Basic HTML Version
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
SHALLOW AGVOCACY
Editor,
I
find the “agvocacy” movement a little
shallow. It seems pretty “rah rah” for
farmers—sometimes at the expense of
other professions. Who can forget that
quotation ending with “ … needs a farmer
three times a day” that bombards Face-
book and Twitter? How about the “God
made a farmer” Dodge Ram Superbowl ad.
If we are trying to be taken seriously by
our end users, we should be more sensitive
to their professions. The tool-push who
pulls my diesel from the ground and the
engineer who provides power for irriga-
tion have important pieces to play in my
operation before I even get a seed into
the ground. If we want to be treated like
experts, we must be willing to reciprocate.
Agvocacy must be respectful of other occu-
pations and points of view, be ready to tack-
le tough questions and be rooted in facts.
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Perennial Crop Insurance Deadline
February 28, 2015
PROTECTION FOR PERENNIAL CROPS
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Most evident these days in the comment
sections of food blogs, shallow agvocacy
looks amateurish, simplistic and patroniz-
ing. Recently, the pre-harvest glyphosate
debate has hit the blogs and—as incorrect
and biased as many blogs are—the farmer
comments can be just as incorrect. Most
start with “we grow wheat and I’ve never
heard of this,” “we would never knowingly
spray a toxin on food” or “why would you
want to kill a wheat plant before harvest?”
Uninformed farmers can be worse for ag
than an uninformed blogger when their
simplistic arguments are exposed.
So what should we do when agvocacy
goes sideways? Shut up, research the issue
and then, and only then, should we con-
template engaging in the debate. We can
do far more good by remaining silent than
misinforming consumers or oversimplify-
ing a complex issue.
Andy Kirschenman
Hilda, AB