GW COMMUNICATION MESSAGE
Becoming Somebody Worth Knowing: Bringing Up The Average By Jake W Renner I grew up my entire life with a personal mindset that to be "somebody," I needed to be surrounded by people I felt were already "somebody." I have heard multiple times throughout my young adult life, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." Take a second and ask yourself who you spend most of your time with (outside of your family) and what impact they have had on your life in the last week, month and year. Growing up in a small rural community in Kansas, I was lucky enough to be raised by parents who continuously led by example and showed my siblings and me what it meant to give back. My parents worked harder than anybody I knew, as I am sure you remember yours doing. Because of the roles my parents played within my community as the city clerk, fire chief, resident umpire, and bus driver, it was not uncommon for me to hear daily from them, "Don't forget to act like a Renner and be a leader." Back then, I wasn't sure exactly what that meant aside from the obvious avoidance of anything or situation that I wasn't brave enough to tell them I'd done when I got home. What does any of this have to do with the beef industry and our role as stewards of the land? Whether
28 | MAY 2021
we like it or not, technology is becoming second nature to most. Those who have not yet adopted its convenient nuances are not far behind for many reasons aside from the fact that it will soon be unavoidable. News travels fast. In the blink of an eye, a picture, screengrab or comment on an article can be posted stating something along the lines of, "Local ranchers let cows stand outside with snow on their backs in the storm to freeze”. See, people are watching. But are they? The unfortunate reality is that some of these accusations placed upon the beef community's men and women are just that, assumptions, and misinformed ones at that. Fighting the negative rumors surrounding our lifestyle from misinformed consumers is an uphill climb that we cannot win. If you read my article last year, I discussed why it is important that we, as agriculturalists, educators and leaders, answer the difficult questions pertaining specifically to animal production and land use. In recent news, a decision was made by a highly influential group of individuals to abandon meat for a day. Shock and awe rattled the beef community across the U.S., to no surprise. Supporting the individual(s) who keep an activity, event, trend or movement against the agricultural way of life goes against everything we feel internally to be worthy and true of a hard day's work.
