Acceptance

We have all been in a position where someone has made us feel like our viewpoint isn't valid.  With the current climate towards conventional farming, it is easy to feel like we are backed into a corner by negative attitudes.  When talking to people outside of the industry, it is difficult to feel understood.  The trust just isn't there sometimes. 

Many of us have probably experienced these problems, but I definitely feel it when my two worlds meet.  I spend 8 hours of my days in agriculture, and another 8 hours eating and exercising.  The people from the first area usually aren't found in my kettle bell and yoga classes, nor out on the river canoeing, or an the running/biking trails.  I'm not saying that farmers are in bad physical condition, they just usually don't spend a majority of their free time on this sort of thing.  The athletic community prides themselves on taking care of their bodies, and living healthy lives; healthy lives that have a healthy opinion on food production.

I belong to two different groups that handle the issue of food completely differently.  One is a local gym, another an online fitness community with over a million members.  The local gym advocates heavily for government regulation on anything agriculture, has a healthy distrust of meat products, gluten, and anything without an organic label.  They vehemently oppose GM technology and advertise this viewpoint. Little do they realize that roughly 1/3 of the regular clientele are in agriculture.  Many of the clients are uncomfortable with the views of the gym, but feel uneasy saying anything because there isn't much else for exercise in the surrounding areas.  The gym comes from a very defensive and negative place, often touting superiority when it comes to nutrition.  

The online community has a very different standard.  They are free, and provide many recipes, a nutrition and fitness tracking tool on their website.  They do not push any viewpoints on nutrition, other than everything in moderation.  The online community comes from a very positive place, and members discuss food in a truly interactive way.  This online community probably has much more riding on people living healthy lifestyles and making smart decisions than the gym does, yet it doesn't pressure people into mistrusting their food.  It does not blame GM for weight gain, or laziness, or allergies, nor does it tout organic as the only viable option. Health-wise, it is a welcoming community, acknowledging that some choose to have certain dietary restrictions, but not forcing those choices on the rest of the community.  There is support for all different types of eaters, exercisers, and thinkers.

When comparing these two "spaces," we can see rather obviously which one we would rather join.  More people are drawn to positive places and conversations than to the negative ones.  We want acceptance of where we are at, and what we believe.  When we as farmers go out and talk to the community, we will have more of an impact if we look for friendship instead of fights.  We still hold our beliefs near and dear, but we don't need to defend them like a starving dog does a steak.  Being kind, listening, and creating a dialogue will gain much more support and acceptance.  

Thinking Forward

Over the weekend I sat down for awhile and thought about what my goals are, personal, professionally, and for the farm.  I spent some time really thinking about where I see myself in five years, ten years, and at the end of my career.  What do I want to see accomplished?   What are the things I will be proud of on the farm?  What will be the lasting impact I have on my family and their legacy?

If you ever have been to one of those business conferences, the speakers always talk about how important mission statements, and vision statements are.  Many workshops have you brainstorm different ideas on how to get to where you want to go, and then critique your feeble attempts at the job. I agree that having  a direction, and putting your expectations in writing makes a difference in the way you pursue your dreams.  However, at this point, I haven't come up with an all encompassing statement to define my life.  I do have a set of things I would like to accomplish, and I have written some concise goals to help me accomplish each of those things.  My ultimate vision for the farm is to make it more sustainable and successful than it is now.  I want to leave my mark as making an improvement.  

My first goal, is to become a better pig farmer.  I know all of the goal writing people out there are cringing, as this is neither specific,time-bound, nor something I can measure against in the future.  It can be hard to decide when I have achieved this goal.  I see this as more of a life- long learning project.  To start on my path to achieve this, I want to successfully manage one of our finishing barns for a full turn.  I need to do this to better understand disease issues, feed ordering, euthanasia, and communication with our load out teams.  I will better understand our contract finishers.  It will take me from being someone who is educated about the process of finishing hogs, and give me some hands-on experience.

A much more concrete goal for the farm is to have one alternative marketing strategy in place by 2015.  Now many conventional farmers aren't into things like this, and it probably won't be the way to make most of the revenue for the farm.  However, it is a way to reach into the community, and connect with the people who are more interested in food production than the average consumer.  This may be through local branding and marketing, custom hogs, specialty bacon, or even grass-fed cattle.  By doing this, I increase my farm's brand value, while learning about different production methods to help prepare me for the future of agriculture.  My farm may look completely different in twenty years, and I need to be prepared for that.  In order to create action on this goal, I need to reach out to people who work in alternative agriculture marketing, because I am not the expert.

These aren't the only goals that I have, but they are two things that I can work on right now that will have a positive impact on my future.  As I begin to understand agriculture better, I can move forward and form more goals while honing in on my direction.  There is something scary and exciting about really diving into the business, but I am really at a turning point as to how I view my position in agriculture.

As farmers, we are very good at executing day-to-day tasks, multitasking, and attention to detail.  We like to make our farm as good as we can with the tools we have.  We need to take time out of our days and compare our activities today and our goals for tomorrow, to see if our actions are leading us towards them.  Some of us may need to sit down and honestly realize that we aren't sure what our goals are, besides keeping the business afloat- a daunting task in itself at times- although self-preservation isn't usually the measure of highly successful companies.  We need to think forward and lead.

Action

It's been awhile, and while I don't like to make excuses, I had a valid reason for neglecting my blog- I got married about two weeks ago.  I will readily admit that my online presence was substantially diminished, but that it was not the only thing to suffer.   Now that I am back in the swing of real life I hopefully can become a more consistent writer.

Last weekend I was at Kettle bell class, (for those of you who don't know, a kettle bell is a weight that looks similar to a bowling ball with the handle on the top for swinging)  and I was reading the motivational quotes on the wall.  Most of the time I am not really into that sort of thing, but I needed something to keep my mind off the idea of doing a few hundred squats, so I chose the quote wall as a distraction.  The poster that really resonated with me stated "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

I see things that I don't like about farming, in practice, in portrayal, and in theory. Areas where improvements can be made and opportunity for success is real. Yet day-in and day-out, I don't really make many positive steps towards change.  I write on occasion, and I think about different things I would like to see, and the direction I want my business to grow, but they are just thoughts and dreams.  I could blame my lack of motivation on my support system, my comfort level, my fear of failure or my confusion in the duties of my own job, but really all of these problems stem from me not taking the needed initiative.   I  can see that at my current phase, I am not doing anything to make my farm better, I am just maintaining the same level.  It is difficult to get ourselves to make a change.  It takes weeks to make something a habit, and sometimes years to make it come naturally.

This isn't just a problem I can have on the farm, but also in other areas of life.  We all have probably gone through a "rut,"  where it seems like we are making no progress.  Either we need to change our focus, or figure out what our goals are and take action to attain them.  Over the next few weeks, I hope to make some posts about some of my goals, and what I am doing now to reach them. I want to be accountable.  I want to work through and have success because I provided for it, not because someone else is carrying me.  I think often on the farm, those of the younger generation do allow themselves to be carried, since they did not put in the legwork to get the farm up and running.  I don't want to be part of that trend.