BUNKHOUSE
WALKING THROUGH THE LINCOLN TUNNEL TOGETHER by CCA Director of Communications Katie Roberti "...then, I traveled through the seven levels of the candy cane forest, past the sea of swirly-twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel." While I’ve always loved the holiday movie “Elf ” and all things Christmas, I find it hard to believe that Buddy the Elf's above quote describing his trip from the North Pole to New York City sounds semi-relatable to the journey 2020 has taken us on this year. More than 10 months in, I think we can all agree the rollercoaster of 2020 has been a weird one. We’ve made it past the presidential election (although there’s a good chance ballots are still being counted as you are reading this), through extremely volatile cattle markets and more than seven months of living with COVID-19, hopefully to the end of the most catastrophic wildfire season we've ever seen, and the list goes on. (On a personal note, I’m thankful the murder hornets haven't had a more significant impact and praying they won't.) Somehow, even with most events being canceled in 2020, we've made it through more life events in 2020 than imaginable—and the year’s not over yet. With two months left in 2020, we still have yet to make it through the Lincoln Tunnel like Buddy the Elf did at the end of his journey to New York City. While I know the problems of 2020 won't just magically disappear at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, I do believe how we come out of the Lincoln Tunnel and into the new year is incredibly important. Will the cattle industry and animal agriculture come out as a community united? Or will we fall into the pit of divisiveness that seems to be lurking around corner after corner right now in America?
6 California Cattleman November 2020
There is one specific reason why I believe agriculture can’t afford to become more divided going into the new year. Amid the craziness of 2020, it’s easy to feel like some of our issues in animal agriculture have been put on hold. Unfortunately, when it comes to the extreme animal rights activists KATIE ROBERTI this is not the case. Animal rights activists have used the pandemic, stay at home orders and more free time on their calendars to ramp up their efforts. The Animal Agriculture Alliance (the Alliance) is “an industry-united, nonprofit organization that helps bridge the communication gap between farm and fork,” with the simple motto of “connect, engage and protect.” CCA is proud to be a member of the Alliance and to support their efforts. One of those efforts throughout the pandemic has been to correct the misinformation linking animal agriculture to the outbreak of COVID-19. “While we are heartened by the ways the animal agriculture community and other frontline workers are rising to the challenge of responding to this ongoing crisis, we are dismayed by attempts from activist groups to ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
