We are in the midst of the county fair season and there are many 4H and FFA families on the verge of . . . well, let's just say there are a lot of very busy 4H'ers and FFA kids across the country right now. I found this video this morning and it made me giggle. I hope all you 4H moms and "retired" 4H/FFA moms get a giggle as well.
Ok Boys, back to work. Only 15 days to the Clayton County Fair!
Here is a video from Americas Farmers - a web site sponsored by Monsanto - that gives insight into what Joe Public thinks about farmers. I found it good food for thought (pun intended).
I'll be the first to admit I am not a sports fan. I'm pretty sure it was the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens that played in the Super Bowl Sunday evening. Ya, I'm confident that it was the 49ers because I was fascinated by the players' shoes - they were a shiny gold color that reflected off the stadium lights. My enthusiasm for professional sports has rubbed off on the majority of my famly. I think 3.5 of the Shirbrouns were interested in the "big game". I just showed up the commercials.
There were a few fun commercials and the usual number of commercials that I wonder if a group of teenage boys made up. By far the best commercial of the night was the Dodge Ram Paul Harvey "So God Made a Farmer". I almost missed it as I was busy going through my magazine mountain looking for Valentine ideas for son #3. Up to that point there had been a lot of white noise and all of a sudden there was silence. I looked up wondering why there was dead air to see "Paul Harvey" on the screen. If you haven't seen the commercial here it is:
Wow. This was definitely a winner in my eyes. Joe, a dyed in the wool GM guy, said he was ready to go buy a Dodge. Kudos to Dodge for this excellent commercial and Dodge's support of FFA. This commercial got the social media community buzzing.
Paul Harvey first recited "Go God Made a Farmer" in 1978 (If I have my facts correct). A lot in
agriculture has changed since then like the technology used on the farm but other things aren't so different after all. I recommend you take a moment and read Ryan Goodman's blog entry on CNN's Eatocracy website. Ryan maintains a blog at AgricultureProud.com. Here's a link to the Eatocrary blog: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/02/05/by-the-numbers-how-has-farming-changed-since-so-god-made-a-farmer/
The only thing I would have changed in the commercial would have been more pictures of younger farmers but the average age of the American farmer is now up to 57 years old. So, I guess Dodge is spot on.
Dawn Caldwell, a fellow CommonGround volunteer from Nebraska, did an interview with Consumer Ag Connection Radio. Below is a link to a part of this interview. Dawn does a great job explaining why we are involved with the CommonGround initiative.
I'm not a big fan of beauty pagents or the likes of but I need to give Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, from Nebraska, credit. Please take time to read her brief but well written essay about US agriculture. I found it on Fox News.com.
