I write this post out of pure frustration.

I’m not a political pundit or an economist by any means. I honestly don’t know who is to blame totally for the state of our economy and polarization of our nation.

I’d say there is equal blame to be placed all across the political spectrum.

My concern being expressed today is how in this country is how we have have handcuffed so many who produced the food, fiber, and fuel for not only our nation, but for our global society.

We are currently in a perfect storm of madness in the ag community.

Input costs are soaring and shattering previous records. The average for a gallon of diesel in the US is currently $5.56 and the average price for a ton of starter fertilizer is $837. With this being said, we are already setting up for a down production year in US agriculture.

Today, I opened up my email and found this article from Drovers and it showed the dire condition of our country’s rangeland.

American ranchers are facing a dry start to the summer grazing season. U.S. Pasture and Range conditions were rated 49% poor to very poor by USDA this week.

USDA NASS

In already heavily taxed and regulated industry, we are adding even more stress to our nation’s producers. Part of this is on the producers. We do have to do our best to change and adapt to conditions. But so many of the conditions that are being put upon us are from outside sources which we seemingly have very little control over. I think that is what the frustrating part is. That there are people making policy hundreds and thousands miles away from those whom it directly affects.

Although we do produce and harvest most of our own protein, we do traditionally source a lot of our other calories from outside the farm. That is all changing this year. Keri has done an outstanding job prepping our own vegetable garden. She even bought a canner to prep for the possible lean times going forward.

We are some of the lucky ones. We have direct access and connection to a lot of our food… the majority of our calories. Our family prays every night for our nation’s leaders and policy makers. We also pray for those who are feeling the squeeze of these lean times. We pray especially to our agriculture brothers and sisters to our west who are facing down historic drought conditions.

I don’t write this for pity. I write this to bring awareness. I write it for it to be a grass roots effort for our society to begin to take an interest in what is going on in our supply chain. That the decisions of bureaucrats in cities is tearing the living away from family farms and ranches miles and miles away.

I pray that we make it through the coming years unscathed and that all my preparation was/is unnecessary. However, I also pray that people use these years to wake up to the real issues in this country. That we must first take care of our foundation. We must sustain not only agriculture, but also transportation, infrastructure, logistics, healthcare, and other ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIES before we address other issues.

Please share this with your friends and colleagues to bring awareness to what is really going on. Please feel free to add your own comments on this article or on the social media page you found it.

Let our voices be heard