We Feed, We Clothe and We Rise to What We Must Do
By Kevin Rogers, Arizona Farm Bureau President
And, as they say, the hits just keep on coming! It does feel relentless at times, but agriculture seems always under the gun for something. It doesn't matter what enterprise, there is always something. There are economic issues, markets beyond our control, animal and livestock diseases, food safety, consumer changes and threats from extreme environmental and animal activist groups.
It seems like something or somebody is trying to put us out of business. I know it’s not true across-the-board, but it does feel that way at times. Because we benefit from our labor and our risks, because we understand cycles and “seasons” and because we cherish the freedom of our lives and the growth to our families, we work through these things. Arizona agriculture has a great history of rising to the challenge in this country. We feed and we clothe and we rise to what we need to do.
Because we are few in number, but loom large in economics, we have learned to pool our resources to make our arguments together. Just like it makes sense for us to band together as a Farm Bureau organization, it makes sense for us to work together with other agricultural groups.
We need many voices, so we need the diversity, but we also need the differences. Organization A often needs the perspective of Organization B. We need to challenge one another's thinking and approaches to problems. We also need the close affiliation and inside knowledge that is gained from working on a daily basis with particular commodities.
We all know the dangers of “group think” and the strength that can come from difference -- we always need to be working on our arguments -- sharpening our wits so to speak.
And then there is the comfort when we all come together on a mutual basis to help solve another's problem -- sort of like the old barn raising activities --somebody lost their barn to a fire and everyone gets together to replace it.
In times of stress, we “forget” to pay our dues (yes, I mean money) to our various organizations -- other things seem more important. I would say that these are the times when we need to insure our dues are current to all of the various agricultural organizations. Everyone plays a role and when one of those roles is not covered, we all lose.
All of our organizations have to be healthy and viable in order to fight as a united front the many battles we have.
We’ll continue to feed and to clothe and to rise to what we do. And we’ll not forget to pool our resources to make our arguments together.
