Editorial / Opinions

Growing up on the farm, there were two things I swore I would never do when, and if, I ever became an adult. 

We found our Christmas tree in the field this year. Finding the perfectly shaped pine or cedar, with a crisp, sunny day highlighting the enchanted experience, may be how most of us envision those home-grown Christmas trees coming. But, if you’ve ever gotten a tree straight from the pasture, fencerow or gulley, you know that usually the experience is much less magical and much more work.

When my father left the farming business for Texas, there were no grandmothers or grandfathers or mothers or dads left to lean on. Instead, there were Helen and Connie and Andy, leaning on me.

As a youngster, my parents always had a huge vegetable garden. Out of necessity, we grew almost everything we needed to survive. For most people, garden work is both enjoyable and rewarding. Heck, some people even find it soothing and cathartic. I, on the other hand, always despised garden work.

This issue I worked on a piece about Drury University's Animal Rights program that we mentioned unfavorably in our Rumor Mill section last issue. This animal rights program came about from a total of $2 million in gifts from Bob Barker, of "The Price is Right." Bob Barker’s daily message on the game show about spaying and neutering your pets was one I always agreed with. My mom said one of the world’s big tragedies is the millions of unwanted, unloved, adorable puppies and kittens in the world. I’m an animal lover with a bleeding heart for the strays and the sick ones. I know I’ll be preaching to the choir here, but I think it is vital to understand this. There is a gigantic difference between not wanting to be cruel to animals, to loving your pets and treating your livestock well, and in raising animals’ status morally or worse, legally, to the same level as people, by considering their “rights.”

I’ve been to a few recent state and regional meetings of Rural Electric Coops and heard some real good news. Folks have woken up their representatives and senators. They've told them charging people in mid-America a carbon tax on their electric bill is not very popular with voters. This is good; keep contacting them, about this and any other issue that disturbs you. The voice of America is strong and you can make a difference. Enough politics.

Many years ago, I made one of the best financial decisions of my lifetime. I had the unique opportunity to be the first importer of a certain breed of beef cattle from a foreign country. The outlay of cash was significant, but if the breed panned out, I stood to make lots of money by being the first source of the new genetics to the rest of the United States. After much study and deliberation, I passed on the chance.  The breed didn’t offer much to U.S. beef producers and I really don’t think the people who took that chance profited much (if any) from their risk, since the breed has really become just a novelty. That turned out to be a really good decision on my part, but… I have made many, many bad decisions.

This issue I worked on a piece about Drury University's Animal Rights program that we mentioned unfavorably in our Rumor Mill section last issue. This animal rights program came about from a total of $2 million in gifts from Bob Barker, of "The Price is Right." Bob Barker’s daily message on the game show about spaying and neutering your pets was one I always agreed with. My mom said one of the world’s big tragedies is the millions of unwanted, unloved, adorable puppies and kittens in the world. I’m an animal lover with a bleeding heart for the strays and the sick ones. I know I’ll be preaching to the choir here, but I think it is vital to understand this. There is a gigantic difference between not wanting to be cruel to animals, to loving your pets and treating your livestock well, and in raising animals’ status morally or worse, legally, to the same level as people, by considering their “rights.”

Part 2

These things I remember most vividly about being raised on the farm; the enormous love of my family. Surrounded by my parents, two grandmothers and one grandfather and one set of great-grandparents, it seemed that, surely, I, an only child, would be “spoiled too rotten to live.” Indeed, “Pa,” as I called Grandfather Alsup, often admonished Mother, “There’s no place on that boy for a stick.” More often than not his admonishment only led to a postponement of the inevitable punishment, and made it worse.

Most of us involved in agriculture are very concerned about pending legislation that would tax livestock producers based on “methane emissions” by their animals. Essentially, this would force most of us out of the business because our cattle burp and… well… expel “gaseous” matter out the other end. I always suspected the government would find a way to tax our very existence and it appears this might be the way. I admit that I’ve been overly concerned with this prospect for some time, but events of last week have left me even more paranoid about my own personal future.