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Letter To The Editor: Is Agriculture Sustainable?
February 11, 2014
We received this Letter to the Editor today from Debra Gilmore of the Gizmo Angus Farm in Molino in response to a previous Letter to the Editor from Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson.
We just returned from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Tennessee. The buzz word for the convention was sustainability and what the definition means to the future of the cattle industry. Farmers comprise two percent of the U.S. population. Twenty one million workers (15% of total U.S. workforce) produce, process, and sell the nation’s food and fiber.
In a letter Grover C. Robinson, IV ECC District 4 stated “The challenges are, while our traditional agriculture is based in the northern two-thirds of this county, the other services provided create benefits to the 80 percent of the population that lives below Nine Mile Road.”
I don’t disagree with Mr. Robinson on the challenges or the percentages. These numbers are very much in line with the percentages of 2% farmers and 15% additional workforce. How do we sustain agriculture for future generations? We need young people to pursue production agriculture in order to be sustainable. We need facilities that can be utilized to teach young people about large animals. The proposed 4-H facility has much to offer our youth, however lacks in all areas for large animals.
4-H lit the fire under me and my husband to become part of the 2% that feed the world. We need facilities that can insure the fire is lit in our youth. We need IFAS to remember the 2% and the future. We need property and facilities in a location suitable for this education.
Debra Gilmore
www.gizmoangus.com
gizmoangus.blogspot.com
Comments
12 Responses to “Letter To The Editor: Is Agriculture Sustainable?”
I can not see spending that much money on an office building on Steffany rd. Most
Young People will Learn more in Vocational Agriculture in the FFA at Northview
High School and at Home if raised on a Farm. In the FFA, Students are Taught
Lessons in Class Rooms and then go out to the Field and Learn by Doing.
I am Proud of FFA and I think if you are truely INTERESTED IN the YOUTH, you will look at a Proven Role Model, “FFA” and build the 4-H Facility Accordinly.
Thanks,
Dudley
Oh, David….aren’t you funny!
Yes, it takes classroom instruction AND in field experience /opportunity to understand the full cycle of agriculture and the dynamics of growing ~sustainable~ food. Farming is hard, the weather doesn’t always cooperate, and it is a career requiring dedication to a 24 hour a day job.
The rewards are many; the laborers few.
We must put in place an opportunity for our youth to pursue and develop these goals…especially if we hope to have food and meat for our tables.
Can you milk a cow on touch screen computer and then taste the milk, right out of the bucket?
I stand behind the gizmo farm, kids will not gain anything from a small city based farm. I have know the family for 15 plus years, they care about kids and family vaues more than most people even care about their own kids. I have seen them all get in the field with thier livestock and care for them. So i know they are true cattle farmers.
We need our kids to get to see their way of life first hand, not on a tablet.
The tools of a farmers are tractors sweat and a hard days work, not a iphone and a starbucks latte.
Put it in the city and next thing you know they will be looking for a new place to move it, so they can build there
I have been holding my tongue on this issue for months, however, now I would just like to quote “perdido fisherman” in regard to this entire ROTTEN episode in our county’s (& state’s) political history.
“…they only care about how much money they can stuff in their pockets. That’s why they stole the property that had everything on it the kids needed to have a successful 4-H program under the guise of giving them something better…”
They ripped off 4H, plain & simple.
In other news, if Medical Marijuana (#YESon2) passes, you probably won’t be able to “grow your own”- Li’l Ricky & the Corporati will license (hand out favors) facilities to grow & process the herb that should be in your garden along with tomatoes & squash.
Factory Farming? “Thanks”, but NO.
Debra Gilmore seems to think our county commisoners care about 4-H or farm life, when in all reality they only care about how much money they can stuff in thier pockets. That’s why they stole the property that had eveything on it the kids needed to have a succesful 4-H program under the guise of giving them something better. In my opinion The BCC has been pushing for our county to become like one of those aweful cities like Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. Here on the Gulf Coast we are unique and in my opinion most people here do not want to be a big city. We like the country feel to our town. We like to see the cows, horses and other farm animals. If you do not like those things then maybe you should relocate to a larger town and stop trying to make our area into a little Miami or something. We are a tourist destination for our beaches and rivers. we do not need huge commerce parks or if we do use one of the old military bases to build one. ellyson field is way under developed, so why do we need to tear up our wooded areas of take the land away from our children that they have been using for a few generations now?
Since agriculture feeds everybody, it LOOKS like helping the agricultural portion of the county IS benefitting the 80% of the population that lives below Nine Mile as well as us and people everywhere who use what agriculture hereabouts produces. One MIGHT get the impression that the idea was greatest benefit to voters elsewhere.
By the way, this illustrates the danger of at-large elections: the needs and desires of others may overwhelm the needs and desires of the people in less populated, poorer, darker districts. It is good we don’t live under that system.
Hey, Hey… way to go Mrs. Debbie. I hope the board of county commissioners and the folks down there in Gainesville (IFAS) will one day soon see the light!!! Before it is too late. As posted before on the proposal of property for the 4-H. The Stefanie rd property will not help 4-H or the future farmer/rancher… it just is not enough land. Maybe somebody will listen???
“Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.” – 1 Cor. 9:10
But the current thought coming from Dr. Place, the Extention Service and UF is the children can learn all they need to learn via touch screen cattle.
And maybe some robot chickens on there smartphones.
Therefore they should be happy with a new office building.
The government should not have any major role in agriculture. Socialism is not what the American farmer needs. They need freedom.
If agriculture is going to be sustainable (as with many other things) we need the government out of it. When we have the government limiting when, where, what, and how farmers work it takes profitability out of the equation. They run any business or program they touch into the ground.so our food and farming future should be taken from their filthy hands.
I have to agree with Mrs. Gilmore. If no young people pursue farming, who do you think will feed us?