This essay is the winner of the 2019 Ag Day Essay Contest. Visit www.agday.org for more details on National Ag Day.
Agriculture: Food for Life
How will our country lead the way?
Grace Brose, Box Elder, South Dakota
There's a little boy, out in the
front yard with a beat-up toy truck, filling the back end full of dirt, only to
dump it all out and start over again. Pretty soon that little boy is a
teenager, and he finds himself trying to rock that old Ford out of some rut,
thinking he may have underestimated how much it rained last night. In the blink
of an eye, he's a newlywed, breaking ground on a two-bedroom, white-picket-fence
dream. He's ready to plant some roots. Well, now that little boy is an old man,
and in his two hands, you can see years of hard work and sacrifice. Every
blemish is its own story. Those hands are strong enough to plow and plant, and
sweat and bleed, yet gentle
enough to raise a family.
That is the story of farmers and ranchers all across the country. That is the story of generations of my family, the reality of my fellow rural Midwesterners, and a great source of pride. That cannot end the story, though. The world population is ever-growing, and those old men cannot plow and plant forever. Now is the time for my generation to step up and step in because agriculture is more critical than ever. Agriculture is a science. Like any science, it is continually changing. It is no longer just eighty acres and a dream. IT is precision ag, genetically modified organisms, cover crops, no-till techniques, innovative pesticides, and more! Innovations in technology, transportation, architecture, and even medicine mean nothing when people are dying of starvation. The global population growth is not slowing down, and I am not exaggerating when i say being able to feed that population is paramount to sustaining life on Earth. The Midwest, the United States, and the entire globe must realize the importance of modern agriculture.
With that said, I am infinitely proud
of the life my family has been able to build through the generations. I am
proud of a farmer that will spend several months and thousands of dollars
cultivating the ground, planting his crop, and watching it grow, only to have
it blown away in a storm a few weeks before harvest. I am proud of a rancher
that will be up multiple times in the night during calving season to check on
his cows but still shed a tear watching a mama cow lay beside its stillborn
calf. Most of all, though, I am proud that one day, I will be able to combine
the traditions of my family with the needs of the world. That, indeed, is
something beautiful.
