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What’s the biggest threat to agriculture? Oprah answered that question last night when she called my farm a “factory” on an international stage of millions. What Oprah, Meghan, and Harry don’t understand is basic food production and what it takes to feed a hungry world. Our population is going to double by 2050. How are farmers going to feed everyone? The truth is they will with advances in technology, precision, dedication, and hard work. The facts show farmers are producing more food on less land with less environmental impacts than ever before. They should be praised, not punished by offensive depictions. I live in rural Eastern North Carolina where the average household income is 30,000 or less per year. Food cost is a big deal for these families. Unlike Oprah, they don’t have the luxury of a disposable income. Farmers like me, produce affordable, healthy, nutritious protein for the consumer— I’m proud of that. I wish Oprah would educate herself and visit farms of all shapes and sizes before she makes such disparaging comments about family farms across this great nation. 98% of farms in this country are family-owned and Oprah, Meghan, and Harry, you are welcome to visit mine anytime. We are not “factories”, we are families.
1.5k Likes, 1.7k shares as of 3/15/21
a few of the 100+ replies:
- I love this!!! My family and I live and farm on a NC Century Farm that we’ve had in our family for over 100 years. We are also told this very same thing. I encourage those that do not farm to please seek your information from the actual farmers...not from the media. We raise poultry (chickens) and have row crops on our farm. This is very well said.
- I totally agree with you. Most of them do not understand or care about the hard work, constantly learning how to improve, or even what farmers have to contend with. They must be concerned with weather, rising costs of fertilizer, seeds, equipment, new or repairs, fuel, and I could go on and on. Farmers provide so much to so many. Many children and some parents think food comes from the grocery store. It is imperative that they must learn the truth and impact that farms and farmers have on everyone.
- Send O a personal invite! Tell her to do an interview America needs and cares about. Tell her to bring Harry and Meghan with her....Marlowe could teach them all a trick or two!
- I‘ve been growing food for years and it‘s definitely a risky situation and to call it a factory is really an incorrect label
- I appreciate this post. I grew up working on a small row cropping farm in eastern North Carolina. When I was about 8 years old my dad went into fulltime hog farming. I worked on that farm all the way through college. I came home every weekend while at ECU to work. His hog farm was small compared to the size of the farms now. But I know that there is no way that we can produce the food that people around this world need unless we use these advanced techniques. People can‘t have it both ways. You can‘t produce the food the world demands and do it in an environmentally safe way but also have just small farms with cute little pigs roaming around grassy fields that make people happy. It‘s just not possible. Every time that we sit down to a meal we should thank God for it and also thank God for the farmers that grew it and raised it.
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this was shared with permission from the OP