ARTICLE: 9 Things This Farm Mom Wants You to Know About Food
Sarah Schultz, blogger of Nurse Loves Farmer, provides 9 things to consider if you are skeptical about modern agriculture, GMOs and the technologies used on farms today.
I believe that from the moment we learn we are going to be parents, we do the best we can to protect our growing babies, and that instinct never leaves us. Our first baby was born in January 2010 and I used to write on this blog about anything and everything in our daily life raising our first son. This blog was truly our online journal for the world to see. I continued to chronicle our life as we got pregnant and had our second baby in 2012, and this is when I really started to notice a shift in how many of my parent peers were concerned and cared about the food they were feeding their families.
As a city-girl-turned-farm-wife and mom, I have learned everything I have about food and farming from my 4th generation farmer husband, and from getting to know other farmers and experts in agriculture in social media. It worried me that so many moms didn’t trust what farmers were doing and how they are raising their food with the amazing modern technology that they have available. I felt a calling to step in and become a part of the conversation.
I truly can’t say I blame anyone for being skeptical; I get it. In Canada right now, less than 2% of the population are farmers. Canadians are also 3 generations or more removed from the farm — no wonder why there is such a disconnect from the farm and food in today’s society. There is an increasing desire to be more connected to where our food comes from — and this is a very good thing! However, the problem I have found, is where people are connecting to get that information about food and farming. This is why I feel it’s so important for farmers and their families to be a part of this conversation.
I’d like you to consider these points if you are skeptical about modern agriculture and the technologies used on farms today.
1. Farmers Are Not Evil or Poisoning Your Food
It sincerely breaks my heart and worries me at the same time when I see this sentiment shared. Not only that, but to take it to the next level and accuse farmers of poisoning food and using toxic chemicals to raise food is not only worrisome, but in my opinion disrespectful, and I’d like to explain why. Let’s think about it in the simplest of terms: would it be in the best interest for the farmers of the world to purposefully grow what certain groups deem to be “poisonous” food, using “toxic” substances? If you were killing your customers, it would not make for very good business. People are living longer than ever and farmers are growing more food on less land than ever, this logic simply doesn’t make sense to me.
