unfair global markets, but they must also suffer from abuse on TV and in the newspapers from folks who really ought to know better than to bite the hand that feeds them. Our nation's farmers and ranchers need to know that they will never have to apologize to this Chairman or this Committee. We appreciate the work you do every day and we are on your side.
"Second, these Farm Bill deliberations should not be a Washington command-and-control, top-to-bottom approach to policy. President Reagan used to say that ordinary people see things that work in principle and wonder if they work in practice, but economists see things that work in practice and wonder if they work in principle. In the same way, we in Washington may know what policies work in principle. But, it is our farmers and ranchers who know what works on the ground. The good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth. So, it is important that we use them in that proportion. And, it is also vitally important that the safety net features of the 2012 Farm Bill come from the kitchen tables of places like Stuttgart, Arkansas and Cando, North Dakota rather than tables like this one.
"Third, we need to look before we leap. More than anything else, I think most American farm and ranch families simply want steady, predictable, supportive policies coming out of Washington… and for us to otherwise get out of their way. Huge policy fluctuations, mixed signals coming out of Washington, and the uncertainty that these things create make it very difficult for our producers to compete, invest, and plan for the future. So, rather than start from scratch or from some new fangled idea cooked up in Washington or in some college professor's office, we need to reassure our farmers and ranchers that we will start where we left off: the 2008 Farm Bill. If we can do better by our producers in 2012, great. But, if not, current law serves as the benchmark from which we will work.
"Fourth, we need to get more creative. The safety net provided under the 2008 Farm Bill is not perfect. It can and should be strengthened. But Congress does not even have to wait for 2012 for that to happen. In fact, Congress does not even have to act. For instance, back in 2000, Congress provided USDA with very broad authority to develop and approve new tools to help producers of all crops and from all regions better manage price, production, and revenue risks. We need to use this and other authorities to their absolute fullest. For example, if we could get every farmer in this country to 85% revenue insurance that is affordable, we would go a long way in filling the holes of the current safety net. I know my rice farmers are working toward this goal and I suspect farmers from other States are doing the same thing. Let's make it happen.
"Finally, I was reading an article the other day about the OECD and rethinking its objective to move away from promoting policies that discourage food and fiber production toward policies that help us meet the needs of a planet that will one day in the not too distant future host 9 billion people. I believe that this consideration needs to be our overarching objective as well. Too often, it takes a crisis to remind us of the essentials in life, basic as they may be. But I do not believe it is wise for us to wait for a crisis to value our domestic food and fiber production.
"Mike Rowe, the host of the popular TV program, "Dirty Jobs," had this to say about the importance of production agriculture: "All jobs rely on one of two industries—mining and agriculture. Every tangible thing our society needs is either pulled from the ground, or grown from the ground. Without these fundamental industries there would be no jobs of any kind. There would be no economy. Civilization begins with miners and farmers, and polite society is only possible when skilled workers transform those raw materials into something useful or edible."
"It is from this perspective that I will approach the 2012 farm bill.
"Again, I look forward to hearing from Secretary Vilsack and all of our distinguished witnesses, and I now yield to my good friend, Senator Chambliss, for any opening remarks he may have."
Rushing Rushing
Been a Crazing Morning at the McLerran house. Why is there always so much to do in December and so littl etime to get it all done?
This morning Hubby and I are off to the Tennessee Young Farmers and Ranchers Year End Convention and I am competing in the Outstanding Young Women Competetion and the Excellence In Ag - this year the Excellence will be just for fun with my friends cause I thought that someone else from our County was going to compete and alas they didn't so for county honor here goes nothing. Cause with my work load and deciding oh last week to enter, I have NOT preped enough for this...
And so we have to pack three little people to get them ready for various outings. The girls are off with My Mom at 2 to go to the Celina Christmas parade adn ride in the Girl Scout Troop 1035 Float - which I am missing... and Cord is off to my GrandPa's house to be spoiled by Pa Bob and Ma Linda and play with now 18 week old Bentley - their Maltese Puppy.
I am truely blessed to have such a GREAT supportative family.
Well, Here goes nothing...
This morning Hubby and I are off to the Tennessee Young Farmers and Ranchers Year End Convention and I am competing in the Outstanding Young Women Competetion and the Excellence In Ag - this year the Excellence will be just for fun with my friends cause I thought that someone else from our County was going to compete and alas they didn't so for county honor here goes nothing. Cause with my work load and deciding oh last week to enter, I have NOT preped enough for this...
And so we have to pack three little people to get them ready for various outings. The girls are off with My Mom at 2 to go to the Celina Christmas parade adn ride in the Girl Scout Troop 1035 Float - which I am missing... and Cord is off to my GrandPa's house to be spoiled by Pa Bob and Ma Linda and play with now 18 week old Bentley - their Maltese Puppy.
I am truely blessed to have such a GREAT supportative family.
Well, Here goes nothing...
Friday, December 3, 2010
Washington Examiner expose on HSUS... a must read
The Humane Society of the United States is not what you think | Washington Examiner
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Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Learning a bit for YF&R Discussion meet
That's right, as if I don't have enough to do this week. In between getting two girl scouts ready for a Christmas parade, one with a fever no less. Potty training a stubborn two and a half year old, delivering the fruit that the Kindergartner sold for a school project, the 7 am Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee meeting today along with rounds before work and the 7 AM Medical Executive Board Meeting on Friday... I thought It would be fun to fit in a little friendly competition in the Outstanding young women's and the discussion meet.
I admit I love the discussion meet. It was what drew me into my husband's world of agriculture and may me become so passionate about the issues that face the American Farmer. Before my first competition, I honestly thought that "organic" was the only way to eat - never thinking about the environmental impact of that type of farming for large scale production. I never thought about government food regulations, or water regulations. I never realized that most Americans are 4-5 generations removed from a family farm.
I found a great website tonight about maintaining your and my food choices in this country. I have Followed them on Twitter and Liked them on Facebook and hope you will do the same. We as Americans may not like or understand each others food choices - I still don't get veggie burgers - but the great abiding joy of being an America is that I don't have to get it... We have the choice to eat what we like how we like... so Choose2Choose America...
I admit I love the discussion meet. It was what drew me into my husband's world of agriculture and may me become so passionate about the issues that face the American Farmer. Before my first competition, I honestly thought that "organic" was the only way to eat - never thinking about the environmental impact of that type of farming for large scale production. I never thought about government food regulations, or water regulations. I never realized that most Americans are 4-5 generations removed from a family farm.
I found a great website tonight about maintaining your and my food choices in this country. I have Followed them on Twitter and Liked them on Facebook and hope you will do the same. We as Americans may not like or understand each others food choices - I still don't get veggie burgers - but the great abiding joy of being an America is that I don't have to get it... We have the choice to eat what we like how we like... so Choose2Choose America...
social media info for fellow agriculturist
Ag & Social Media - Cause Matters
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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
lost our first tooth
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A Good Rainy Day
Am sitting in music class with my seven year old thinking that life is really good. I have been able to make nursing home rounds this morning. I love my little older patients. And then got the grey in my hair covered up with lovely caramel highlights. Got the oil changed. Checked in on congress and found that they delayed the SGR cuts I have been dreading. Made homemade beef stroganoff from my own homegrown beef and have it in the crock pot. And now I am enjoying music class with Ella. Life is grand. The only draw back to today is that I did not get to help Brian on he farm but it is raining cats and dogs outside.
Last two Tuesdays I have helped tag calves, helped AI cows, and all sorts of fun stuff on the farm. I even got to drive the tractor. I love helping on our farm. We are getting baby calves ever day now.
I also just got an email from Cup of Joe from soldiers serving in our armed forces all over the world. It's a great program. For a small price you can provide some American coffee to US service men and women. I think its a great idea.
Congress lame duck session is driving me nuts. Tax cuts, estate taxes, food safety bills, and the ever popular SGR fixes. God help our country cause the political people aren't.
Last two Tuesdays I have helped tag calves, helped AI cows, and all sorts of fun stuff on the farm. I even got to drive the tractor. I love helping on our farm. We are getting baby calves ever day now.
I also just got an email from Cup of Joe from soldiers serving in our armed forces all over the world. It's a great program. For a small price you can provide some American coffee to US service men and women. I think its a great idea.
Congress lame duck session is driving me nuts. Tax cuts, estate taxes, food safety bills, and the ever popular SGR fixes. God help our country cause the political people aren't.
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Can now blog from phone... yeah
Hey there world. It's been too long. Life has been hectic here in upper middle Tennessee for the McLerran's. So far this year I have had three major surgeries, had two girls sign up for girl scouts, have little man get his tonsils out, and a few other things. Our farm is good. Brian got a grant to use spring water.for the automatic waters on the farm. It's better and cheaper than city water. Ella has made strait a's all year and will soon resume basketball. Brie refuses to play.
We are still dealing Qiu major issues in healthcare. And I for one remain hopeful that congress will keep he current tax cuts, amend or change the God Awful healthcare bill they passed, and fix the SGR. The potential Medicare cuts are already affecting seniors in our area with Doctors refusing to treat Medicare patients. God help us all if they cut Medicare payments by 24%.
Will talk more later now that this is fixed. TTFN... Tata for now...
We are still dealing Qiu major issues in healthcare. And I for one remain hopeful that congress will keep he current tax cuts, amend or change the God Awful healthcare bill they passed, and fix the SGR. The potential Medicare cuts are already affecting seniors in our area with Doctors refusing to treat Medicare patients. God help us all if they cut Medicare payments by 24%.
Will talk more later now that this is fixed. TTFN... Tata for now...
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010
A good day
Even with all the days I have been out for surgeries this year, Brian and I decided that maybe I should try the Mommy thing once a week. So I am and its great. I still have to fit in appointments but it has been a blast today to eat luch and work cows with Brian.(yes I still think he is cute in coveralls after fourteen years, too.) And now I am off to music class with the oldest.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Needing to find my motivation...
Been a while again - this has been a rough year for me and my crew... I have had two surgeries this spring, then Ella had her tonsils removed, then my partner was hurt in a motorcycle accident and the other partner had to go to China to adopt his daughter ( who is too cute ) but that left me and one other doc to fill in for two, and then once all is returning to normal my 2 year old Cord had to have his tonsils out - I raise cute kids with major ENT issues and we are currently putting our ENTs kids through school - Ha ha!!! But somewhere in all that I forgot to sit down and take the time to write out my feelings...
It is good to be taking some time for me again.
As I sit here listening to "I love rock and roll" I am realizing that I should be doing something else much more productive like working out or sleeping but this is more fun.
I am not much happier with health care reform than I was and even less happy with the Presidents "economic Recovery Plan" that is not recovering anything in the part of the Country. People in Washington DC are SO disconnected from the rest of this country. And seem to be only worried with getting reelected. Why can't they all have term limits - you may have heard that POWER CORRUPTS - I am wondering if they have...
I am also still concerned with the fate of animal agriculture and agriculture in general in these modern times when most people are 5 generations removed from a farm. I find it terrifying that people are being mislead with buzzwords like Locovore and sustainable production and that people really and truly feel free range eggs make so much difference to chicken but these same people want the farmer to provide said eggs at the same cost with a markedly increased production cost. People just don't understand that the American Farmer buys all their supplies at retail cost then sells our products at wholesale - not the best business model.
I also spend my days wondering now how much good it does to call politicians - I wore the phones out this spring and summer when I was faced with a 24% pay cut from Medicare (they are already paying me at 1994-1996 rates and they wanted to cut that) and when the wonderful stupid health care bill was being railroaded through the house and senate. And no one seemed to care or to listen to the American People - I thought that they were elected to serve "We the People..."
And now on top of everything else I am juggling - Mom, MD, Physician Leadership student, Farmers Wife, my girls came home tonight with my Mom from a Girl Scout meeting and now they want me to be a girl scout Daisy troop leader - I need a CLONE.
Oh well, I guess I am Standing in deep water and bailing myself out with a straw - yup for you musical folk my droid has now moved on to Jewel....
Night from middle TN. Sweet Dreams...
It is good to be taking some time for me again.
As I sit here listening to "I love rock and roll" I am realizing that I should be doing something else much more productive like working out or sleeping but this is more fun.
I am not much happier with health care reform than I was and even less happy with the Presidents "economic Recovery Plan" that is not recovering anything in the part of the Country. People in Washington DC are SO disconnected from the rest of this country. And seem to be only worried with getting reelected. Why can't they all have term limits - you may have heard that POWER CORRUPTS - I am wondering if they have...
I am also still concerned with the fate of animal agriculture and agriculture in general in these modern times when most people are 5 generations removed from a farm. I find it terrifying that people are being mislead with buzzwords like Locovore and sustainable production and that people really and truly feel free range eggs make so much difference to chicken but these same people want the farmer to provide said eggs at the same cost with a markedly increased production cost. People just don't understand that the American Farmer buys all their supplies at retail cost then sells our products at wholesale - not the best business model.
I also spend my days wondering now how much good it does to call politicians - I wore the phones out this spring and summer when I was faced with a 24% pay cut from Medicare (they are already paying me at 1994-1996 rates and they wanted to cut that) and when the wonderful stupid health care bill was being railroaded through the house and senate. And no one seemed to care or to listen to the American People - I thought that they were elected to serve "We the People..."
And now on top of everything else I am juggling - Mom, MD, Physician Leadership student, Farmers Wife, my girls came home tonight with my Mom from a Girl Scout meeting and now they want me to be a girl scout Daisy troop leader - I need a CLONE.
Oh well, I guess I am Standing in deep water and bailing myself out with a straw - yup for you musical folk my droid has now moved on to Jewel....
Night from middle TN. Sweet Dreams...
Friday, September 17, 2010
Another child thru surgery
Been a hard morning. The duties of my job yet competing with my duties as a Mom. My youngest child had to have his tonsils removed and you cannot explain surgery to a two year old. So now we are screaming and crying. Wish me luck.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Life from a Different Point of View
Hey there again -
I had a patient yesterday ask me if I had read a book - that in and of itself is not that unusual of an occurrence but I really felt an interest in this book. She was talking about Still Alice by Dr. Lisa Genova. Its a book about Alzheimer's Dementia from the point of view of the patient affected. This is a disease that I feel is often overlooked and then the patient themselves is often talked about as if they were not there. Its a hard place to be as a caregiver and a provider, you need to ask certain questions but its hard to talk about a person when they are sitting there.
Dr. Genova makes this a very really problem as you experience the disease from her point of view. In a little under two years, the patient went from being a Harvard professor to a totally dependant Dementia patient.
I have seen and help too many patients and families thru this and it was hard to read, especially as I lost my Grandmother to traumatic Dementia a few years ago. Even as a MD, I had never seen and faced the realities of this illness till I had to live it and as good as STILL ALICE is nothing compares till you have to live thru it.
If you are looking for a heart wrenching story that helps you realize how the disease works - I highly recommend this a book to read.
I had a patient yesterday ask me if I had read a book - that in and of itself is not that unusual of an occurrence but I really felt an interest in this book. She was talking about Still Alice by Dr. Lisa Genova. Its a book about Alzheimer's Dementia from the point of view of the patient affected. This is a disease that I feel is often overlooked and then the patient themselves is often talked about as if they were not there. Its a hard place to be as a caregiver and a provider, you need to ask certain questions but its hard to talk about a person when they are sitting there.
Dr. Genova makes this a very really problem as you experience the disease from her point of view. In a little under two years, the patient went from being a Harvard professor to a totally dependant Dementia patient.
I have seen and help too many patients and families thru this and it was hard to read, especially as I lost my Grandmother to traumatic Dementia a few years ago. Even as a MD, I had never seen and faced the realities of this illness till I had to live it and as good as STILL ALICE is nothing compares till you have to live thru it.
If you are looking for a heart wrenching story that helps you realize how the disease works - I highly recommend this a book to read.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Been a rough summer
Well, its been a while since I had time to sit and devote to talking to myself as Brian calls this Blog. I have had a hell of a summer. First, I had all my surgeries then Ella has had her tonsils out and then my partner at the office got hurt badly in a motorcycle wreck. I have found great depths of personal strength in stepping up to the plate at our offices time of need to help cover his patients while he was ill, because at the same time my other partner had to leave the country to adopt his daughter.
Like I said, been a heck of a summer.
Well, life is getting back to normal. I have been really pleased to survive and learn more about myself and my family in the process. Ella is in the second grade now and struggling a bit with attention. Brie has started kindergarten, and Cord is due to get his tonsils out in a few weeks.
We had our first fall calf on the farm the other day - a bull - and Cord has informed his Dad that that is his calf. He is turning into such a little farmer and cowboy. There is such a difference in a 2 year old and 3 year old.
Hope to be writing more and more often.
Like I said, been a heck of a summer.
Well, life is getting back to normal. I have been really pleased to survive and learn more about myself and my family in the process. Ella is in the second grade now and struggling a bit with attention. Brie has started kindergarten, and Cord is due to get his tonsils out in a few weeks.
We had our first fall calf on the farm the other day - a bull - and Cord has informed his Dad that that is his calf. He is turning into such a little farmer and cowboy. There is such a difference in a 2 year old and 3 year old.
Hope to be writing more and more often.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Had a Good Weekend
This was a good weekend for myself and my family. We got to spend time with friends from across our state that share our love and passion for agriculture and see some family too. This was the weekend of the TN Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Summer Conference. We had some learning time, some fun time with our Young Farmer Olympics, and some time to just visit. We also go to see some family that we don't normally get to see on Brian's Mom's side. All in all a good weekend. Now for me its back to work while Dr. Langenberg and Dr. Cox are out of the office.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Learning about farming
Just found out that our Twitter hash tag is #TNYF and am currently in the college discussion meet finals. These four guys have some great ideas. Happy to be among friends and will be posting some pictures later. Good be back blogging and on twittering. Been very busy at work due to a partners illness and another having to travel to adopt.But life is still good at home with kids and on the farm. Still have hay to make and cows to raise and Bulls to sell. Love being a farmers wife and an American agriculturist and my day job is not to bad either.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
A day at the farm
Been a good day. Having to work more than usual thus write less cause a friend at work has been hurt but today have been to church and fished in the farm with my kids and now am inspecting the cows with my Hubby
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Half Man- Half Boy, Thanks to Both
The average age of the military man is 19 years He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country. He never really cared much for work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's, but he has never collected unemployment either.
He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of sport activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left, or swears to be waiting when he returns from half a world away. He listens to rock and roll or hip-hop or rap or jazz or swing and a 155mm howitzer.
He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk. He has trouble spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him, but he can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less time in the dark. He can recite to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either one effectively if he must.
He digs foxholes and latrines and can apply first aid like a professional.
He can march until he is told to stop, or stop until he is told to march. He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity. He is self-sufficient.
He has two sets of fatigues: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry.
He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts.
If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food. He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of battle when you run low.
He has learned to use his hands like weapons and weapons like they were his hands.
He can save your life - or take it, because that is his job.
He will often do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay, and still find ironic humor in it all.
He has seen more suffering and death than he should have in his short lifetime.
He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and is unashamed.
He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while> at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away ' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. In an odd twist, day in and day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful just as did his Father, Grandfather, and Great-grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom. Beardless or not, he is not a boy. He is the American Fighting Man that has kept this country free for over 200 years.
He has asked nothing in return, except> our friendship and understanding.
Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.
And now we even have women over there in danger, doing their part in this tradition of going to War when our nation calls us to do so.
He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of sport activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left, or swears to be waiting when he returns from half a world away. He listens to rock and roll or hip-hop or rap or jazz or swing and a 155mm howitzer.
He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk. He has trouble spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him, but he can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less time in the dark. He can recite to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either one effectively if he must.
He digs foxholes and latrines and can apply first aid like a professional.
He can march until he is told to stop, or stop until he is told to march. He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity. He is self-sufficient.
He has two sets of fatigues: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry.
He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts.
If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food. He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of battle when you run low.
He has learned to use his hands like weapons and weapons like they were his hands.
He can save your life - or take it, because that is his job.
He will often do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay, and still find ironic humor in it all.
He has seen more suffering and death than he should have in his short lifetime.
He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and is unashamed.
He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while> at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away ' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. In an odd twist, day in and day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful just as did his Father, Grandfather, and Great-grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom. Beardless or not, he is not a boy. He is the American Fighting Man that has kept this country free for over 200 years.
He has asked nothing in return, except> our friendship and understanding.
Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.
And now we even have women over there in danger, doing their part in this tradition of going to War when our nation calls us to do so.
Reflections of the Past
Yesterday was a great day for me. It wasn't anything terribly special, but I made time to see some old friends and former teachers. I went to my Family Medicine's Programs Graduation for their 10th year of graduates last night and got to see some people that I have truly missed having in my life. These were the teachers of my hot headed youth who along with my husband have helped me to realize that taking time to "think before you act or speak" is a good thing, living up to your commitments is required (even when you don't feel like it), and that being a good doctor is worth everything that I gave up to get here.
In today's modern world, you here a lot about what is wrong with medicine, but last night, I spent it with people - young energetic people - who reminded me what is right with medicine.
Drs. Mody were there - they took the time to bring Ella into this world. Even though I was a practicing resident at the time - she listened to my concerns and alleviated my fears through two miscarriages and finally through the birth of Ella and then was there through the terrible fears of Will (my Nephew's) birth. She showed me compassion and grace in all her actions.
Dr. Wright, Dr. Bale, and of course Dr. Clouse was there too. I have worked under their care and training and learned the why and how of modern medical practices from each, although I admit that if I never get up to round at three in the morning again it will be too soon. Dr. V. Reddy taught me about the human heart and how to be concerned about cardiological concerns. And all my teachers in Glasgow never tired of taking TIME to teach a sometimes hot headed young doctor about life, medicine, and patience.
The other best thing about my visit last night was to see the unsung teachers of my youth and to get to hug and thank them for their patience and friendship. The nurses and staff of the TJ Sampson Family Medicine Residency Program are the finest support staff that I have ever had the privilege to work with. Kim, Faye, Angela, Nancy, Beverly, Leigh Ann, and all the other girls that I had the honor to work with on a daily basis taught me so much about being a practing MD. The nurses taught me what to expect from a nurse and from myself. When to work and when to have fun. They expected the best from me and I tried to not disappoint them. In order to be a good doctor, in my opinion, you need to take the time and patience to learn from your nurses and front office staff. They will make you a better doctor.
The other thing I learned in Glasgow, I learned from John Asriel, MD, a teacher who was not there last night and whom I missed. I know that the program will go on, but I feel for the loss of the other residents to not have know him. I remember as I graduated he ask me what I was going to do to stay current in private practice in my hometown in TN... I would like to think that my work in implementing ICU protocols for our hospital, teaching continuing education for the nurses, being in the TMA Physician Leadership College, being a AAFP Key Contact to Congress, Chairing the Pharmacy/Therapeutics committee, and my working the Agricultural world would make him and my other teachers proud of the life that Brian and I made at home.
You are never who you want to be, you are only who you are... looking back I can see the mistakes that I made in Glasgow and in Medical School for that matter. Some were small and some weren't. I can say that I would not be the person that I am today without all of the support that I received in my residency program, so for those people in medical school who think they would like Family Medicine - GO FOR IT... its a great life. I am still proud of my Residency memories and keep my wooden memento box on my desk at work - I cannot keep up with my keys otherwise (a neat desk is a sign of an ill mind someone once told me - so trust me at least my mind is safe). I remember the joking award that I got for seeing the most patients out of my graduating class - I am still proud of that - cause that is what I do every day, see and care for patients.
The sad facts are less than 2% of the graduating classes from medical school choose family medicine and fewer of those choose rural family medicine. The hours are long, sometimes I have little privacy (i.e. getting ask to look at a boil in the grocery store or calling in a prescription right after church), and my financial burden is high with low compensation when compared to medical specialist. Then to hear even friends say - "Oh, so your not a specialist..." Yes I am!!! And proud of it, I am specialist in knowing my patients and knowing many diseases and when and to whom to reffer my patients, I care about prevention and families, and I care about my community. Some of these cares were born in me growing up in a small rural town in Tennessee with little access to health care and wanting to make it a better place and became a resolve when as I went through my medical training each specialty group tried to break my resolve to be "just a family doctor in a small town".
I want you read my blog and live my life and see my world and still say that I am nothing but a Family Doctor. I advocate for medicine and for agriculture, I am a full time working Mom, and I care about my patients and my community.
Think about how proud I am to thank these people that have shaped who I am and think about what you want from your life. America is in a time of change and maybe agriculture and medicine aren't your cup of tea, but I encourage each of you to know who to be thankful too, to know what is worth fighting for, and to be proud about your beliefs...
In today's modern world, you here a lot about what is wrong with medicine, but last night, I spent it with people - young energetic people - who reminded me what is right with medicine.
Drs. Mody were there - they took the time to bring Ella into this world. Even though I was a practicing resident at the time - she listened to my concerns and alleviated my fears through two miscarriages and finally through the birth of Ella and then was there through the terrible fears of Will (my Nephew's) birth. She showed me compassion and grace in all her actions.
Dr. Wright, Dr. Bale, and of course Dr. Clouse was there too. I have worked under their care and training and learned the why and how of modern medical practices from each, although I admit that if I never get up to round at three in the morning again it will be too soon. Dr. V. Reddy taught me about the human heart and how to be concerned about cardiological concerns. And all my teachers in Glasgow never tired of taking TIME to teach a sometimes hot headed young doctor about life, medicine, and patience.
The other best thing about my visit last night was to see the unsung teachers of my youth and to get to hug and thank them for their patience and friendship. The nurses and staff of the TJ Sampson Family Medicine Residency Program are the finest support staff that I have ever had the privilege to work with. Kim, Faye, Angela, Nancy, Beverly, Leigh Ann, and all the other girls that I had the honor to work with on a daily basis taught me so much about being a practing MD. The nurses taught me what to expect from a nurse and from myself. When to work and when to have fun. They expected the best from me and I tried to not disappoint them. In order to be a good doctor, in my opinion, you need to take the time and patience to learn from your nurses and front office staff. They will make you a better doctor.
The other thing I learned in Glasgow, I learned from John Asriel, MD, a teacher who was not there last night and whom I missed. I know that the program will go on, but I feel for the loss of the other residents to not have know him. I remember as I graduated he ask me what I was going to do to stay current in private practice in my hometown in TN... I would like to think that my work in implementing ICU protocols for our hospital, teaching continuing education for the nurses, being in the TMA Physician Leadership College, being a AAFP Key Contact to Congress, Chairing the Pharmacy/Therapeutics committee, and my working the Agricultural world would make him and my other teachers proud of the life that Brian and I made at home.
You are never who you want to be, you are only who you are... looking back I can see the mistakes that I made in Glasgow and in Medical School for that matter. Some were small and some weren't. I can say that I would not be the person that I am today without all of the support that I received in my residency program, so for those people in medical school who think they would like Family Medicine - GO FOR IT... its a great life. I am still proud of my Residency memories and keep my wooden memento box on my desk at work - I cannot keep up with my keys otherwise (a neat desk is a sign of an ill mind someone once told me - so trust me at least my mind is safe). I remember the joking award that I got for seeing the most patients out of my graduating class - I am still proud of that - cause that is what I do every day, see and care for patients.
The sad facts are less than 2% of the graduating classes from medical school choose family medicine and fewer of those choose rural family medicine. The hours are long, sometimes I have little privacy (i.e. getting ask to look at a boil in the grocery store or calling in a prescription right after church), and my financial burden is high with low compensation when compared to medical specialist. Then to hear even friends say - "Oh, so your not a specialist..." Yes I am!!! And proud of it, I am specialist in knowing my patients and knowing many diseases and when and to whom to reffer my patients, I care about prevention and families, and I care about my community. Some of these cares were born in me growing up in a small rural town in Tennessee with little access to health care and wanting to make it a better place and became a resolve when as I went through my medical training each specialty group tried to break my resolve to be "just a family doctor in a small town".
I want you read my blog and live my life and see my world and still say that I am nothing but a Family Doctor. I advocate for medicine and for agriculture, I am a full time working Mom, and I care about my patients and my community.
Think about how proud I am to thank these people that have shaped who I am and think about what you want from your life. America is in a time of change and maybe agriculture and medicine aren't your cup of tea, but I encourage each of you to know who to be thankful too, to know what is worth fighting for, and to be proud about your beliefs...
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Getting tired of being jerked around...
Have you ever gone to work to be told that guess what we decided that your work is no longer that valuable anymore so we are cutting your pay by 21.3%? That is what has happened to physicians this year three times in the current administration and Congress. While they sit in their thousand dollar suits, I am scratching my head trying to figure out you to keep our clinic viable for the people of the upper Cumberland. The President spent a lot of time talking about health care but now when there is an issue that actually is affecting millions of seniors, disabled Americans, and military families, he is remaining too quiet. While Nancy Pelosi has actually mad comments like - it doesn't matter if Medicare patients can find access to care. Well, i hope she never ends up dependant on the system that she so loves and begging for a doctor to take her in.
Friday, June 11, 2010
History, no better make that Physics
Having been serious in most of these posts, I thought that once again I would share some of the funnier aspects of my life here in rural Tennessee. I love where I love and love the people that I share my life wife, but even here in the 2010 there is a big difference in the mind sets of people.
I grew up as a third generation college student and knew since I was three that I was going to be a Doctor cause as I told my Mom and her nursing friends the Doctors give the orders and you take them, but I married my college love a first generation college student right after graduation. My parents got divorced after we married and his are still together. My parents were not into going to church, his family never misses. When my grandfather died in 1986, he stayed at the funeral home. When my husband's grandmother died in 1986, the family stayed with her at the funeral home.
So given these background differences you might imagine that there can be some tension, but we balance each other very well. So, I'll tell you how he and I decided to date... there is a story here - I promise.
We were in Physics 121 at Tennessee Tech together in the Spring of 1996, he was very cute in Wranglers and a cowboy hat and I knew he would never notice me, but I kept hearing his friends call him Fred... and I just could not, would not date a Fred. So, time passed, he stared at me. I stared at him, but nothing much else happened. Then we had our first quiz and Glory be the professor was old fashioned and called out names to pick up the quiz, and the tall drink of water that looked so cute in those jeans was not "Fred" but "Brian" and believe me I could date a Brian. Now, how to get ask out... I heard the group of Ag guys talking about their grades and I had gone to high school with one, so I offered to help them by tutoring to get to know Brian better, and the first night I wen to help him - I lost my keys. (I really had them in my bag but it sounded like a great way to get him outside and away from his friends...) But wouldn't you know, he actually brought a mag light outside and helped me look for the D&%^ keys till I had to give up and "find" them or he was going to drive me home. We kept on talking as a quasi group, and then one of the other guys mentioned that dancing was prohibited in the Bible. Well, here I went. I got home that night, pulled out the good book and went to looking up dancing scripture references for him. (I did not know at the time that both this guy and Brian liked me and Brian was trying to let him see where he got with me first) The next day in a college physics class, I walk in with the Bible in tow, and a list of scriptures regarding dancing - the other guy decided he did not like me so much and Brian and I have been together almost ever day since.
We may fight - but he keeps me sane when I really don't feel that way for anyone else.
I grew up as a third generation college student and knew since I was three that I was going to be a Doctor cause as I told my Mom and her nursing friends the Doctors give the orders and you take them, but I married my college love a first generation college student right after graduation. My parents got divorced after we married and his are still together. My parents were not into going to church, his family never misses. When my grandfather died in 1986, he stayed at the funeral home. When my husband's grandmother died in 1986, the family stayed with her at the funeral home.
So given these background differences you might imagine that there can be some tension, but we balance each other very well. So, I'll tell you how he and I decided to date... there is a story here - I promise.
We were in Physics 121 at Tennessee Tech together in the Spring of 1996, he was very cute in Wranglers and a cowboy hat and I knew he would never notice me, but I kept hearing his friends call him Fred... and I just could not, would not date a Fred. So, time passed, he stared at me. I stared at him, but nothing much else happened. Then we had our first quiz and Glory be the professor was old fashioned and called out names to pick up the quiz, and the tall drink of water that looked so cute in those jeans was not "Fred" but "Brian" and believe me I could date a Brian. Now, how to get ask out... I heard the group of Ag guys talking about their grades and I had gone to high school with one, so I offered to help them by tutoring to get to know Brian better, and the first night I wen to help him - I lost my keys. (I really had them in my bag but it sounded like a great way to get him outside and away from his friends...) But wouldn't you know, he actually brought a mag light outside and helped me look for the D&%^ keys till I had to give up and "find" them or he was going to drive me home. We kept on talking as a quasi group, and then one of the other guys mentioned that dancing was prohibited in the Bible. Well, here I went. I got home that night, pulled out the good book and went to looking up dancing scripture references for him. (I did not know at the time that both this guy and Brian liked me and Brian was trying to let him see where he got with me first) The next day in a college physics class, I walk in with the Bible in tow, and a list of scriptures regarding dancing - the other guy decided he did not like me so much and Brian and I have been together almost ever day since.
We may fight - but he keeps me sane when I really don't feel that way for anyone else.
Drip Drop...
I took a few days off from writing on my blog because I was not sure what I was accomplishing. I have talked about issues near and dear to my heart, gave up sleep I'd really rather be getting, and I keep wondering why... what does this change?
Our country is in crisis. People are loosing their jobs still, boys are being sent off to fight in wars while our President make friends with the Muslim insurgents (that's right its not PC to call a terrorist a terrorist anymore), and now we are 50 days into the worst ecological disaster that this country has ever seen. Has our President even talked to the CEO of BP? This administration has again made tough talk in the news but little action. He is talking about passing CAP and TRADE bills to tax Americans on energy while letting the oil flow.
This year has been difficult in me with medicine too. See, I went into medicine to help people. I wanted to do CPR, fix illness, and make a difference. Congress's inability to fix the SGR and my growing frustration with elected officials had led me to believe that Congress cares nothing about the average working class American. If you are not a special interest member, kiss you agenda good by. What is killing me about this is that by there inaction, people are dying and loosing access to care. How many business models could survive a 1/4 pay cut without a cut in overhead. That is what doctors have had to do three times this year over Congress's inability to fix a broken formula for physician payment. They have no problem in bailing out Fannie Mae, but let the Doctors deal with it and the patients are the ones who suffer.
I keep hoping for a change, then while sitting at a funeral last night I thought about what a dearly respected cousin of mine (well, she is a cousin of Brian's buy I have had her for 13+ years) said to her son, you should read her blogs - its worth the time.
So back to my title for tonight, Drip Drop... you know where I go that. Water is one of the most powerful forces in nature. Ask any of my fellow Tennesseans who are still dealing with our own economic losses from the floods of May. Mountains move and and Canyons form from simple drip drops, so my goals is to keep on drip dropping at the issues I feel strongly about, because if people don't speak out for Lady Liberty I am not sure the amount of abuses she can continue to take.
Our country is in crisis. People are loosing their jobs still, boys are being sent off to fight in wars while our President make friends with the Muslim insurgents (that's right its not PC to call a terrorist a terrorist anymore), and now we are 50 days into the worst ecological disaster that this country has ever seen. Has our President even talked to the CEO of BP? This administration has again made tough talk in the news but little action. He is talking about passing CAP and TRADE bills to tax Americans on energy while letting the oil flow.
This year has been difficult in me with medicine too. See, I went into medicine to help people. I wanted to do CPR, fix illness, and make a difference. Congress's inability to fix the SGR and my growing frustration with elected officials had led me to believe that Congress cares nothing about the average working class American. If you are not a special interest member, kiss you agenda good by. What is killing me about this is that by there inaction, people are dying and loosing access to care. How many business models could survive a 1/4 pay cut without a cut in overhead. That is what doctors have had to do three times this year over Congress's inability to fix a broken formula for physician payment. They have no problem in bailing out Fannie Mae, but let the Doctors deal with it and the patients are the ones who suffer.
I keep hoping for a change, then while sitting at a funeral last night I thought about what a dearly respected cousin of mine (well, she is a cousin of Brian's buy I have had her for 13+ years) said to her son, you should read her blogs - its worth the time.
So back to my title for tonight, Drip Drop... you know where I go that. Water is one of the most powerful forces in nature. Ask any of my fellow Tennesseans who are still dealing with our own economic losses from the floods of May. Mountains move and and Canyons form from simple drip drops, so my goals is to keep on drip dropping at the issues I feel strongly about, because if people don't speak out for Lady Liberty I am not sure the amount of abuses she can continue to take.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Putting a Face on Farming
Farmers’ Markets Put a “Face” on Farming
By Dal Grooms
The number of farmers’ markets in the United States has grown by more than 300 percent in the past 15 years. If you study that trend from an economics standpoint, you have to wonder why. The dollars and cents value of convenience, low prices and access to a variety of products just don’t add up.
Online grocers are convenient with 24/7 availability. Farmers’ markets are not.
At the local grocery store, comparison shopping to find the lowest price is done quickly as similar items are grouped together. That’s not the case at the farmers’ market.
Mega-supermarkets offer food purchases, along with buying your automotive care products and even appliances! Farmers’ markets do not.
So what brings consumers at increasing rates to more than 5,200 farmers’ markets around the country? It’s the relationship that consumers can have with farmers. The Agriculture Department calls it ‘food with a face.’ The popularity of farmers’ markets is the anchor of their current “Know Your Farmer” campaign.
That “face” reminds us that food is not made in the grocery store basement. It is grown and produced with care by men and women who not only have a passion for working with nature to produce food, but also have knowledge on how to produce it in a way that sustains their business at the market.
Much is expected from these farmers. Consumers expect fresh, top quality fruits and vegetables, as well as honey, dairy, meat and grain products. They want these items delivered with a smile and willingness to explain the production methods. If you’ve walked by the vendors’ tables at a market, you know these farmers are delivering on both points.
Other farmers are counting on them, too. Only about 4 percent of farmers use direct sales to consumers as part of their marketing plan. That means their “faces” represent the other 96 percent of farmers who use other marketing methods to sell their products.
While some may think that’s putting too much on the shoulders of those farmers who are using direct marketing, most of them would just smile, shrug and move on, shaking hands and telling customers about ways to prepare their products and what will be available at the market in the coming weeks.
Clearly, the value of a farmers’ market is about relationships and trust, both of which are intangible items that have real value in today’s economy. Economists and marketers have developed any number of models so that relationship value can be measured.
They can run their numbers and manipulate their models. Most consumers already know the value of that relationship. Priceless.
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You can see this in every aspect of American culture - turn on food TV and all the foodies talk about is sustainable agriculture and locally grown produce, but we in agriculture must continue to advocate not only for locally grown produce but for the opportunity to continue with advances in our field that will enable us to feed a hungry world. Locally grown and sustainable is great but it will not feed the millions of people going to bed hungry every night due to poor irrigation and weed overgrowth. I want people to remain open to this issue in Agriculture and see both sides and yes I love my locally grown hormone free beef from our farm, but I understand then need for hormone enhanced products that have less estrogen than the average birth control pill to be able to provide food for a hungry world.
So, I encourage direct to consumer marketing but I also encourage the American consumer to not be blinded by the honest facts that fact Agriculture today. There is no way that production methods of the 1800's will feed a growing hungry world population and we as a society must face this and realize that farmers are doing better today for our environment than ever before. So, please know your farmer, but please don't be so quick to judge other aspects of modern agriculture.
By Dal Grooms
The number of farmers’ markets in the United States has grown by more than 300 percent in the past 15 years. If you study that trend from an economics standpoint, you have to wonder why. The dollars and cents value of convenience, low prices and access to a variety of products just don’t add up.
Online grocers are convenient with 24/7 availability. Farmers’ markets are not.
At the local grocery store, comparison shopping to find the lowest price is done quickly as similar items are grouped together. That’s not the case at the farmers’ market.
Mega-supermarkets offer food purchases, along with buying your automotive care products and even appliances! Farmers’ markets do not.
So what brings consumers at increasing rates to more than 5,200 farmers’ markets around the country? It’s the relationship that consumers can have with farmers. The Agriculture Department calls it ‘food with a face.’ The popularity of farmers’ markets is the anchor of their current “Know Your Farmer” campaign.
That “face” reminds us that food is not made in the grocery store basement. It is grown and produced with care by men and women who not only have a passion for working with nature to produce food, but also have knowledge on how to produce it in a way that sustains their business at the market.
Much is expected from these farmers. Consumers expect fresh, top quality fruits and vegetables, as well as honey, dairy, meat and grain products. They want these items delivered with a smile and willingness to explain the production methods. If you’ve walked by the vendors’ tables at a market, you know these farmers are delivering on both points.
Other farmers are counting on them, too. Only about 4 percent of farmers use direct sales to consumers as part of their marketing plan. That means their “faces” represent the other 96 percent of farmers who use other marketing methods to sell their products.
While some may think that’s putting too much on the shoulders of those farmers who are using direct marketing, most of them would just smile, shrug and move on, shaking hands and telling customers about ways to prepare their products and what will be available at the market in the coming weeks.
Clearly, the value of a farmers’ market is about relationships and trust, both of which are intangible items that have real value in today’s economy. Economists and marketers have developed any number of models so that relationship value can be measured.
They can run their numbers and manipulate their models. Most consumers already know the value of that relationship. Priceless.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can see this in every aspect of American culture - turn on food TV and all the foodies talk about is sustainable agriculture and locally grown produce, but we in agriculture must continue to advocate not only for locally grown produce but for the opportunity to continue with advances in our field that will enable us to feed a hungry world. Locally grown and sustainable is great but it will not feed the millions of people going to bed hungry every night due to poor irrigation and weed overgrowth. I want people to remain open to this issue in Agriculture and see both sides and yes I love my locally grown hormone free beef from our farm, but I understand then need for hormone enhanced products that have less estrogen than the average birth control pill to be able to provide food for a hungry world.
So, I encourage direct to consumer marketing but I also encourage the American consumer to not be blinded by the honest facts that fact Agriculture today. There is no way that production methods of the 1800's will feed a growing hungry world population and we as a society must face this and realize that farmers are doing better today for our environment than ever before. So, please know your farmer, but please don't be so quick to judge other aspects of modern agriculture.
Farmers Needing A Little Help...
"AFBF Urges Senate Support for EPA Resolution of Disapproval
The American Farm Bureau Federation continues to strongly urge senators to adopt a resolution that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act without prior congressional approval.
The Senate is expected to vote soon on the resolution introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that will effectively veto the EPA’s scheme to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as pollutants. Without relief from Congress, agriculture could suffer severe economic impacts from the EPA’s plan to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions"
The American Farm Bureau Federation continues to strongly urge senators to adopt a resolution that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act without prior congressional approval.
The Senate is expected to vote soon on the resolution introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that will effectively veto the EPA’s scheme to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as pollutants. Without relief from Congress, agriculture could suffer severe economic impacts from the EPA’s plan to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions"
Monday, May 17, 2010
Been reading a new book...
For Mother's day my kids got me the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, and for those of you that don't know - Pioneer women runs a blog and website about being a city girl and mother of four on a working cattle ranch in Oklahoma. She is a blast. My family was amazed that I know who she was when I opened my book and even more amazed when I actually cooked the food. But, I really respect her down to earth opinions about her life and how she has adjust to it. I can feel for her - especially when she talks about her husband coming home covered in cow S%$# from working cattle and her love a wrangler butt - after all that was one of the first things that I had noticed about my husband....
But, like Pioneer Woman, I have really come to respect my husbands love of our land and our farm and our children. Given my day job, my husband has had the job of being with our kids most days too. I went back to work with both of our youngest too when they were each three weeks old - and my Farmer feller took our daughter to work cattle the first day and then to the hay field then next. All of my children have been on our farm since they could walk. They know what a squeeze chute is for and when to stay out of fields while Daddy cuts hay. And they love to play in said hay till they get caught...
I think that I have talked alot in this blog about the importance of being political active but now as there are critical issues facing Agriculture in the Congress, I think becoming active for our way of life will be more important than ever. Because, even though our operations are different, I hope that you can tell that both the Pioneer Women and myself are passionate about our homes and farms or ranches in her case. We want our children to have access to this way of life and bills like the CAP and Trade, Immigration issues, and the EPA navigational waters act will affect how we can run our operations and how our families will be able to keep doing what we love. So, if you have a love for your land or like me - have fallen for a fella who has made you in turn change from a "organic loving high heel wearing" girl to well - whatever I am most days - a country doc with farm kids who have a T-ball game tonight... Get out and have an opinion
But, like Pioneer Woman, I have really come to respect my husbands love of our land and our farm and our children. Given my day job, my husband has had the job of being with our kids most days too. I went back to work with both of our youngest too when they were each three weeks old - and my Farmer feller took our daughter to work cattle the first day and then to the hay field then next. All of my children have been on our farm since they could walk. They know what a squeeze chute is for and when to stay out of fields while Daddy cuts hay. And they love to play in said hay till they get caught...
I think that I have talked alot in this blog about the importance of being political active but now as there are critical issues facing Agriculture in the Congress, I think becoming active for our way of life will be more important than ever. Because, even though our operations are different, I hope that you can tell that both the Pioneer Women and myself are passionate about our homes and farms or ranches in her case. We want our children to have access to this way of life and bills like the CAP and Trade, Immigration issues, and the EPA navigational waters act will affect how we can run our operations and how our families will be able to keep doing what we love. So, if you have a love for your land or like me - have fallen for a fella who has made you in turn change from a "organic loving high heel wearing" girl to well - whatever I am most days - a country doc with farm kids who have a T-ball game tonight... Get out and have an opinion
Friday, May 14, 2010
Organic or Hungry???
Attention Whole Foods Shoppers
Stop obsessing about arugula. Your "sustainable" mantra -- organic, local, and slow -- is no recipe for saving the world's hungry millions.
BY ROBERT PAARLBERG | MAY/JUNE 2010
From Whole Foods recyclable cloth bags to Michelle Obama's organic White House garden, modern eco-foodies are full of good intentions. We want to save the planet. Help local farmers. Fight climate change -- and childhood obesity, too. But though it's certainly a good thing to be thinking about global welfare while chopping our certified organic onions, the hope that we can help others by changing our shopping and eating habits is being wildly oversold to Western consumers. Food has become an elite preoccupation in the West, ironically, just as the most effective ways to address hunger in poor countries have fallen out of fashion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Ode to Farming: images from around the world.
Helping the world's poor feed themselves is no longer the rallying cry it once was. Food may be today's cause célèbre, but in the pampered West, that means trendy causes like making food "sustainable" -- in other words, organic, local, and slow. Appealing as that might sound, it is the wrong recipe for helping those who need it the most. Even our understanding of the global food problem is wrong these days, driven too much by the single issue of international prices. In April 2008, when the cost of rice for export had tripled in just six months and wheat reached its highest price in 28 years, a New York Times editorial branded this a "World Food Crisis." World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that high food prices would be particularly damaging in poor countries, where "there is no margin for survival." Now that international rice prices are down 40 percent from their peak and wheat prices have fallen by more than half, we too quickly conclude that the crisis is over. Yet 850 million people in poor countries were chronically undernourished before the 2008 price spike, and the number is even larger now, thanks in part to last year's global recession. This is the real food crisis we face.
It turns out that food prices on the world market tell us very little about global hunger. International markets for food, like most other international markets, are used most heavily by the well-to-do, who are far from hungry. The majority of truly undernourished people -- 62 percent, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization -- live in either Africa or South Asia, and most are small farmers or rural landless laborers living in the countryside of Africa and South Asia. They are significantly shielded from global price fluctuations both by the trade policies of their own governments and by poor roads and infrastructure. In Africa, more than 70 percent of rural households are cut off from the closest urban markets because, for instance, they live more than a 30-minute walk from the nearest all-weather road.
Poverty -- caused by the low income productivity of farmers' labor -- is the primary source of hunger in Africa, and the problem is only getting worse. The number of "food insecure" people in Africa (those consuming less than 2,100 calories a day) will increase 30 percent over the next decade without significant reforms, to 645 million, the U.S. Agriculture Department projects.
What's so tragic about this is that we know from experience how to fix the problem. Wherever the rural poor have gained access to improved roads, modern seeds, less expensive fertilizer, electrical power, and better schools and clinics, their productivity and their income have increased. But recent efforts to deliver such essentials have been undercut by deeply misguided (if sometimes well-meaning) advocacy against agricultural modernization and foreign aid.
In Europe and the United States, a new line of thinking has emerged in elite circles that opposes bringing improved seeds and fertilizers to traditional farmers and opposes linking those farmers more closely to international markets. Influential food writers, advocates, and celebrity restaurant owners are repeating the mantra that "sustainable food" in the future must be organic, local, and slow. But guess what: Rural Africa already has such a system, and it doesn't work. Few smallholder farmers in Africa use any synthetic chemicals, so their food is de facto organic. High transportation costs force them to purchase and sell almost all of their food locally. And food preparation is painfully slow. The result is nothing to celebrate: average income levels of only $1 a day and a one-in-three chance of being malnourished.
If we are going to get serious about solving global hunger, we need to de-romanticize our view of preindustrial food and farming. And that means learning to appreciate the modern, science-intensive, and highly capitalized agricultural system we've developed in the West. Without it, our food would be more expensive and less safe. In other words, a lot like the hunger-plagued rest of the world.
Original Sins
Thirty years ago, had someone asserted in a prominent journal or newspaper that the Green Revolution was a failure, he or she would have been quickly dismissed. Today the charge is surprisingly common. Celebrity author and eco-activist Vandana Shiva claims the Green Revolution has brought nothing to India except "indebted and discontented farmers." A 2002 meeting in Rome of 500 prominent international NGOs, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, even blamed the Green Revolution for the rise in world hunger. Let's set the record straight.
The development and introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice seeds into poor countries, led by American scientist Norman Borlaug and others in the 1960s and 70s, paid huge dividends. In Asia these new seeds lifted tens of millions of small farmers out of desperate poverty and finally ended the threat of periodic famine. India, for instance, doubled its wheat production between 1964 and 1970 and was able to terminate all dependence on international food aid by 1975. As for indebted and discontented farmers, India's rural poverty rate fell from 60 percent to just 27 percent today. Dismissing these great achievements as a "myth" (the official view of Food First, a California-based organization that campaigns globally against agricultural modernization) is just silly.
It's true that the story of the Green Revolution is not everywhere a happy one. When powerful new farming technologies are introduced into deeply unjust rural social systems, the poor tend to lose out. In Latin America, where access to good agricultural land and credit has been narrowly controlled by traditional elites, the improved seeds made available by the Green Revolution increased income gaps. Absentee landlords in Central America, who previously allowed peasants to plant subsistence crops on underutilized land, pushed them off to sell or rent the land to commercial growers who could turn a profit using the new seeds. Many of the displaced rural poor became slum dwellers. Yet even in Latin America, the prevalence of hunger declined more than 50 percent between 1980 and 2005.
In Asia, the Green Revolution seeds performed just as well on small nonmechanized farms as on larger farms. Wherever small farmers had sufficient access to credit, they took up the new technology just as quickly as big farmers, which led to dramatic income gains and no increase in inequality or social friction. Even poor landless laborers gained, because more abundant crops meant more work at harvest time, increasing rural wages. In Asia, the Green Revolution was good for both agriculture and social justice.
And Africa? Africa has a relatively equitable and secure distribution of land, making it more like Asia than Latin America and increasing the chances that improvements in farm technology will help the poor. If Africa were to put greater resources into farm technology, irrigation, and rural roads, small farmers would benefit.
Organic Myths
There are other common objections to doing what is necessary to solve the real hunger crisis. Most revolve around caveats that purist critics raise regarding food systems in the United States and Western Europe. Yet such concerns, though well-intentioned, are often misinformed and counterproductive -- especially when applied to the developing world.
Take industrial food systems, the current bugaboo of American food writers. Yes, they have many unappealing aspects, but without them food would be not only less abundant but also less safe. Traditional food systems lacking in reliable refrigeration and sanitary packaging are dangerous vectors for diseases. Surveys over the past several decades by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that the U.S. food supply became steadily safer over time, thanks in part to the introduction of industrial-scale technical improvements. Since 2000, the incidence of E. coli contamination in beef has fallen 45 percent. Today in the United States, most hospitalizations and fatalities from unsafe food come not from sales of contaminated products at supermarkets, but from the mishandling or improper preparation of food inside the home. Illness outbreaks from contaminated foods sold in stores still occur, but the fatalities are typically quite limited. A nationwide scare over unsafe spinach in 2006 triggered the virtual suspension of all fresh and bagged spinach sales, but only three known deaths were recorded. Incidents such as these command attention in part because they are now so rare. Food Inc. should be criticized for filling our plates with too many foods that are unhealthy, but not foods that are unsafe.
Where industrial-scale food technologies have not yet reached into the developing world, contaminated food remains a major risk. In Africa, where many foods are still purchased in open-air markets (often uninspected, unpackaged, unlabeled, unrefrigerated, unpasteurized, and unwashed), an estimated 700,000 people die every year from food- and water-borne diseases, compared with an estimated 5,000 in the United States.
Food grown organically -- that is, without any synthetic nitrogen fertilizers or pesticides -- is not an answer to the health and safety issues. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last year published a study of 162 scientific papers from the past 50 years on the health benefits of organically grown foods and found no nutritional advantage over conventionally grown foods. According to the Mayo Clinic, "No conclusive evidence shows that organic food is more nutritious than is conventionally grown food."
Health professionals also reject the claim that organic food is safer to eat due to lower pesticide residues. Food and Drug Administration surveys have revealed that the highest dietary exposures to pesticide residues on foods in the United States are so trivial (less than one one-thousandth of a level that would cause toxicity) that the safety gains from buying organic are insignificant. Pesticide exposures remain a serious problem in the developing world, where farm chemical use is not as well regulated, yet even there they are more an occupational risk for unprotected farmworkers than a residue risk for food consumers.
When it comes to protecting the environment, assessments of organic farming become more complex. Excess nitrogen fertilizer use on conventional farms in the United States has polluted rivers and created a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, but halting synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use entirely (as farmers must do in the United States to get organic certification from the Agriculture Department) would cause environmental problems far worse.
Here's why: Less than 1 percent of American cropland is under certified organic production. If the other 99 percent were to switch to organic and had to fertilize crops without any synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, that would require a lot more composted animal manure. To supply enough organic fertilizer, the U.S. cattle population would have to increase roughly fivefold. And because those animals would have to be raised organically on forage crops, much of the land in the lower 48 states would need to be converted to pasture. Organic field crops also have lower yields per hectare. If Europe tried to feed itself organically, it would need an additional 28 million hectares of cropland, equal to all of the remaining forest cover in France, Germany, Britain, and Denmark combined.
Mass deforestation probably isn't what organic advocates intend. The smart way to protect against nitrogen runoff is to reduce synthetic fertilizer applications with taxes, regulations, and cuts in farm subsidies, but not try to go all the way to zero as required by the official organic standard. Scaling up registered organic farming would be on balance harmful, not helpful, to the natural environment.
Not only is organic farming less friendly to the environment than assumed, but modern conventional farming is becoming significantly more sustainable. High-tech farming in rich countries today is far safer for the environment, per bushel of production, than it was in the 1960s, when Rachel Carson criticized the indiscriminate farm use of DDT in her environmental classic, Silent Spring. Thanks in part to Carson's devastating critique, that era's most damaging insecticides were banned and replaced by chemicals that could be applied in lower volume and were less persistent in the environment. Chemical use in American agriculture peaked soon thereafter, in 1973. This was a major victory for environmental advocacy.
And it was just the beginning of what has continued as a significant greening of modern farming in the United States. Soil erosion on farms dropped sharply in the 1970s with the introduction of "no-till" seed planting, an innovation that also reduced dependence on diesel fuel because fields no longer had to be plowed every spring. Farmers then began conserving water by moving to drip irrigation and by leveling their fields with lasers to minimize wasteful runoff. In the 1990s, GPS equipment was added to tractors, autosteering the machines in straighter paths and telling farmers exactly where they were in the field to within one square meter, allowing precise adjustments in chemical use. Infrared sensors were brought in to detect the greenness of the crop, telling a farmer exactly how much more (or less) nitrogen might be needed as the growing season went forward. To reduce wasteful nitrogen use, equipment was developed that can insert fertilizers into the ground at exactly the depth needed and in perfect rows, only where it will be taken up by the plant roots.
These "precision farming" techniques have significantly reduced the environmental footprint of modern agriculture relative to the quantity of food being produced. In 2008, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published a review of the "environmental performance of agriculture" in the world's 30 most advanced industrial countries -- those with the most highly capitalized and science-intensive farming systems. The results showed that between 1990 and 2004, food production in these countries continued to increase (by 5 percent in volume), yet adverse environmental impacts were reduced in every category. The land area taken up by farming declined 4 percent, soil erosion from both wind and water fell, gross greenhouse gas emissions from farming declined 3 percent, and excessive nitrogen fertilizer use fell 17 percent. Biodiversity also improved, as increased numbers of crop varieties and livestock breeds came into use.
Seeding the Future
Africa faces a food crisis, but it's not because the continent's population is growing faster than its potential to produce food, as vintage Malthusians such as environmental advocate Lester Brown and advocacy organizations such as Population Action International would have it. Food production in Africa is vastly less than the region's known potential, and that is why so many millions are going hungry there. African farmers still use almost no fertilizer; only 4 percent of cropland has been improved with irrigation; and most of the continent's cropped area is not planted with seeds improved through scientific plant breeding, so cereal yields are only a fraction of what they could be. Africa is failing to keep up with population growth not because it has exhausted its potential, but instead because too little has been invested in reaching that potential.
One reason for this failure has been sharply diminished assistance from international donors. When agricultural modernization went out of fashion among elites in the developed world beginning in the 1980s, development assistance to farming in poor countries collapsed. Per capita food production in Africa was declining during the 1980s and 1990s and the number of hungry people on the continent was doubling, but the U.S. response was to withdraw development assistance and simply ship more food aid to Africa. Food aid doesn't help farmers become more productive -- and it can create long-term dependency. But in recent years, the dollar value of U.S. food aid to Africa has reached 20 times the dollar value of agricultural development assistance.
The alternative is right in front of us. Foreign assistance to support agricultural improvements has a strong record of success, when undertaken with purpose. In the 1960s, international assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and donor governments led by the United States made Asia's original Green Revolution possible. U.S. assistance to India provided critical help in improving agricultural education, launching a successful agricultural extension service, and funding advanced degrees for Indian agricultural specialists at universities in the United States. The U.S. Agency for International Development, with the World Bank, helped finance fertilizer plants and infrastructure projects, including rural roads and irrigation. India could not have done this on its own -- the country was on the brink of famine at the time and dangerously dependent on food aid. But instead of suffering a famine in 1975, as some naysayers had predicted, India that year celebrated a final and permanent end to its need for food aid.
Foreign assistance to farming has been a high-payoff investment everywhere, including Africa. The World Bank has documented average rates of return on investments in agricultural research in Africa of 35 percent a year, accompanied by significant reductions in poverty. Some research investments in African agriculture have brought rates of return estimated at 68 percent. Blind to these realities, the United States cut its assistance to agricultural research in Africa 77 percent between 1980 and 2006.
When it comes to Africa's growing hunger, governments in rich countries face a stark choice: They can decide to support a steady new infusion of financial and technical assistance to help local governments and farmers become more productive, or they can take a "worry later" approach and be forced to address hunger problems with increasingly expensive shipments of food aid. Development skeptics and farm modernization critics keep pushing us toward this unappealing second path. It's time for leaders with vision and political courage to push back.
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Looks like I have too much time on my hands on a Friday Night, but given how I used to rant and rave about "organic" foods in this house, a big part of me feels I owe it too my farmer friends to post this very well writen article by a Harverd University Associate Political Science professor... he so much more sounds like he knows what he is talking about. But, it is true, there are more and more people and if we as a world society do not embrace modern production techniques, people will continue to starve. You cannot feed 50 billion on organic production. And yes, I still like to buy my local organic strawberries but we should have room for both without the exclusion of either in agriculture. But foodies and chefs need to be made to see the benifits found in modern sustainable agriculture.
Stop obsessing about arugula. Your "sustainable" mantra -- organic, local, and slow -- is no recipe for saving the world's hungry millions.
BY ROBERT PAARLBERG | MAY/JUNE 2010
From Whole Foods recyclable cloth bags to Michelle Obama's organic White House garden, modern eco-foodies are full of good intentions. We want to save the planet. Help local farmers. Fight climate change -- and childhood obesity, too. But though it's certainly a good thing to be thinking about global welfare while chopping our certified organic onions, the hope that we can help others by changing our shopping and eating habits is being wildly oversold to Western consumers. Food has become an elite preoccupation in the West, ironically, just as the most effective ways to address hunger in poor countries have fallen out of fashion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Ode to Farming: images from around the world.
Helping the world's poor feed themselves is no longer the rallying cry it once was. Food may be today's cause célèbre, but in the pampered West, that means trendy causes like making food "sustainable" -- in other words, organic, local, and slow. Appealing as that might sound, it is the wrong recipe for helping those who need it the most. Even our understanding of the global food problem is wrong these days, driven too much by the single issue of international prices. In April 2008, when the cost of rice for export had tripled in just six months and wheat reached its highest price in 28 years, a New York Times editorial branded this a "World Food Crisis." World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that high food prices would be particularly damaging in poor countries, where "there is no margin for survival." Now that international rice prices are down 40 percent from their peak and wheat prices have fallen by more than half, we too quickly conclude that the crisis is over. Yet 850 million people in poor countries were chronically undernourished before the 2008 price spike, and the number is even larger now, thanks in part to last year's global recession. This is the real food crisis we face.
It turns out that food prices on the world market tell us very little about global hunger. International markets for food, like most other international markets, are used most heavily by the well-to-do, who are far from hungry. The majority of truly undernourished people -- 62 percent, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization -- live in either Africa or South Asia, and most are small farmers or rural landless laborers living in the countryside of Africa and South Asia. They are significantly shielded from global price fluctuations both by the trade policies of their own governments and by poor roads and infrastructure. In Africa, more than 70 percent of rural households are cut off from the closest urban markets because, for instance, they live more than a 30-minute walk from the nearest all-weather road.
Poverty -- caused by the low income productivity of farmers' labor -- is the primary source of hunger in Africa, and the problem is only getting worse. The number of "food insecure" people in Africa (those consuming less than 2,100 calories a day) will increase 30 percent over the next decade without significant reforms, to 645 million, the U.S. Agriculture Department projects.
What's so tragic about this is that we know from experience how to fix the problem. Wherever the rural poor have gained access to improved roads, modern seeds, less expensive fertilizer, electrical power, and better schools and clinics, their productivity and their income have increased. But recent efforts to deliver such essentials have been undercut by deeply misguided (if sometimes well-meaning) advocacy against agricultural modernization and foreign aid.
In Europe and the United States, a new line of thinking has emerged in elite circles that opposes bringing improved seeds and fertilizers to traditional farmers and opposes linking those farmers more closely to international markets. Influential food writers, advocates, and celebrity restaurant owners are repeating the mantra that "sustainable food" in the future must be organic, local, and slow. But guess what: Rural Africa already has such a system, and it doesn't work. Few smallholder farmers in Africa use any synthetic chemicals, so their food is de facto organic. High transportation costs force them to purchase and sell almost all of their food locally. And food preparation is painfully slow. The result is nothing to celebrate: average income levels of only $1 a day and a one-in-three chance of being malnourished.
If we are going to get serious about solving global hunger, we need to de-romanticize our view of preindustrial food and farming. And that means learning to appreciate the modern, science-intensive, and highly capitalized agricultural system we've developed in the West. Without it, our food would be more expensive and less safe. In other words, a lot like the hunger-plagued rest of the world.
Original Sins
Thirty years ago, had someone asserted in a prominent journal or newspaper that the Green Revolution was a failure, he or she would have been quickly dismissed. Today the charge is surprisingly common. Celebrity author and eco-activist Vandana Shiva claims the Green Revolution has brought nothing to India except "indebted and discontented farmers." A 2002 meeting in Rome of 500 prominent international NGOs, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, even blamed the Green Revolution for the rise in world hunger. Let's set the record straight.
The development and introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice seeds into poor countries, led by American scientist Norman Borlaug and others in the 1960s and 70s, paid huge dividends. In Asia these new seeds lifted tens of millions of small farmers out of desperate poverty and finally ended the threat of periodic famine. India, for instance, doubled its wheat production between 1964 and 1970 and was able to terminate all dependence on international food aid by 1975. As for indebted and discontented farmers, India's rural poverty rate fell from 60 percent to just 27 percent today. Dismissing these great achievements as a "myth" (the official view of Food First, a California-based organization that campaigns globally against agricultural modernization) is just silly.
It's true that the story of the Green Revolution is not everywhere a happy one. When powerful new farming technologies are introduced into deeply unjust rural social systems, the poor tend to lose out. In Latin America, where access to good agricultural land and credit has been narrowly controlled by traditional elites, the improved seeds made available by the Green Revolution increased income gaps. Absentee landlords in Central America, who previously allowed peasants to plant subsistence crops on underutilized land, pushed them off to sell or rent the land to commercial growers who could turn a profit using the new seeds. Many of the displaced rural poor became slum dwellers. Yet even in Latin America, the prevalence of hunger declined more than 50 percent between 1980 and 2005.
In Asia, the Green Revolution seeds performed just as well on small nonmechanized farms as on larger farms. Wherever small farmers had sufficient access to credit, they took up the new technology just as quickly as big farmers, which led to dramatic income gains and no increase in inequality or social friction. Even poor landless laborers gained, because more abundant crops meant more work at harvest time, increasing rural wages. In Asia, the Green Revolution was good for both agriculture and social justice.
And Africa? Africa has a relatively equitable and secure distribution of land, making it more like Asia than Latin America and increasing the chances that improvements in farm technology will help the poor. If Africa were to put greater resources into farm technology, irrigation, and rural roads, small farmers would benefit.
Organic Myths
There are other common objections to doing what is necessary to solve the real hunger crisis. Most revolve around caveats that purist critics raise regarding food systems in the United States and Western Europe. Yet such concerns, though well-intentioned, are often misinformed and counterproductive -- especially when applied to the developing world.
Take industrial food systems, the current bugaboo of American food writers. Yes, they have many unappealing aspects, but without them food would be not only less abundant but also less safe. Traditional food systems lacking in reliable refrigeration and sanitary packaging are dangerous vectors for diseases. Surveys over the past several decades by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that the U.S. food supply became steadily safer over time, thanks in part to the introduction of industrial-scale technical improvements. Since 2000, the incidence of E. coli contamination in beef has fallen 45 percent. Today in the United States, most hospitalizations and fatalities from unsafe food come not from sales of contaminated products at supermarkets, but from the mishandling or improper preparation of food inside the home. Illness outbreaks from contaminated foods sold in stores still occur, but the fatalities are typically quite limited. A nationwide scare over unsafe spinach in 2006 triggered the virtual suspension of all fresh and bagged spinach sales, but only three known deaths were recorded. Incidents such as these command attention in part because they are now so rare. Food Inc. should be criticized for filling our plates with too many foods that are unhealthy, but not foods that are unsafe.
Where industrial-scale food technologies have not yet reached into the developing world, contaminated food remains a major risk. In Africa, where many foods are still purchased in open-air markets (often uninspected, unpackaged, unlabeled, unrefrigerated, unpasteurized, and unwashed), an estimated 700,000 people die every year from food- and water-borne diseases, compared with an estimated 5,000 in the United States.
Food grown organically -- that is, without any synthetic nitrogen fertilizers or pesticides -- is not an answer to the health and safety issues. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last year published a study of 162 scientific papers from the past 50 years on the health benefits of organically grown foods and found no nutritional advantage over conventionally grown foods. According to the Mayo Clinic, "No conclusive evidence shows that organic food is more nutritious than is conventionally grown food."
Health professionals also reject the claim that organic food is safer to eat due to lower pesticide residues. Food and Drug Administration surveys have revealed that the highest dietary exposures to pesticide residues on foods in the United States are so trivial (less than one one-thousandth of a level that would cause toxicity) that the safety gains from buying organic are insignificant. Pesticide exposures remain a serious problem in the developing world, where farm chemical use is not as well regulated, yet even there they are more an occupational risk for unprotected farmworkers than a residue risk for food consumers.
When it comes to protecting the environment, assessments of organic farming become more complex. Excess nitrogen fertilizer use on conventional farms in the United States has polluted rivers and created a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, but halting synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use entirely (as farmers must do in the United States to get organic certification from the Agriculture Department) would cause environmental problems far worse.
Here's why: Less than 1 percent of American cropland is under certified organic production. If the other 99 percent were to switch to organic and had to fertilize crops without any synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, that would require a lot more composted animal manure. To supply enough organic fertilizer, the U.S. cattle population would have to increase roughly fivefold. And because those animals would have to be raised organically on forage crops, much of the land in the lower 48 states would need to be converted to pasture. Organic field crops also have lower yields per hectare. If Europe tried to feed itself organically, it would need an additional 28 million hectares of cropland, equal to all of the remaining forest cover in France, Germany, Britain, and Denmark combined.
Mass deforestation probably isn't what organic advocates intend. The smart way to protect against nitrogen runoff is to reduce synthetic fertilizer applications with taxes, regulations, and cuts in farm subsidies, but not try to go all the way to zero as required by the official organic standard. Scaling up registered organic farming would be on balance harmful, not helpful, to the natural environment.
Not only is organic farming less friendly to the environment than assumed, but modern conventional farming is becoming significantly more sustainable. High-tech farming in rich countries today is far safer for the environment, per bushel of production, than it was in the 1960s, when Rachel Carson criticized the indiscriminate farm use of DDT in her environmental classic, Silent Spring. Thanks in part to Carson's devastating critique, that era's most damaging insecticides were banned and replaced by chemicals that could be applied in lower volume and were less persistent in the environment. Chemical use in American agriculture peaked soon thereafter, in 1973. This was a major victory for environmental advocacy.
And it was just the beginning of what has continued as a significant greening of modern farming in the United States. Soil erosion on farms dropped sharply in the 1970s with the introduction of "no-till" seed planting, an innovation that also reduced dependence on diesel fuel because fields no longer had to be plowed every spring. Farmers then began conserving water by moving to drip irrigation and by leveling their fields with lasers to minimize wasteful runoff. In the 1990s, GPS equipment was added to tractors, autosteering the machines in straighter paths and telling farmers exactly where they were in the field to within one square meter, allowing precise adjustments in chemical use. Infrared sensors were brought in to detect the greenness of the crop, telling a farmer exactly how much more (or less) nitrogen might be needed as the growing season went forward. To reduce wasteful nitrogen use, equipment was developed that can insert fertilizers into the ground at exactly the depth needed and in perfect rows, only where it will be taken up by the plant roots.
These "precision farming" techniques have significantly reduced the environmental footprint of modern agriculture relative to the quantity of food being produced. In 2008, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published a review of the "environmental performance of agriculture" in the world's 30 most advanced industrial countries -- those with the most highly capitalized and science-intensive farming systems. The results showed that between 1990 and 2004, food production in these countries continued to increase (by 5 percent in volume), yet adverse environmental impacts were reduced in every category. The land area taken up by farming declined 4 percent, soil erosion from both wind and water fell, gross greenhouse gas emissions from farming declined 3 percent, and excessive nitrogen fertilizer use fell 17 percent. Biodiversity also improved, as increased numbers of crop varieties and livestock breeds came into use.
Seeding the Future
Africa faces a food crisis, but it's not because the continent's population is growing faster than its potential to produce food, as vintage Malthusians such as environmental advocate Lester Brown and advocacy organizations such as Population Action International would have it. Food production in Africa is vastly less than the region's known potential, and that is why so many millions are going hungry there. African farmers still use almost no fertilizer; only 4 percent of cropland has been improved with irrigation; and most of the continent's cropped area is not planted with seeds improved through scientific plant breeding, so cereal yields are only a fraction of what they could be. Africa is failing to keep up with population growth not because it has exhausted its potential, but instead because too little has been invested in reaching that potential.
One reason for this failure has been sharply diminished assistance from international donors. When agricultural modernization went out of fashion among elites in the developed world beginning in the 1980s, development assistance to farming in poor countries collapsed. Per capita food production in Africa was declining during the 1980s and 1990s and the number of hungry people on the continent was doubling, but the U.S. response was to withdraw development assistance and simply ship more food aid to Africa. Food aid doesn't help farmers become more productive -- and it can create long-term dependency. But in recent years, the dollar value of U.S. food aid to Africa has reached 20 times the dollar value of agricultural development assistance.
The alternative is right in front of us. Foreign assistance to support agricultural improvements has a strong record of success, when undertaken with purpose. In the 1960s, international assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and donor governments led by the United States made Asia's original Green Revolution possible. U.S. assistance to India provided critical help in improving agricultural education, launching a successful agricultural extension service, and funding advanced degrees for Indian agricultural specialists at universities in the United States. The U.S. Agency for International Development, with the World Bank, helped finance fertilizer plants and infrastructure projects, including rural roads and irrigation. India could not have done this on its own -- the country was on the brink of famine at the time and dangerously dependent on food aid. But instead of suffering a famine in 1975, as some naysayers had predicted, India that year celebrated a final and permanent end to its need for food aid.
Foreign assistance to farming has been a high-payoff investment everywhere, including Africa. The World Bank has documented average rates of return on investments in agricultural research in Africa of 35 percent a year, accompanied by significant reductions in poverty. Some research investments in African agriculture have brought rates of return estimated at 68 percent. Blind to these realities, the United States cut its assistance to agricultural research in Africa 77 percent between 1980 and 2006.
When it comes to Africa's growing hunger, governments in rich countries face a stark choice: They can decide to support a steady new infusion of financial and technical assistance to help local governments and farmers become more productive, or they can take a "worry later" approach and be forced to address hunger problems with increasingly expensive shipments of food aid. Development skeptics and farm modernization critics keep pushing us toward this unappealing second path. It's time for leaders with vision and political courage to push back.
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Looks like I have too much time on my hands on a Friday Night, but given how I used to rant and rave about "organic" foods in this house, a big part of me feels I owe it too my farmer friends to post this very well writen article by a Harverd University Associate Political Science professor... he so much more sounds like he knows what he is talking about. But, it is true, there are more and more people and if we as a world society do not embrace modern production techniques, people will continue to starve. You cannot feed 50 billion on organic production. And yes, I still like to buy my local organic strawberries but we should have room for both without the exclusion of either in agriculture. But foodies and chefs need to be made to see the benifits found in modern sustainable agriculture.
Can We Talk?
Can We Talk?
By Cyndie Sirekis
A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle (“Battle Over Slow Food Heats up in Heartland“) highlighted our nation’s agricultural diversity. The article illustrated how the “tiny but fast-growing” number of farms that sell local and grow organic food contrast with “commodity farms that make up the great bulk of production and sell into a global food chain.”
The closing quote of the article, by California dairy farmer Ray Prock Jr., cut to the heart of much of the discord in the farming and ranching community today and even offered a solution.
“Instead of automatically thinking conventional ag is the enemy, and instead of conventional ag always thinking that organic and local food is the enemy, we need to sit down and figure out where we can work together,” Prock said.
Fortunately for Prock and others who are like-minded, addressing erroneous beliefs that have led some to think of any form of agriculture as “the enemy” got a little easier with the recent release of the latest National Resources Inventory report from the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NRI is a compilation of a broad range of 50 years of data related to the environment, U.S. land use and productivity, water consumption and many other factors.
The massive NRI survey results clearly show that farmers and ranchers are careful and caring stewards of our nation’s natural resources. They are producing more food using fewer resources. In fact, farm and ranch productivity has increased over the past two and a half decades, while at the same time environmental performance and water quality have been improving.
The shrinking environmental footprint of food and fiber production in the United States is the envy of the world. A few key examples from the NRI survey tell the story.
While farm and ranch productivity has increased dramatically since 1950, the use of resources (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.) required for production has declined markedly. In 2008, farmers used 2 percent fewer inputs while producing 262 percent more food, compared to 1950.
Dairy cow milk production on farms operated by Prock and his fellow producers has become more efficient since 1980. The pounds of feed (grain, forage and so on) each cow needs to consume to produce 100 pounds of milk has decreased by more than 40 percent on average in the last 30 years.
Since 1982, U.S. land used for crops has declined by 70 million acres. Conservation tillage, a way of farming that reduces erosion (soil loss) on cropland while using less energy, has grown from 17 percent of land area (acres) in 1982 to 63 percent currently.
Careful stewardship by America’s food producers spurred a nearly 50 percent decline in erosion of cropland by wind and water since 1982.
Fifty years of data tells the story—farm and ranch families, most of whom fall under the “conventional ag” umbrella, care for our natural resources while feeding our nation. Let’s not let another 50 years go by without making Prock’s plea for civil discourse among all types of food producers a reality.
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See, there are good things that the American Farmer is doing for you and for me.
By Cyndie Sirekis
A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle (“Battle Over Slow Food Heats up in Heartland“) highlighted our nation’s agricultural diversity. The article illustrated how the “tiny but fast-growing” number of farms that sell local and grow organic food contrast with “commodity farms that make up the great bulk of production and sell into a global food chain.”
The closing quote of the article, by California dairy farmer Ray Prock Jr., cut to the heart of much of the discord in the farming and ranching community today and even offered a solution.
“Instead of automatically thinking conventional ag is the enemy, and instead of conventional ag always thinking that organic and local food is the enemy, we need to sit down and figure out where we can work together,” Prock said.
Fortunately for Prock and others who are like-minded, addressing erroneous beliefs that have led some to think of any form of agriculture as “the enemy” got a little easier with the recent release of the latest National Resources Inventory report from the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NRI is a compilation of a broad range of 50 years of data related to the environment, U.S. land use and productivity, water consumption and many other factors.
The massive NRI survey results clearly show that farmers and ranchers are careful and caring stewards of our nation’s natural resources. They are producing more food using fewer resources. In fact, farm and ranch productivity has increased over the past two and a half decades, while at the same time environmental performance and water quality have been improving.
The shrinking environmental footprint of food and fiber production in the United States is the envy of the world. A few key examples from the NRI survey tell the story.
While farm and ranch productivity has increased dramatically since 1950, the use of resources (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.) required for production has declined markedly. In 2008, farmers used 2 percent fewer inputs while producing 262 percent more food, compared to 1950.
Dairy cow milk production on farms operated by Prock and his fellow producers has become more efficient since 1980. The pounds of feed (grain, forage and so on) each cow needs to consume to produce 100 pounds of milk has decreased by more than 40 percent on average in the last 30 years.
Since 1982, U.S. land used for crops has declined by 70 million acres. Conservation tillage, a way of farming that reduces erosion (soil loss) on cropland while using less energy, has grown from 17 percent of land area (acres) in 1982 to 63 percent currently.
Careful stewardship by America’s food producers spurred a nearly 50 percent decline in erosion of cropland by wind and water since 1982.
Fifty years of data tells the story—farm and ranch families, most of whom fall under the “conventional ag” umbrella, care for our natural resources while feeding our nation. Let’s not let another 50 years go by without making Prock’s plea for civil discourse among all types of food producers a reality.
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See, there are good things that the American Farmer is doing for you and for me.
Thoughts on American Agriculture
Farmers are Putting the ‘Skinny’ in Production
Today’s farmers and ranchers grow more food with fewer resources. Conservation tillage is up and soil erosion is declining. As farmers and ranchers, we know this based on our experience. Now, a new report confirms this has occurred nationwide.
The 2010 National Resources Inventory (NRI) recently released by the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service shows that farmers and ranchers are careful and caring stewards of our nation’s natural resources. The massive report, coupled with the latest USDA productivity figures, confirms the shrinking environmental footprint of our efforts to produce food and fiber in the United States. This is good news that should not go unreported.
A Lot Can Happen in 60 Years
The NRI is a compilation of a broad range of 50 years of data related to the environment, U.S. land use and productivity, water consumption and many other factors. Careful analysis of the data by AFBF quantifies how farm and ranch productivity has increased over the past two and a half decades, while at the same time environmental performance and water quality have improved.
There are several major points from the survey that I think tell a compelling story about agriculture.
First off, today’s farmers produce more food with fewer resources. While farm and ranch productivity has increased dramatically since 1950, the use of resources (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.) required for production has declined markedly. For example, in 2008 farmers produced 262 percent more food with 2 percent fewer inputs, compared with 1950.
Secondly, farmers can feed more people thanks to the miracle of productivity. Total U.S. crop yield has increased more than 360 percent since 1950, helping America’s farmers and ranchers do our part to feed a growing world.
What Makes a Happy Cow?
Additional points of importance include how America’s dairy farmers are producing more milk with less feed. It takes 40 percent less feed for a cow to produce 100 pounds of milk than it did 30 years ago.
Further, U.S. farm land used for crops has declined by 70 million acres or 15 percent, since 1982. And soil erosion continues to decline. Careful stewardship by America’s food producers spurred a nearly 50 percent decline in erosion of cropland by wind and water since 1982.
These facts, based on in-the-field science, are worth sharing. Farm and ranch families today are caring for our natural resources while feeding our nation. In fact, we are doing so with greater efficiency than ever before. I guess you could say we are cutting the fat and putting the “skinny” in production. Any way you slice it, that makes sense for people and our planet.
Bob Stallman, President
American Farm Bureau Federation
I just got this information and thought this is good news about American Famrers and I wants to share it with the rest of you. I know that very often the media makes an effort to labile American Farmers as factory farmers but please remember, farmers are the original animal rights personal and environmental stewards. Our Animals are our means of production an we want to take the best care of them we can, and without our land we have nothing with which to grow our crops. Depending on the data you find less than 2-6% of all farms in America are a Factory farm - most are people like my family, working hard to put a good product out for your family and mine...
So, if you eat, THANK A FARMER!!!
Today’s farmers and ranchers grow more food with fewer resources. Conservation tillage is up and soil erosion is declining. As farmers and ranchers, we know this based on our experience. Now, a new report confirms this has occurred nationwide.
The 2010 National Resources Inventory (NRI) recently released by the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service shows that farmers and ranchers are careful and caring stewards of our nation’s natural resources. The massive report, coupled with the latest USDA productivity figures, confirms the shrinking environmental footprint of our efforts to produce food and fiber in the United States. This is good news that should not go unreported.
A Lot Can Happen in 60 Years
The NRI is a compilation of a broad range of 50 years of data related to the environment, U.S. land use and productivity, water consumption and many other factors. Careful analysis of the data by AFBF quantifies how farm and ranch productivity has increased over the past two and a half decades, while at the same time environmental performance and water quality have improved.
There are several major points from the survey that I think tell a compelling story about agriculture.
First off, today’s farmers produce more food with fewer resources. While farm and ranch productivity has increased dramatically since 1950, the use of resources (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.) required for production has declined markedly. For example, in 2008 farmers produced 262 percent more food with 2 percent fewer inputs, compared with 1950.
Secondly, farmers can feed more people thanks to the miracle of productivity. Total U.S. crop yield has increased more than 360 percent since 1950, helping America’s farmers and ranchers do our part to feed a growing world.
What Makes a Happy Cow?
Additional points of importance include how America’s dairy farmers are producing more milk with less feed. It takes 40 percent less feed for a cow to produce 100 pounds of milk than it did 30 years ago.
Further, U.S. farm land used for crops has declined by 70 million acres or 15 percent, since 1982. And soil erosion continues to decline. Careful stewardship by America’s food producers spurred a nearly 50 percent decline in erosion of cropland by wind and water since 1982.
These facts, based on in-the-field science, are worth sharing. Farm and ranch families today are caring for our natural resources while feeding our nation. In fact, we are doing so with greater efficiency than ever before. I guess you could say we are cutting the fat and putting the “skinny” in production. Any way you slice it, that makes sense for people and our planet.
Bob Stallman, President
American Farm Bureau Federation
I just got this information and thought this is good news about American Famrers and I wants to share it with the rest of you. I know that very often the media makes an effort to labile American Farmers as factory farmers but please remember, farmers are the original animal rights personal and environmental stewards. Our Animals are our means of production an we want to take the best care of them we can, and without our land we have nothing with which to grow our crops. Depending on the data you find less than 2-6% of all farms in America are a Factory farm - most are people like my family, working hard to put a good product out for your family and mine...
So, if you eat, THANK A FARMER!!!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
More life from Rural America
Again, sitting here, thinking that life is really a funny kinda thing... Been to work this week... been a patient again myself and still cannot find it in myself to like that. I love being the caregiver but not taking the care giving. Thought I would sit here and tell y'all more about myself tonight and where I come from. See, aside from the one funny story and the fact that I like to encourage people to become more active in our political system about whatever their passions are... (my husband calls it something else that I won't put on here in case any kids happen to read this... rhymes with witch... Haha)
Well, lets see... I was born in a rural county in upper Middle Tennessee. If you have read my other blogs, you would know that I came from a more cityfied county being as we had stoplights and traffic lights growing up. I was always known in the county, well even in three or four counties actually growing up for who I belonged too. If you have never lived in the south or been around a Southerner this may seem like an odd turn of phrase to you, but I was the granddaughter a "THE VET" for most of the upper middle Tennessee area - people even brought Thoroughbred race horses from Lexington, KY, for my Grandpa to fix but to me he was just my Pa Doc purveyor of Barbies and grill cheese sandwiches on Saturday afternoons for as far back as I can remember. If people did not know him, then they know my Pa Pa Honey - my Mom's Dad was a retired military man with a talent for fixen things - anything - he had ran the local BP station with my Uncle Ray till he started working with my Pa Doc at the Vet office - I was a lucky little girl - one stop two Grandpa's spoiling me... Then of course people would know Pa Honey's wife Lyndell... I always called her Lyndell - she was the elementary school's PE teacher my entire time at Livingston Elementary - makes being bad at school difficult if every teacher there is a friend of your Grandmothers... or lastly they might know my Mema (Pa Doc's Wife) she was the social butterfly of the group and in as much as our county had a social calender she was on it. Of course, you may ask, what about my parents... my Dad did several things on and off for years before he got his Vet degree and went to work with my Pa in 1986 and my Mom - my unofficial hero - even if she cannot control her temper - was a nurse at our hometown hospital and she and my two uncles ran a motel in town and the town's video store.
See what I mean about everybody knowing me... plus these family members that I am telling you about come from large families. My Pa Doc was one of 14, My Lyndel was one of six, Pa Honey one of 5, and they all had 3-4 kids each, so I grew up being surrounded by and related too my town. But that was and still is small town life.
I am proud of the fact that to this day, my church makes an effort not only to pray about the elderly and ill in our congregation, but to make sure that they get the food they need and the errands run if needed. Yes, this type of small town living makes certain parts of my job difficult like when patients tell me to tell that Husband of mine "hello" and I have to remind them I can't... but I digress, I was telling you all about me and my life 30 years ago...
I was the oldest of two children and if you listen to people who will tell you, I was a precocious child who never stopped asking why - I guess that means I never shut up, so my Mom found a private one room school in Alpine for me when I was three years old. I was in Kindergarten full time and loving every minute of it, I would read and do math and since it was a one room school... I was kinda the class pet and would learn whatever anyone wanted to teach me. But, when they wanted to push me into 2nd grade work at 4 - Mom and her Mom, Lyndell, freaked out a bit and put me in regular school, where I was bored out of my mind. There was this room full of kids still learning colors and I had been reading books. I still remember when the teacher sent a note home asking my Mom to come in so she could speak with her. It turns out that my 1rst grade teacher thought I was slow cause I was not paying attention to my work and wanted me tested to see if I needed to be in school at all (I was barely four at that point). It took my Lyndell to convince her I was not slow but bored. They got me some books from 2nd grade, I think, and I read the rest of the year.
I graduated the youngest and tallest girl in my class from high school. The next day after my High School Graduation, I started summer school as a sophomore at college - seems several years in public school did not get rid of my inner geek after all. I am not proud of this - this is just how I am. I spent many a lonely night in high school cause nobody ever called and I was too busy studying or working to realize that maybe I should take some time off to be a kid. I got called many a name and the sad thing is I never tried with scholastics in high school - not once do I ever remember studying like I should have - I didn't even try to be Valedictorian or that other word I cannot spell. Don't get me wrong I did OK - ranked third - but I never ever remember studying in my life till I hit medical school and yes that counts college. I did not even know how - but boy was medical school a wake up on the fact that I was not the smartest person in the room anymore and if I was going to make it I had better work my butt off...
I guess the other two things that have made me who I am today is the fact that my Mom got very sick with an illness few people understand and it nearly killed her when I was a freshman in high school and the fact that my Farmer felling love with this geek and married me even with all my crazy ambitions.
My Mom has systemic lupus errythematosis with renal involvement - I can still remember the Fellow at Vanderbilt Medical School telling a scared 12-13 year old me to "wise up kid, you Mom is going to die", now do you wonder why I refused to train there... Mom did not die, but for the better part of my high school years she was too sick to do very much. My Dad started working for the USDA and was gone away from home for weeks at a time, so I was qualified for a hardship license to drive. I would get my Brother and I ready for school, drive us there, pick him up, take him home, go to work, grocery shop, pay bills, do laundry/dishes/clean, and take care of my Mom - often I slept on the living room floor so I could help her back and forth to the bathroom in our home. Money was always tight it seemed, I did not realize then that my parents were not the best at fiances, and I always may sure my brother did not do without. I remember going without lunch cause I "was not hungry" when in reality there was no money to eat with. Why didn't I ask a grown up for help - well by then my Pa Doc was dead to lung cancer and I was too proud and stubborn to tell my Lyndell - she already bought most of my and my brother's clothes. Its just one of those things I was raised with - you work hard, you don't whine, you do the best you can with what you've got. Blessedly my Mom doesn't remember much of those years, and sadly, I lost my Lyndell to lung cancer the night of my senior prom.
But the other thing that has made me into who I am today, is the man I was fortunate enough to marry. I know in this modern age of feminism that saying you owe something to a man is most definitely not cool, but the best parts of who I am as a women, a mother, a wife, and a doctor are all from being around my husband. My Farmer is the product of parents who are still married and in love after 30+ years. Not only are his parents married but both sets of his grandparents remained married to their spouses till the death of one separated them from each other. He comes from a 5th generation family farm, and from some of the best most honest people I have ever had the privilege to meet. And yes, his county does not have any stoplights even in 2010. He reminds me that even in this modern age of social networking that their are family that still sit up with the dead and take care of their parents. There are people in this world who's word really is as good as any legal document you could have, and people who mean it when they say they "be praying for you"
So, here I am, am working mother of three little farm hands of our own. Agvocating and Advocating that there will be an American way of life for them to enjoy. Praying that at least one of them will keep mine and my Husbands dream alive and have a sixth McLerran Farmer on our land, and praying that maybe one will see what I do - not as something that takes Mommy away from them but that lets Mommy give a little back to the people of this area that have given to me over the years... there are many. Whether it was Mr. Pat Grimes jerking me out of Algebra class to find out why I did not do as good on a Meosis/Mitosis test as I should have, Dr. Rick Fields taking time to show me real life trauma in our ED as a teen, or the paramedics that took the time to let me learn and ride with them to show me greater understanding for my field...and to many more like Ma Linda, Mr. Ramsey, Ms. Dorminey, Janey, and all those I cannot list, please know that by your actions you helped make me into the person I am today...
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