Last week I posted a note to HSUS to demonstrate how the outcry against Yellow Tail was truly grassroots. This week I wanted to highlight a few of the folks at the grassroots level that we need to celebrate. My hope is that these stories will be shared as much as the HSUS piece was; we need to celebrate what’s right about agriculture – and not just respond to the detractors. In other words, play offense not defense!

As a tip of the hat to the folks I serve, I wanted share the types of people that put their heart and soul into providing for a global population. And, by the way, several of these folks did the “heavy lifting” of research around the Yellow Tail case study, not me.  This just shows the power of community!

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Kelsay Farm, a modern Indiana dairy, targets education as a part of their farm mission.

https://causematters.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/kelsatours/

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For a slightly different perspective, a mom and health professional shares how a visit to a dairy farm helped her gain perspective on where her food comes from:

https://causematters.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/one-farm-visit-thousands-of-impressions/

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Mike Haley (@farmerhaley on Twitter) shares how he uses Twitter to educate about agriculture.

https://causematters.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/twitter-empowers-farmer/

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Reflections in your food plate highlights several hardworking farmers bring food to the table.

https://causematters.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/reflections-in-your-thanksgiving-plate/

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Three farmers that I have drawn inspiration from while watching them become excellent advocates for agriculture.

https://causematters.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/inspiration/

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Will Gilmer talks tweeting & singing  from the tractor cab to share ag’s message with his most famous number being “Water n Poo.”

https://causematters.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/singing-and-tweeting-on-the-tractor/

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My role in agricultural advocacy has changed over the last nine years; I’m no longer just beating the drum of  “we must do this” and “mud-slinging” all of the information from our adversaries as a wake-up call. My role is to equip and educate farmers to speak out, then leverage their work through social networks and other tools. Part of that effort has to be celebrating the great people in our business – I hope you’ll join me by sharing stories about farmers like these. They deserve the recognition, but even more importantly – the 98.5% of the population not on a farm deserve to hear our stories.