Jerry Crownover – The uneducated consumer

just athought What’s On Your Mind, Ozarks?

Life Is Simple

By Jerry Crownover Life is Simple By Jerry Crownover I t’s been said that the reason present-day society doesn’t understand agriculture is because the vast majority of Americans are now three to four generations removed from farming. Jerry Crownover farms

Most people, alive today, don’t even have in Lawrence County. He grandparents who were farmers, and that’s the is a former professor of reason they have no idea where food comes from, Agriculture Education at other than the grocery store. Unfortunately, I Missouri State University, think they are correct and I encountered the perand is an author and fect illustration of this point, last week. professional speaker.

For the past five years, Judy and I have been To contact Jerry, go to the lucky recipients of being selected to be part of a nationwide census on rural crime. Every ozarksfn.com and click on ‘Contact Us.’ year, the same very nice, sweet lady has stopped by our home to ask questions and complete a survey. Because of the pandemic, she called, last week, and completed her interview by phone, instead of dropping by. I appreciated that, as well as her genuine concern on how my wife and I were doing.

“Has the pandemic hurt your farming operation significantly?” she asked.

I explained that I sell my calf crop once per year, and since that takes place each fall, I hadn’t had to sell any, during these times of depressed feeder calf prices. I continued to tell her that if prices didn’t recover by the time I usually sell, then yes, I would take a significant economic hit.

“That’s such a shame,” she sympathized. “I know that I can’t even find beef on the shelves of the supermarket right now, so I know there must be a shortage of beef out there.”

Not wanting to miss my rare chance to educate a consumer, I explained that there was NOT a shortage of beef on the farm, but rather a shortage in the grocery store, because of the bottleneck in processing plants, that had been either shut down,

— Continued on Page 5

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E-mail: editor@ozarksfn.com Eric Tietze President/Publisher Pete Boaz Vice President Administrative Amanda Newell, Marketing Manager Eric Tietze, Accounting Advertising Amanda Newell, Display & Production Sales Amanda Newell, Classified Sales Circulation Eric Tietze, Circulation Editorial Julie Turner-Crawford, Managing Editor Jerry Crownover, Columnist Frank Farmer, Editorial Page Editor Emeritus Production Amanda Newell, Production

Contributors

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About the Cover

Richard Bloss, pictured with his grandson Layne, has been a dairyman all of his life. See more on page 20.

Photo by Rachel Harper

Ozarks Farm & Neighbor accepts story suggestions from readers. Story information appears as gathered from interviewees. Ozarks Farm & Neighbor assumes no responsibility for the credibility of statements made by interviewees. © Copyright Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, Inc., 2020. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.

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