By Jennifer Poindexter, Missouri Farm Bureau’s Director of Promotion & Education
JEFFERSON CITY — The cold chill is still in the air across our state. Schools and businesses alike close for snow and ice, yet one industry just keeps going. Farmers and ranchers across our state work even harder in these cold months to bring healthy and sustainable food choices to consumers. Livestock producers are ensuring that their animals have hay to eat, fresh water to drink, not to mention maintaining equipment so that they can do their job effectively.
It wasn’t that long ago that consumers were faced with bare store shelves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Do you remember searching high and low for toilet paper? Worry set in and farmers and ranchers across that state came alongside neighbors and acquaintances alike, to provide food and other goods. In these times of hardship, we often reflect. Missouri Farm Bureau has made a tradition of reflecting and celebrating the work of all involved in the agriculture industry.
Each year, we take a week to pause and celebrate the work of farmers but to also give back to the communities who pour into our industry, livelihood and families. From March 2-8, county Farm Bureaus and other local organizations are setting aside time to highlight some of your local farmers and ranchers and educate students and community members about agriculture’s vital role in everyone’s daily lives. It’s about everyone getting involved and giving back.
During that week, you’ll see farmers and ranchers taking time away from their farms to go into classrooms, tell stories about their operations, and explain why chocolate milk doesn’t come from brown cows. Others will visit local charities and not-for-profit organizations to volunteer their time and energy to stock a food pantry or deliver non-perishables to a women’s shelter. The opportunities are limitless, and county Farm Bureaus get this week to set aside dedicated time to not necessarily “Thank a Farmer,” but to “Celebrate Agriculture.”
We celebrate our communities, our customers, our friends and the industry that intertwines us all together. Paul Harvey said it best, in his last paragraph of his famous “So God Made a Farmer” speech. It reads: “It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church; somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life ‘doing what dad does’.”
This week, we celebrate you, salute your hard work and are grateful that the good Lord gives us another day to be involved in this industry we all love.
Missouri Farm Bureau is the state’s largest farm organization with a presence in every county throughout the state. Learn more on our website or follow @MissouriFarmBureau on Facebook, @MOFarmBureau on X or @MOFarmBureau on Instagram.