Introduction

So everyone loves us and the job we do, right? Okay, so some days we aren't all that popular with the competition, some customers, and perhaps not even the people we work with. But how many of us interact with the people that want to put us out of business entirely? That is the position that I find myself in.

Okay, a little background might be helpful. My name is Mike and I volunteer for a teen ministry on Sunday evenings, and one night last July I googled the ministry's name. One of the hits I found was a blog written by a young lady, and was followed by a blog supporting PETA. So I made a comment, that if she wanted to see how a real farm animal lives its' life, I'd find a farm, (my brothers) and she was welcome to come take a look.

And so started the farm conversation with a vegetarian member of a PETA Street team named Megan.
So why would anyone want to walk into that hornet's nest? Good question, and one that deserves an answer. I, like a lot of you grew up on a farm. Awesome place to grow up. Life lessons abounded, and I find that even though I don't presently live on a farm, the love of animals and agriculture is something that my kids love too.

But consumers as a whole aren't in any way, shape, fashion or form, aware of what a farm is, or how animals are raised. They are making decisions about their food based on what they hear from PETA, or worse, from Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News (I think PETA is being held more accountable than CBS at this point). If we intend for any part of want we do to be passed along to the next generation, we owe it to our industry to find ways to educate and interact with those consumers.

So every once in a while I'm going to post a note here about what Megan and I have been talking about, and the perspective that this young lady has on what we do for a living.

I hope you enjoy it, and maybe together we can learn something.