An Open Letter to Anyone Who Spreads Myths about Farming:
While you were warm and cozy in your beds on Thanksgiving morning, farmers and ranchers all across America were out in the elements making sure that our animals were cared for.
While you were starting to prepare your food for your Thanksgiving celebration, we were outside in the freezing cold, wind, and snow making sure our animals had shelter from the wind, and plenty of food and fresh water.
While you were traveling or gathering with your friends and family, farmers and ranchers were checking fence, unrolling bales of hay, and ensuring all the animals were healthy and accounted for.
Our cattle eating a bale of hay on Thanksgiving morning.
Only then did WE, the people who literally grow and raise your food, sit down to eat our Thanksgiving dinner. Regardless of if you eat meat or not, someBODY grows or raises all of your food.
It’s ironic isn’t it, that with your mouth full of food, you have the audacity to denigrate and drag farmers and ranchers through the mud? Or in our case in Nebraska right now, the snow.
The video is from Thanksgiving morning. Right now—Saturday—conditions are considerably worse. We have heavy snow, with about 6-8 inches on the ground, 50 mph wind, and freezing temps. And yet, this morning was no different. Our animals ate before we did.
I’m not telling you this for sympathy—we love what we do and we consider it an honor to be entrusted with caring so well for the animals that help feed our family and yours.
And before you say something like, “Well you have a small family farm, I am sure things are much different on a big “factory farm.” No, Karen, they’re not. Regardless of size, all good farmers and ranchers take animal care very seriously and it’s a top priority.
I’m just asking that maybe next time you are eating in the warmth of your home, think about the hard work it took someone (many people actually) in order to get that food to you from the farm or field, all the way to the grocery store, and to your plate.
And maybe, just maybe, at the very least, be kind to farmers and ranchers instead of spreading myths about the very people who ensure that you get your next meal.
Sincerely,
A Very, Very Cold Farmer from Nebraska
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