It's raining ice this morning. We are now in the middle of freezing rain and the kids had school. Several around the county were closed, but not us. I almost expect them to be sent home early if this freezing rain keeps up.

Well, I promised my column so I'd better put it in today. Here it is:

Truth from the Trenches
By Melissa Hart

If farmers want to continue to farm and produce food for the world, they must change their strategies. This is according to Dr. Wes Jamison a University of Florida public relations researcher.
Last week, I began writing about a consumer who thought the American farmer needed to visit Europe to learn how to treat their livestock humanely. Remember? The lady with the green beret and matching cape? She had a lot of opinions but no research to back up the false claims that were spewing out of her mouth.
A few days later at the Michigan Farm Bureau Annual Meeting I had the chance to listen to Dr. Wes Jamison speak on animal welfare issues and how farmers should combat the growing wave of consumers who like to eat meat but want to bring livestock into the house too.
He basically said the animal welfare voices are defending a moral cause. They want to control how farmers treat their animals. While they buy their pot bellied pigs for pets and house train them so they can sit in an easy chair with them, they also want to make sure the average pig farmer raises a consumable product but do it in a way that in consistent with their humane practices. I guess they think we need to let our pigs have the run of the house while the farmers sleep in the barn and then make sure they get slaughtered…humanely….so they can have bacon with their pancakes.
Dr. Jamison said that farmers have a lame defense. He said they state research and bring out veterinarians to explain to everyone that they produce food the best, most efficient way and in doing it this way they maintain lower prices to the consumer.
Apparently this is wrong and we need to change our strategy. In a country where $75 billion dollars is spent on companion pets and every possible drug that is prescribed for humans is now available for our pets and there is a growing organization called the Human Society of the United States whose primary goal is to abolish animal agriculture and is growing in members and power daily, farmers need to take a stand and be loud about it. Incidentally, the Humane Society of the United States is a completely different organization than your local humane society that shelters homeless pet. They are not affiliated with each other in any way, shape or from.
Because we grow the best, safest, cheapest food supply, and because of this there is no room for inhumane care of livestock we need to start getting squeaky about these facts. One of the best statements Dr. Jamison said was that humans are at the top of the food chain and we have to stop wringing our hands about the fact that we won.
You don’t have to be a God believing Christian to buy into this, evolutionists can even admit the fact that humans are at the top and we need to eat animals to live a healthy life.
So armed with the evidence that we as people are charged with being the best stewards of this earth and the creatures that crawl, swim and fly around it, we can stand up, unashamedly and say, “Yes, I am a farmer and I harvest animals in order to put human consumable product on the tables of Americans and the rest of the world to keep you and your children and your grandchildren alive!”
Let’s get squeaky!