Non-farmers should not tell farmers what to do
I read with interest the front page article of Oct. 27 with the heading, “Modern agriculture must reinvent.” The chief executive officer of Olam, a processing and distribution company based out of Singapore, strongly suggests we in North America have to change our farming and ranching practices.
I investigated Olam. It has a board of directors of 10 members, of which at least four have been in the banking industry and one in the coca-cola business. I have to wonder if they know anything about growing crops or raising livestock — yet they are the experts of how we should produce our products.
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Kochia has become a significant problem for Prairie farmers
As you travel through southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, particularly in areas challenged by dry growing conditions, the magnitude of the kochia problem is easy to see.
I would doubt that any of them have ever had dirt under their fingernails or watched their crops wither while praying for rain. I would be surprised if any of them were ever up at 4 a.m. helping to deliver a calf, hoping and praying for that first breath.
I get perturbed watching executives, politicians and companies as well as misinformed consumers sitting in leather-covered chairs and drinking beer, and then criticizing what we gratefully produce.
They peer through smog-covered windows and criticize that our farming and ranching practices are not conducive to the betterment of this planet.
Thus I have found a new word for those ignorant about agriculture — agnorance. So here is my poem.
Agnorance
There are those who believe their knowledge of how food is made, is superior to that of producers who foraged that vintage trade.
Farmers and ranchers have been demoted with a demeaning glance, a new generation has emerged — unaware of their ignorance.
They prefer grass fed, organic or even hormone free, homegrown, ethically sourced and no MSG.
They forage on farm fresh, free range and fake food technology, antibiotic free, with artificial flavours of beyond meat philosophy.
They cringe at bread and pasta processed from GMO wheat, yet chow down burgers created with synthetic meat.
They walk among us at the grocery store and burger eatery, belching out online knowledge of food production and animal husbandry.
I’ll cherish God’s pristine meadows and streams where my ponies prance, As critics choke on polluted air and sewage, spewing their agnorance.
Bryce Burnett
Swift Current, Sask.
