I made a mistake in my last column. I mentioned a train wreck in Bois D’Arc, Mo., I thought I’d seen in an old picture. Turns out, back in the old days they sold postcards with pictures of train wrecks on them, and Ryan’s great-grandparents had picked those postcards up somewhere along their travels in life. Sorry for the mistake, and the confusion. Clearly I should be more careful when digging through old pictures. But I will remind you, that oh-so-short bull I saw in the photos and mentioned last time? He was real. Can you believe just how much the way we raise cattle, farm, live has changed in the last Century?
I see a lot of contrasting messages on change, technology and advancements in our country these days, especially involving agriculture. Movements for local food want us to seemingly go back to the 1950s, with everyone raising their own food straight out of their backyards and barn lots. Others cry out for advanced ways to grow more cows, more chickens, more crops on less land, less feed and less dollar input. And the craziest part of this disparity? The future of humanity’s ability to feed itself hangs in the balance.
Looking back to when we purchased pictures of a train wreck on a postcard, used short, heavyset bulls and raised most of our own food for our own family, and comparing that to today, a day of instant gratification, no need for hard copies of photos, that’s what our computers, our phones… dare I say it – facebook – is for… yep, a lot has changed.
I think the important thing in our own personal lives, our businesses, our farms, our families, is to keep a level head. Keeping an eye to the future, ready to embrace each new shining day, while learning from history – being careful to not repeat the mistakes, but finding comfort in those simpler ways that can be adopted into our lives now.
Again, it’s a lot to think about.
God Bless,
