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FARMING THE CITIES

Good news for rural America

American Farm Bureau has taken a significant step in reconnecting the urban and rural parts of our nation. Interestingly enough, this particular connection is to be found at Disney’s Epcot center in Florida. Maybe fairytales do come true.

A more accurate assessment of this decision, however, should credit Farm Bureau with both an organizational sophistication, and a respect for both farmers/ranchers and city folks. It acknowledges that urban and rural constituencies mutually benefit each other, and that we live in a time when they each need to get to know each other better.

Recognizing and appreciating the lack of understanding that many urban audiences have about where food comes from, how advances in agriculture really do improve our lives, lessen the burden on the environment, and provide a great arena of challenging and rewarding careers, Farm Bureau has selected a perfect venue to showcase what agriculture is all about in this nation.

Monsanto Company recently donated its Beautiful Science exhibit at the Innoventions facililty at Epcot to Farm Bureau. The Innoventions area is centrally located in Epcot. It showcases the advances in technology that make modern day life a lot more ‘user friendly’.

Farm Bureau’s exhibit provides learning opportunities for those unfamiliar with how crops and livestock are produced and then distributed to America’s supermarkets for public consumption. We live in a time, when millions of Americans have no frame of reference or living experience to provide such informational links. The long overdue ‘story’ of modern day ranching and farming will be showcased for the millions of visitors to Epcot.

The exhibit is open now. Farm Bureau’s current lease is for one year. Monies to continue this effort are being raised through the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. The Foundation is a charitable organization created to initiate and finance agricultural research and education programs.

Farm Bureau is gradually changing the Monsanto exhibit focus from advances in biotechnology and plants to a broader spectrum covering new technologies applied on today’s farms and ranches. Crops and livestock exhibits will cover regions across the United States.

The opening of this American Farm Bureau exhibit reflects far more then a simple change in exhibitors. It is a positive indicator that Farm Bureau, our nation’s largest general farm organization, knows the value of marketing not only products produced, but marketing the total picture of production and consumption in the agricultural realm.

Increasingly, agricultural interests are expending time and resources in having to justify their existence to urban audiences. Rural America can no longer rely on a ‘flair for the obvious’ to answer the multitude of questions and concerns that urban folks pose about all agricultural activities.

This exhibit, located where millions of folks will view it, will serve to answer many questions before they are ever asked. This positive and ‘user friendly’ venue will help to engender a respect by the general public for agriculture and enlighten viewers as to the intellectual challenges being met within this arena and the careers it creates.

This long over due educational process, however, is not a one way street. Having the nation’s largest farm organization establish a ‘message mechanism’ of this caliber and magnitude communicates to rural America something it has been reluctant to accept.

That ‘something’ is acceptance of the obligation to communicate the total picture of agriculture. This obligation recognizes that the times in which we are now living require that rural America bring its message of agricultural lifestyles as well as its products to the ‘market place’. This obligation recognizes that urban Americans are the greatest partners that farmers and ranchers could have.

Many extreme environmental agendas within our nation are focused on creating a negative polarization between urban and rural America. Misinformation is used to drive public policy and attitudes to leverage outcomes seldom beneficial to agriculture. These destructive efforts are significant yet subtle. Our nation suffers as a result.

The Farm Bureau exhibit at Epcot will serve, in a non-confrontational way, to bring the many messages of agriculture’s people and products to millions of viewers. Equipped with solid, interesting and credible information, viewers will easily recognize the continuing value and integrity of an industry that feeds the nation and much of the world. That’s what you call ‘growing a partnership’ by farming the cities.

~ Wyoming Livestock Roundup - March 19, 2003

Permission granted to reprint in full or part with full credit given to author.