On February 5th, I blogged about the Dodge Super Bowl ad honoring the "American Farmer". A few days ago while driving and lisiting to XM radio I heard one of those "talking heads" on a 24 hour news channels bash the ad. This lady, that probably does not know the difference in a turnip and a bull's balls, said with great authority that the American farmer does not exist. That 70% of or farmer's are Mexican. She then castagaed this group into some sub class of people.
I know that 95% of what you see on CNN, Fox and MSNBC news channel on a 24 hour period is 10% real news and 90% entertainment present ednot by real news reporters, but hired actors who are presenters playing the role fo a reporter. To make matters worse, they generally cast their own opionion on every story they report as if it matters, and then turn to a pannel of "want to be" distinguished experts to spew more meanless words on the subject. So it was with the story on the American farmer.
I can tell you about a few "American farmers" in my family that might be classed by that person as not being American.
A few nights ago, in the rain, my wife Eva was out in the dark catching chickens that were new to the egg mobil one-by-one and putting them in the hen house for evening safety. Some were in trees, some in bushes and some roosting under the house. She might not be called an American as she is naturalized having been born in Central America. But, she is an American farmer.
My grandfather Kafer was raised in Russia in a German ethnic community. Without any visa or documents, he came to the United States to farm.Today he would be classified as undoumented or illegal by many. It took him over 35 years to get naturalization. He raised nine children in the dust bowl farming on poor land with little water. But, he was an American farmer.
My grandmother Edomndson was born in Indian Territory Oklahoma to an European father running a general store and a "mixed breed" American Indian what was part white and part nartive American. She worked side-by-side with her family and lived on what they raised. The surplus they sold to feed the city folks. My grandmother was an American farmer too.
I really think the person on the news program was really trying to make the point that persons of non-white color are now the majority of America's farmers and casting some dispersion on this as if they are not good enough. It was clearly a racist comment and none on the panel offered any different opinion.
The U. S. Department of Labor issues an excellent
report on farming demographics. As you can see in the chart below, the American farmer is not what you might expect. While the average age of the farm land owners is in their late 50's, the average age of the famers's working the land is 35.
I guess my point is that our 24 hours news cycle reports little real news and even less factual, intellegent news analysis (watch or listen to the BBS if you want news), it pissed me off when this "news person" made such a racist comment and that was not challenged by anyone.
As for our farm, depending on who is here from the family and near family to work on any given day, we are born in Arkansas, Texas, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Madagaascar, Mexico and Belize. It's a diverse family I know, but we live in America and when we work on our farm, WE ARE American farmers too!