Rural Issues: Listen, learn, ask questions

I have been writing about it in this column for more than 20 years, yet it never ceases to amaze me how otherwise rational adults can turn into combative middle schoolers the moment certain hot-button topics hit the table.

Topics like antibiotic use in livestock, glyphosate, GMOs, climate change and carbon markets. Toss in “animal welfare” and watch the civilized conversation implode faster than a barn in a tornado.

What’s even more baffling? Farmers turning on each other. And some of you? You’re flirting with the enemy.

I’ve heard it: “Better to stand with animal rights groups than corporate ag.” Really?

PETA wants you to stop eating meat — period. They’d prefer your pasture become a petting zoo.

I’ve been labeled closed-minded more than once — usually by someone who’s just finished a kale smoothie and read an article on animal welfare in VegNews.

I am not here to throw shade on chickpeas, quinoa, or kale. OK, maybe a little shade on kale. I’ve grown it and I’ve prepared it a dozen different ways and I still don’t like it.

Others embrace ag tech, but scorn Big Ag, sort of like those who swear off fast food, but still love drive-thrus — convenience and efficiency without swallowing the corporate combo meal.

They’re riding in auto-steer tractors, using drone data and planting kernels of seed stacked with traits for drought resistance, pest control and higher yields, all while giving the side-eye to the companies that sell them.

Rejecting agriculture based on soundbites and stereotypes doesn’t make you enlightened; it just makes you loud. We can disagree on practices, but we can’t afford to shut our brains off in the process.

Yes, it hurts that some family farms were, and others still are, unable to survive. Some sold out under pressure. That pain is real.

They were smart, hardworking people. They loved the land. They cared for their livestock and their communities. And they played by the rules — until the rules changed.

Maybe corporate agriculture had a hand in that shift. Maybe it made the playing field uneven.

But siding with people who believe it should be illegal to own, breed, or humanely process animals? Those who want to take away the tools and technology used in modern agriculture?

That is not a strategy. That’s sabotage.

Here’s a news flash: Those anti-agriculture groups don’t just oppose “corporate ag.” They’re coming for your tractor, your cattle chute, your right to raise animals at all.

You don’t have to like your neighbor’s farming methods. You don’t have to agree with every decision the guy down the road makes.

But rallying against your own community? That’s how agriculture loses.

Change is coming. It always does. You don’t have to embrace every trend, but you do need to understand it.

Before you sign the petition, post the rant, or align yourself with groups that want to outlaw your way of life — pause.

Listen. Learn. Ask questions. And, remember, defending agriculture doesn’t mean defending every ag practice.

But undermining your neighbor while standing on moral high ground built by misinformation? That’s just handing the keys of the barn over to people who want to burn it down.