Answer Me This...

I have a habit of answering agriculture-related queries on websites like Yahoo! Answers and Wiki answers. I usually find a few posts from vegetarians, vegans, and anti-ag individuals who are asking questions just for kicks.
For example, a vegan posted a question asking other vegans about how they respond to questions from the public. Examples included “why don’t you eat meat” and “how do you get protein”, among several others.

After reading the answers that the writer posted, along with the answers that several others had included, I was disgusted. Most, if not all, of the answers I read had to do with protesting the "abuse" of animals on "factory farms", including dairy farming, veal farming, beef raising and pigs in gestation crates. (I'll discuss the quoted words in a later post.)

I posted a quick response pertaining to why we farmers take calves away from their mothers after birth, explaining the use of veal crates, and why pig farmers use gestation crates.

Checking my account a few months ago, I saw this response to my reply. (I apologize in advance for the grammar and content.)

“Eileen, first of all, why the heck would a dairy farmer have a computer, be on yahoo answers, and reading the the vegetarian/vegan section. Seriously.

“Even if you are a dairy farmer, Why would 'God' want us to steal milk from the innocent little calves, which will be killed for veal or fattened up/ filled with secret hormones. Why do you think tribes with a strict vegan diet live up to 90 years old. If an adult human was supposed to drink cow's milk, we could be able to suck straight from the udders, which would make you sick. We humans(Americans[business/corporation owners]) are sick, money hoarding pigs. Milk is addictive. Any business wants you to be a lifelong customer. 

"Oh yeah, and you so-called dairy farmer, if you can read to me a bible stating where 'god' wants us to enslave innocent creatures that 'he' created, than I'll give you a dime. I'm pretty sure your just another brain-washed zombie who needs cheap labor. Or just a troll.”

This is the raw, unedited version of their response. I was horrified when I read it. The worst part for me wasn't even the verbal abuse of our industry, and the blatant lies it contained. (We'll cover those later.) Obviously, however unfortunate it is, this person refuses to listen to reason because they are closed-minded when it comes to other peoples’ opinions – and facts, for that matter.

What haunts me most about their reply was the first sentence. 

“Why the heck would a dairy farmer have a computer”?

My heart sinks reading it even now. In the eyes of the public, whether they think consciously about it or not, farmers are pictured as dumb hicks who chose to farm because they weren’t smart enough to do anything else.

No! That isn’t why we do it at all. Farming, for me at least, is something I do because I love to do it, not because it’s the only job within my intelligence range that I can perform. 

Farming takes an immense amount of knowledge, both technical and general, and I am willing to bet that the 99% of those not employed in agriculture wouldn’t be half as successful as we are at producing food for our nation.

Does a computer science degree give us the tolerance to guide a heifer into the milking parlor for the first time? Does a mathematics certificate make getting out of bed in the wee hours of the morning any easier? Does an English degree help you when it comes time to pull a calf, and would a medical degree make you feel better when the calf you spent hours bringing into the world comes out dead?

I hope someday, we’ll be able to escape the stereotype of the “dumb farmer” and that people will understand that farming is a way of life for us. We’re no longer one-horse plows and a few pigs - that’s where we came from, not where we are now. We advance just like any other industry, regardless of whether they choose to see it or not.

Farmers are a special breed. We don’t succeed in this industry without a passion and thorough knowledge of our past, our present, and our future. We don’t farm because it’s what we can do, but because we love to do it. 

From one generation to another, farmers pass along not only property and buildings, but legacies.

We are modern farmers.

You’re welcome.