While most people have capriciously wished for an end to modern technology following a particularly annoying late-night text from an employer, only the smallest minority actually advocates a return to the workplace technology of 50 years ago.

So, why do so many people outside of agriculture think that a return to equally antiquated technology would actually improve farming?

Recently, a column in Stock and Land magazine examined the impact of a large-scale return to the farming methods of our forefathers, a romantic notion with dismal consequences. Instead of growing a crop large enough to share with the world, U.S. farmers would produce only enough food to feed half of the country’s current population.  Maintaining levels of dairy, meat and milk production would require two-thirds more land.  Increased environmental degradation and social unrest further complicate this already hungry scenario.

Simply, removing technology and scientific advances from modern life seriously damages productivity and effectiveness whether done in corporate or agrarian America.  Notably, the negative impact on farming creates a food shortage thus depriving an incredible number of those in towns and cities of the sustenance needed to survive.

Instead of buying into the soft-focus vision of farming that replaces knowledge and understanding with a vague sense of nostalgia, get the facts.  Question the farmers and ranchers who produce food about how and why they use the technology and practices that they do.  Look at the bounty of healthy options U.S. agriculture offers.  Become part of national discussion about food that seeks a better tomorrow instead of a rose-tinted version of the past.

I know business professionals aren’t supposed to say “Duh” but this is a blog and sometimes simple is better so “Duh.”

The NY Times blog notes that “State laws that ban soda in schools — but not other sweetened beverages — have virtually no impact on the amount of sugary drinks middle school students buy and consume at school, a new study shows.”

Their study took a look at thousands of public school students across 40 states, found that removing soda from cafeterias and school vending machines only prompted students to buy sports drinks, sweetened fruit drinks and other sugar-laden beverages instead. In states that banned only soda, students bought and consumed sugary drinks just as frequently at school as their peers in states where there were no bans at all.

Did somebody actually pay for this information? In the name of saving some money and urging the discussion along let me go one step further and save you the time and investment in other moments that make you slap your forehead and scream “Eureka.”

Some schools have actually removed all drinks containing sugar in an effort to protect the students from themselves and guess what happens.  Teachers I know who work in the trenches elbow to elbow with the children and young adults say an interesting phenomenon occurs; students actually bring their own drink of choice to school…or even more than one.

This easy access to their first choice of drinks/drinks may actually increase their consumption. Most teachers and many school administrators get this but apparently school boards who are making these silly decisions do not.

I have said it here before and will likely say it again; trying to legislate or regulate common sense is a slippery slope. The national obesity problem amongst children and adults in this country is a real issue but it needs to be addressed through intelligent lifestyle choices that include better selections of food and quantity consumed as well as regular exercise. Good role models at home can have far more impact on students than any school board.

Providing a helping hand at the event is Jere White, Executive Director, Kansas Corn Growers Association. I sat down with him to get his thoughts on this promotion and what it means to corn growers. Jere says the audience is a little different than might have been considered in the past but when it comes to the E15 issue it was found that some of the push back came from boaters and bikers. The Sturgis event is the largest gathering of bikers in the country and he believes that after several years of promotion and education a difference is being made. Jere rode his own motorcycle to the event which he has converted to run on E85 and it is performing well. I also asked Jere to give us an update on the status of the corn crop in Kansas which, like other parts of the corn belt, has some widely different conditions at this point in the season.

You can find a lot of photos from the 2011 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally here: 2011 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Photo Album

As an industry, we must make an active decision to cultivate the next generation as carefully as farmers do their crops.

Even in this unimpressive-at-best job market, there is a fight for young talent.  By relying on the natural interest of a small group, ag misses out on the opportunity to recruit potential powerhouses. Simply sharing can turn the next Norman Borlaug’s attention in this direction.

Last week, the NCGA staff took a moment to do just that.  Two college-age interns visited home office in St. Louis to try and understand the role that associations play in U.S. agriculture and the opportunities that these unique organizations present.  Speaking with economists, biologists and communicators, the students discovered that an entire world of possibilities awaits them after graduation and made friends eager to help them succeed.

Following the visit, presenters realized something unexpected – they had gained as much from the students as they had given.  Full of optimism and questions, the interns provoked thought by asking questions in a fresh manner and reinvigorated spirits with the interest and respect they provided so naturally.

While not everyone has a fresh crop of college students to mentor every summer, everyone involved in agriculture can become a recruiter.  Look around at the young people in local schools, churches and clubs.  Invite them onto the farm for a tour.  Ask if they would like to tour a state association or other agri-business in the area.  Actively seek out the people who will lead us into the future.

Other industries are out there looking to build strong staffers and ensure a strong, vibrant workforce.  It is time to beat them to the punch and show that ag is not only a strong part of our nation’s past, but also, a bright part of its future.

Right now, arguments against corn-based ethanol, corn sugar and production agriculture have gained a significant amount of public attention.  What we must do is question the information the nay-sayers build their arguments upon because, as high school also taught, popularity does not equal substance.

But it seems legislators forgot these valuable lessons as the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment decided to invite chicken lobbyists, environmentalists and Big Oil to testify during a hearing examining the science behind E15.  While each of these groups most certainly has an opinion, albeit a self-serving one, on ethanol, none can claim to have conducted the unbiased, scientific research that would lend their arguments credibility.

If the subcommittee had truly intended to take a hard look at the scientific knowledge on E15, there were many groups who could have offered more pertinent, reliable data.  Institutions that publish actual research that holds weight in scientific circles, including the Rochester Institute of Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have conducted extensive research on the matter.   Yet, somehow, our elected officials chose to listen to groups with obvious agendas and little expertise in the matter.

Food elitists have taken the same route as the armchair activists who perpetuate the idea that corn sugar, also known as high fructose corn syrup, somehow adds to the obesity epidemic, predisposes persons toward diabetes or is just generally bad.  A majority of the HFCS-bashing public cannot accurately explain why they believe it to be worse beyond knowing that they heard something about some study.

Performing a routine Facebook search for the term yields telling results immediately.  The very first result offered is a page advocating a complete ban of HFCS.  Put together by a high school graduate with no discernible other credentials, the page explains that corn sugar differs from other sweeteners as the body metabolizes fructose and glucose differently.  He even cites scientific evidence.

While this appears credible on the surface, it isn’t.  What this vocal activist, who has been written about in publications as lofty as the New York Times, fails to understand is that corn sugar, cane sugar and beet sugar are nearly identical in their ratio of glucose to fructose, approximately 50 percent of each.  Dieticians, physicians and reputable voices throughout the industry already know that corn sugar does not differ from other sweeteners.  So why are more than 20,000 people fans of this inaccurate, bitter propaganda?  The only logical conclusion is that they too decided to lazily accept whatever information they were handfed rather than critically evaluate the source.

It is time that we ask as much of ourselves as was required in high school – that we act as critical thinkers.  The assignments today include developing sensible policies that serve the public good and are based in science and not propaganda-driven hysteria.  Much more is at stake than an A this time so follow your English teacher’s instructions and make sure that the information you share comes from a source deserving of your trust.

The winners are Hayley Bunselmeyer, a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in crop sciences; Kristin DeSutter, a junior at the University of Illinois pursuing agricultural communications; Amy Peyton, a junior at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business, economics, and public service and administration; Andy Pringnitz, a junior at Iowa State University studying agricultural business, economics and international agriculture; and Jessica Schwartz, a first-year graduate student at Ohio State University specializing in horticulture and crop sciences. They are pictured here with BASF VP for U.S. Crop Protection Paul Rea and Pam Johnson, a Corn Board member from Lloyd, Iowa and liaison to the Grower Services Action Team.

“Providing students with the financial resources to complete their education is the key to building strong agricultural leaders of tomorrow,” Pam said. “We thank BASF for its integral role and support in these scholarships.”

These young people really are the cream of the crop, chosen from about 45 entries nationwide. I had a chance to get a couple of comments from each of them, which you can listen to here:

With such a high volume of new members of Congress and a significant change in those members sitting on the House Ag Committee, NCGA can use this opportunity to educate our new political leaders and their staffs about our priorities and about our organization.  Over the next year, we are planning to send a copy of the 2011 World of Corn to each office on Capitol Hill as well as bring the Corn Farmers Coalition back to DC a third time. But there is still an important piece missing.

The new Congress provides farmers the chance to build those imperative relationships with their new members.  Now is the time to reach out and let your voice be heard.  Offices appreciate hearing from constituents, and many use the information shared as a way to make voting decisions.  Share your story and make clear to them what is important to you.  Pick up the phone, write a letter or an email, or stop by your new representative’s office and start fostering those personal relationships.  It is your voice they want to hear.

It all starts with knowledge because once the average American understands the business of farming better and has a better handle on how essential this industry of independent entrepreneurs is to us all then the thankfulness comes naturally.

And that’s what the National Corn Growers Association’s Holiday Viral Email campaign is about. The idea is to take one small part of agriculture and connect the dots. In this case the focus is on showing the important role corn and distillers grains from ethanol production to raising all kinds of livestock and related products and converting it to critical protein to keep us healthy and vital.

Attached to this blog is the second email in the series which showcases beef. The first message featured a turkey and went out the week of Thanksgiving. Chicken, pork and dairy are yet to come. You can view them all at the link above.

The idea of a viral email is simple; it starts with one person sending it to 10 people and asking them to send it to their friends, family, and business associates via email, facebook etc… This seemingly simple concept can result in thousands of people getting a positive message about our largest and most important industry.

I would appreciate your help in disseminating this to the widest possible audience. The entire image is clickable and goes to a backgrounder online related to the importance protein.

It’s easy…..just go to What Does Protein Do. At the bottom of the page you will find all of the images. Pick one and cut and paste it into an email along with a message asking your friends to pass it on. Come back each week between now and Christmas and send another one. The turkey is fair game again if you haven’t already sent it and you get bonus points for sending to non-Aggies.

In November, we started filming a video that will encompass aspects of grain bin engulfment and prevention. But  before jumping in (no pun intended), our team sat down and decided what messages we needed to get out in front of our members and farmers across the country.  Our end result; this is going to be no ordinary video.   We realized that many of the informational videos on grain bin safety didn’t bring in the emotional aspect and that is where our video will differ.  You may find yourself reaching for the tissue box in the opening seconds of the video as we are bring to light the emotional struggle families must face after the loss of a loved one in a grain bin accident.

We are also interviewing experts that train firefighters across the country to rescue engulfment victims and hope it shines a light on how difficult their job can really be.  In fact, we were told during an interview that even after all the training; their department lost a firefighter in a grain bin accident on his parent’s farm only a few years ago.  Can you imagine what was going through those firefighters’ heads as they frantically tried, and ultimately failed, to save a colleague’s life?

Our goal is to reach farmers and make sure they understand that those five extra minutes that might be saved by going into the bin alone and without proper precautions could cost them their life.  We want them to realize that while this is a harsh reality of our industry, it can be prevented.   If we have just one farmer stop and think twice before entering a grain bin alone, we have done our job. 

As a daughter, sister, granddaughter and niece of farmers and the wife of a firefighter, I am making sure I can do my part to not only protect and educate my family, but farmers all across the country. 

The video will debut at farmer meetings and on the NCGA web site in the middle of January, 2011.

It is also ironic that if three “foodies” get together to offer their advice on how we should grow food in this country it is advocacy…a movement if you will. However, if a group of family farmers of all sizes and persuasions get together it instantly becomes that nebulous and evil “Big Ag.”

Chris Wilson, president of American Agri-Women, describes the effort well saying, “CommonGround is a program that builds bridges between the passionate women of America’s farms and their counterparts in America’s cities to dispel the misconceptions about our food and the people who grow it.”

There are numerous efforts today like Common Ground (from the Corn Farmers Coalition to The Hands That Feed Us) that seek to give a voice to family farmers. Doing so in an organized fashion and giving farm women an opportunity to be heard makes perfect sense. This public outreach effort is neither anti-sustainability, against social change or antagonistic. 

Traditional farming is driving social change and has made incredible gains in environmental improvement and sustainability. In fact, all segments of Ag are moving more to the middle – saving soil, cutting pesticide and fertilizer applications, reducing carbon footprint – so it is really the rate of change that is at issue.

To continue to feed an additional 9 billion people by 2050 this speed of change will be critical to nourishing an expanding world population. Safe, abundant and affordable food is something that we can all agreement upon and is a core goal for all of the farmers supporting CommonGround.

“There are many misconceptions about agriculture in the media today, and we are working, as we have over the past 35 years, to be a voice for truth in communicating to others about agriculture,” Wilson says, so maybe it is the organized effort and the amplification of the message that is disturbing some who are used to dominating the conversation about food in this nation.

Thanks American Agri-Women for showing continued leadership and thanks for all the farmers supporting this important effort by contributing your hard-earned dollars.