From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. In spite of what we hear far too often, climate change is a subject most farmers and ranchers, who produce food across the country, are working to mitigate.
The Washington Policy Center’s Pam Lewison says so it’s no surprise farmers get defensive when so many with little or no ag experience start pointing fingers …
LEWISON … “When that is the mantel that you carry around is that someone is judging you for providing them with food, it automatically gets your dander up whether you want it to or not.”
So, Lewison says it’s more important than ever for farmers to try and tell their stories …
LEWISON … “It’s important for people to understand our walk of life and what it means on not an economic level, on an everyday, in your heart level to get up and grow food and raise animals and be a farmer, every day.”
For us, Lewison says we kind of take it for granted because it just seems so obvious…
LEWISON … “All you have to do in a farming community is look out your window. And we plant annual crops that pull a great deal of carbon dioxide out of the air. Right now, my house is surrounded by a corn field. It’s a great example of greenhouse gases being pulled out of the air, you know, actively to mitigate climate change.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the challenges producers face defending themselves as climate change advocates.