|
Pride of ownershipHere I sit in my "playground of mental gymnastics for food production" on another airplane. I am en route from Orlando to Omaha, returning from the 61st Reciprocal Meat Conference, which is sponsored by the American Meat Science Association and was hosted by the University of Florida, Gainesville. Ironically, I had the great opportunity of addressing over 600 meat scientists from around the nation and I did share a few of the airport conversations I have had on previous flights. The most common response I heard from attendees after my presentation was that most of them had passed on opportunities to tell people about meat science on their recent flights and I made them realize that they had missed a great "teachable moment." While air travel ranks on my list of favorites, right up there with stepping on a rattlesnake, the true benefit is exposure to a demographic that we otherwise would rarely communicate with. First, I believe it is important to recognize that anyone traveling via air today is probably not in the lower income segment of our population. Typically, they tend to consider themselves to be "very informed" consumers. NOTICE! I said "informed." That says nothing about the truthfulness of the information they are familiar with, simply that they have read or researched some aspect of food production. The irony of things continues to amaze me. On the flight from Orlando to Memphis, I sat next to a pleasant young lady who was traveling to Branson to do a routine inspection of her companies time-share condos. She indicated that average members in their program, by the way they have 225,000 members, are willing to spend $25,000 annually on resort visits. Yes, $25,000 to go to Table Rock Lake or the Wisconsin Dells or other tourist destinations where business people go to spend their money on nothing. Oh no, I am not being critical. If someone finds a way to earn a dollar, I will be the last person to judge how they choose to spend their money. I only make that observation because it is related to my next conversation in the Memphis airport. "Rob" is the VP of a healthcare equipment supplier based in San Diego. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, he has always had an appreciation for the simple things in life, particularly those tied to the land. In fact, although his business is centered in Southern California, he also has a ranch in rural Idaho. His kids even have steers as 4-H projects and he seemed to truly grasp the concept that I believe wholeheartedly, which is that kids need to understand life and death through animal agriculture. He has a concept, though, that is worth exploring for the biggest kids of our nation. He mentioned to me that he believes people are hungry for more of the simple life. Yes, he believes that the very same people who spend $25,000 annually to go to a resort in Branson, Mo., would be more than willing to spend the same amount of money to come to a cabin on your farm or ranch. Not the Dude Ranch we all think of that has been very popular in many areas of our country but rather he believes they want to "invest" in agriculture. The funny thing is that I see a great opportunity for his vision but for a completely different reason and I wonder why it would matter which reason you choose? Rob indicated that business people live in the rat race of life. Dealing with text messages, conference calls and financial reports leaves a void for the truly meaningful things nature and the land have to offer. I mentioned to him that I would much rather be home raking hay with my team of Percherons and he got rather excited about sharing his vision of how much fulfillment that would bring to so many in his world. In fact, he told me that is why he bought a ranch in Idaho. But here is where our trains of thought change tracks. I see this as a great opportunity to explain to the people that, on the best day, my team of horses will rake about three acres of hay an hour and the first team is looking for a shade tree after a couple of hours. A tractor, on the other hand, could accomplish 10 acres/hour and never needs a break to cool down and rest. It simply requires an occasional stop at the fuel barrel. Yes, I want to educate people about the fact that the romance of "the good old days" in food production is no different than the sultry romance novel the lady sitting next to me is reading right now. It is simply an escape from reality. I fully believe that modern agriculture can provide the most efficient production of food, fiber, pharmaceuticals, fuel and FUN that it ever has. Surely I can send beef to San Diego once a month to a farm partner who spends vacations from their "real jobs" helping me on the ranch. Pride in ownership has always been the best motivator for improving the situation. In this case, a little time sharing of the ranch could lead to a more informed ranch hand who spends more time telling their urban friends about how well we care for the land and the livestock that eventually becomes their food. That sounds like a win-win situation to me. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. 6/30/08 Date: 6/26/08
1
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2008. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
