No Wonder

It’s really no wonder to me why there is such a big misunderstanding about modern agriculture.  Growing up in a city and then moving to a farm I can tell you that it really is two completely different worlds.  Not much is mirrored in between the two.

I can remember my first night in the dorms at Iowa State University getting to know my roommate.  She was from a cattle operation that she was born and raised on in rural southern Iowa. She gazed out the window with such wonderment and gasped.  I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and said

“Whats up?”

“The lights!  There are so many lights in this city!”

I stared at her for a moment with a confused look. Big city? 

Ames, IA?  This is the most rural place I’ve ever been to in my life!  I looked out that window and thought where the heck all of the lights are and here she is thinking she has been transported into a giant metropolis.  It was only then did I realize what a different world there was out there that I had never even come close to experiencing.

My husband said once in one of our first trips back to my home that where I had lived was so strange because it was like you were always in town.  I didn’t even understand the reference.  Why wouldn’t you be in town?  Where else is there to be?  I get it now, but so many don’t and that is my drive for Agvocating.  Sharing what I already know is so incredibly fascinating and alien to so many.  Farm life.

I write this now while my two boys play out in the yard with the new puppy we brought home today to be part of our farm family.   My two horses out grazing watching them, sun setting in the distance over a bean field, tractors and wagons rolling by; this is what my dreams have been made of I just never knew it at the time.  I am ready to paint my picture for you and let you see into the farm. Learn about how different it is living on a farm.  Learn about our practices as pig farmers and how they are most likely way different than what you thought or heard about. Learn that you don’t need to be scared of progressive agriculture but rather embrace it and celebrate its improvements and innovation over such a short period of time.  This is my life from the bright city lights of my sweet home Chicago, to the starry nights of the southeast Iowa countryside.