United We Farm: We can all agree, we need farmers

My daughter is in the phase of constantly asking “But why?”, often about little things I rarely think twice about.

Earlier this fall, we were driving through town, and we saw a tractor pulling two grain wagons. The driver had to make a wide left turn at the busy Casey’s store intersection.

My daughter asked me, “Why does he get to take up the whole road?”

I was trying to pay attention to the road, so what I blurted out was “because farmers have the most important job in the world.”

Of course, she asked me, “But why?” I told her it’s because farmers grow food for everyone – including people with super important jobs like doctors and nurses and teachers and firefighters.

At the Iowa State Fair this summer, the theme for Farm Bureau Park was “United We Farm.” And it’s so fitting.

We can disagree on many things: politics, the news or bad ref calls during Hawkeye football games. Yet we all can agree that America Needs Farmers.

Thanks to farmers, I don’t need to pick apples and grow pigs and milk cows to feed my family. I can order groceries online and buy a gallon of milk at the convenience store on my commute home.

Thanks to farmers, I can work in a climate-controlled office, stacking paragraphs instead of hay bales. Plucking commas instead of chickens. Milking sentences instead of cows.

No matter where we work, learn and play, we all need to eat, and we all need farmers to grow our food.

And farmers take their responsibilities seriously. Farmers will continue to work every day to grow the food, fuel and fiber we need, while focused on sustainability and animal care.

By Teresa Bjork. Teresa is Iowa Farm Bureau's Consumer Content Manager.