A couple weekends ago, while it was still nice but fields weren’t yet suitable for fieldwork, I was hanging shelving in the garage my wife and I added to our property last summer. While I was working, I noticed our semi-retired neighbor walking across the street toward me.
“I have some questions for the farmer of the neighborhood,” he said as he entered the garage. We have a diverse little neighborhood, but I am indeed the only farmer, for at least a few blocks.
I knew what he was going to ask: What should I make of all the food shortage articles that have been circulating since Russia invaded Ukraine. I had been pondering these articles as well — most of them seem like fear mongering, clickbait to me, which has indeed become annoying.
“What do you make of all these food shortage stories I’ve been reading online?” Jim asked. I was right. He continued, “are you concerned at all about input shortages for your farm?”
I’ve been thinking about my response to these type of questions for a while now. I guess what I’m most concerned about is what’s the next shoe to drop? What’s the next preventable event that happens out of haste? Will the government step in and, in an effort to “curb food price hikes,” put a halt to ethanol? If that happens, what about the livestock industry that depends on the co-products of the ethanol industry. Will parts of the nation go into lockdown again and continue to disrupt our logistics? What if California’s central valley doesn’t get the water they need for irrigation?
What concerns me most is what if the government, in its infinite desire to be the solution to our problems, makes things worse by changing the rules and regulations midstream on us. The American farmer and rancher is the best, most efficient and safest producer of food this planet has ever known. Above all other years, this is the year we need to be left alone to do what we know how to do best: feed, clothe and fuel our country and the world.
Our greatest variable will always be the weather, which means we need as many constants in the equation as possible. We all will put our all into our crops and animals this year, as we always do. Just please don’t change the variables. We are great at what we do as an industry, so please leave us to do our jobs.
We owe our existence to four inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
Trust us, but pray for good weather.
