Committed to Agriculture while Respecting the Earth
Author: Carolyn Olson
I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, MN. In 1988, I married my best friend and moved to the farm. Jonathan and I have three daughters, one son-in-law, and the most adorable granddaughter! I love life on the farm, and wouldn't trade it for anything!
We live in a time where consideration for the power of words and the implication of those word choices influence the way we communicate daily. The titles or labels we put on others in public forums also contain more weight as they give the larger audience an idea of how to feel about the subject.
This past week I had the honor of participating in the Marshall Area Chamber’s State of Ag event by sitting on a panel with fellow farmers. They are my peers, and they treat me as such. Our local newspaper, however, didn’t. The three gentlemen on the panel had their farm names listed or were called farmers. The description used for me was “Cottonwood area farmwife and Vice-President of the Minnesota Farm Bureau.”
Some may not see that as a big deal, but others will understand the underlying connotation of not recognizing my role on our farm. Jonathan and I farm in partnership. We make decisions together, we work in the fields, and our income depends on how the growing season and our choices affect the crop. It’s not that much different from other family members farming together.
When a woman with an active role in agriculture is not recognized beyond her farm gate like her male counterparts, that sends a message to other women in agriculture that they are not taken seriously or only provide a supporting role.
Look at the makeup of 4-H youth leaders, FFA officers at all levels, and people enrolled in agriculture-related majors in college. You will see a continued increase in females in all those areas. Agriculture in all avenues remains strong because young women have stepped into leadership positions.
Media plays a significant role in shaping perceptions. How women in agriculture are portrayed in print or video contributes to how the general public perceives them. When a woman sits on a panel as an expert, don’t discount her knowledge by not recognizing her role in her field. If we want to see agriculture thrive in the future, we need to positively recognize women’s roles in agriculture, helping to encourage the next generation and the impact they will make on the industry.
This was one way to get my attention that practicing gratitude will beat stress.
The theme of gratitude had been appearing in many ways over the past few months. One phrase I have seen and heard throughout the summer is from Author and Speaker Jon Gordon. “You can’t be thankful and stressed at the same time.” It made total sense to me, but I didn’t put it into practice.
Since then, I’ve heard that quote repeated a few times, and I’ve seen many memes talking about gratitude floating across my social media feeds. It wasn’t until I had a vehicle issue that I fully understood the impact of intentional gratitude.
My Durango needed some new tires, so we went to a shop and had them do an alignment as well. The Sooove (our name for the Durango) was running super smooth. It didn’t last, though. The first issue was a brake that was hotter than the rest. Then came a little squealing at times, which progressed to horrible grinding. I was told it was ok to drive it, but after a trip to the Cities where it sounded like the whole metro area could hear the grinding, we decided we needed it fixed. After two days in the shop, we had her back. I had a meeting 30 miles away, and everything seemed fine on the way there. On the way back, something sounded odd. The following day, as I was leaving for a meeting 90 minutes away, the other rear tire made a clunking noise, but the tire looked fine. I got six miles from home, stopped at a stop sign, and couldn’t roll forward. Something was stuck on the back tire.
My first call was to Jonathan, who is a saint. I used my entire vocabulary to express my displeasure. He brought his pickup down for me to use and asked our employee, Kevin, to help him get the Sooove back home.
I was still pretty hot under the collar once we swapped vehicles, but suddenly I had a lightbulb go off in my head. I may have been rather inconvenienced, but nobody got hurt when the caliper got stuck between the rotor and the rim. This didn’t happen when navigating curves in the rain on unfamiliar roads. I had another vehicle I could use, and because it happened so close to home, I didn’t lose much time. I had so many things to be thankful for in that moment of extreme stress. When I started listing them, my heart rate slowed, my breathing was more relaxed, and I felt much more at peace. The difference in my attitude was profound. Just by listing the things I was grateful for.
Since then, I have made it a point to focus on gratitude when I feel stressed. What do I see, feel, taste, hear, or smell that I am thankful for? The last few weeks have been much more pleasant by focusing on those things and not the list of things that make me stressed and anxious.
As a woman of faith, this concept should be familiar. We are instructed to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:18). Sometimes, though, it takes a brake problem to get you to stop and realize how important it is to focus on gratitude.
In the hustle and bustle of the fall harvest, it’s good to take a little time to enjoy the beauty of the fall colors and cooler temperatures.
The past few autumns our trees went from green to brown in October. I’ve missed the brilliant fall foliage displays! The cooler weather also has me looking forward to soup, chili, and heartier meals.
Wishing you a beautiful fall full of all the enjoyments that the autumn season brings!
Last week, Jonathan and I had a Farmland ham. Even though it was a half ham, we were able to enjoy it in many forms throughout the week. We don’t buy our meat from the grocery store very often, because we raise pigs on our farm and have some of that meat in our freezer.
The pigs we raise on our farm are owned by our neighbor. We own the buildings, care for the pigs and use the manure to fertilize our crops. This is a contract finishing system that is popular in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. We have worked with our neighbor since 1992 when we first started raising livestock on our farm. This was about the time that animal scientists realized that keeping pig barns physically distanced from other pig barns kept the animals healthier. Many farmers chose to find other farmers who would be willing to build barns to raise the pigs from 40 pounds to their finished weight of 275.
When pigs come to our farm, they will be within 15 miles of where they were born. We care for them until they leave on the truck to be harvested.
Our farm is located about 100 miles from the Smithfield facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Smithfield is one of the places our pigs go to be harvested and turned into the different types of pork found in your grocery store. The pigs that are brought to that facility come from farms in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraskaand South Dakota. Each of those states is ideal locations to raise pigs as we do. We raise a lot of corn and soybeans here, which is the main part of a pig’s diet and in turn the manure produced from these pigs is a most valuable natural fertilizer for us.
Many are concerned that Smithfield is owned by a Chinese company and are worried that it may affect the quality of the meat. Or, that it won’t affect anyone here, because all the meat comes from China. Some have even said the plant should be permanently closed because of the ownership.
Pork cannot be imported from China for animal health reasons and to protect the health of U.S. pigs. The meat processed at Smithfield is raised here in the Midwest by families like mine, who like caring for animals that will provide meals for so many. Even though the parent company that owns Smithfield is foreign, the economic impact of a permanent closure will be felt by our friends and neighbors and our rural communities. 550 Independent farms supply pigs to this plant, not including the contract growers who feed these pigs, such as Jonathan and myself. The closure would undoubtedly impact us.
The health of the 3,700 workers at the Smithfield plant is essential, and we cannot forget that many there are suffering from COVID-19. During this closure, physical barriers, wash stations, and other modifications are being put in place to improve worker safety further. Along with this and the stringent cleaning regiment of a food processing plant, the workforce should feel very safe. The closure will help to break the cycle of illness among the workers.
From the crop farmers who grow the corn and soybeans to feed the pigs, to the farmers who care for the pigs at each stage from birth to harvest, to the truck drivers who deliver the pigs to the facilities, to the workers who process the pigs into cuts of pork, to the truck drivers who transport the pork to the grocery stores, to the inspectors that inspect every step of this process and to the grocery store workers who stock the meat cases, the supply chain is long. It’s filled with family, friends, and neighbors who rely on each piece to work in sync to keep everyone working and shelves filled.
You also play an important role in this chain. When you purchase pork at the grocery store, you are supporting American farmers, truck drivers, meat processors and grocers. We need you to continue purchasing pork from large grocery stores, small community grocery stores and farmers who raise pigs to sell direct to the consumer. It is safe. It is healthy, and it is raised here at home. #StillFarming
I’ve had many ideas about blog posts I should write, but I seemed to have lost my voice. I had forgotten how to write authentically. With a little work, I am finding my voice…and it feels good.
Over the last 18 months, I’ve been working on understanding who I am and what makes me tick. It started with an opportunity to attend a spiritual gifts workshop at church, as well as taking a personality test based on the four temperaments. That got me interested in diving a little deeper by going through some Life Purpose coaching. The original idea behind this was to feel a lot better about life when turning 50 than I did when I hit 40.
The three assessments I completed were the spiritual gifts assessment, Wired That Way, and Strengths Finder 2.0. I was quite surprised when they all basically said the same thing. There were many a-ha moments in there that made me say aloud “now I get why I do that!”
The secondary reason that I wanted to go through the Life Purpose coaching was to reassess whether or not I should continue to pursue leadership positions in organizations or my community. If that answer was yes, then I wanted to know how could I use my personality and strengths to be the best leader I could be wherever I am. That answer was yes, and I was re-elected to the Minnesota Farm Bureau Board of Directors in November. Woo!
I turned 50 last October, and felt a heck of a lot more confident than when I turned 40, so that was good! There still seemed to be a lot of work to do on myself though, so I sought out leadership books and looked at applying for the next Minnesota Agriculture & Rural Leadership (MARL) class. This is a competitive application, where not everyone who applies gets selected. I made it in! My 18 month MARL journey will start in November, and I’m super excited AND nervous about the whole thing. You will hear more about my experiences once our class begins!
So, all this to say…I have looked at my style of communication from the beginning of this blog, and, I have to admit, a lot of posts sounded a lot like a mom lecture. Uff da! I’ve learned that mothering people is part of my personality…and that I need to tone it down a bit.
Finding my voice and learning how to communicate authentically is a journey…one that won’t end. My hope is to be more authentic, to let the fun side take over, and to let the mom side rest unless needed. There will be more posts about what is happening here farming-wise, some family stuff, as well as the leadership seminars I’ll be attending. I’m looking forward to writing once again…this time, with more exclamation points!
The impact we have on others, whether through a brief chat in a checkout line, or serving on a committee together is something I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately.
This past summer, I took the opportunity to participate in some Life Coaching. I’m approaching a milestone birthday at a rapid pace, and I want to go into this next decade feeling better about life than I did when I entered the current decade.
A couple of things really stood out to me when I looked at the results of the various assessments I took. Leadership is a pretty strong theme. Along with leadership, the threads of communication, empathy, fun, extroversion, harmony, and passion (to name a few) helped me to see how uniquely I am made. They have also been a source of contemplation…how can I use this information to be the best me?
Following my coaching sessions, I have focused on the impact that I have had on others…good and bad. As part of the leadership focus, I have also been observing the behavior of others as mental note taking on how actions directly affect those we encounter every day. I have witnessed some pretty awesome encounters in the checkout lines at Walmart, where people have been kind to strangers, and patient when the process is taking a bit. There have also been some pretty negative experiences where I wonder why I am volunteering for certain groups, or why I try to share my farm story online.
This leaves me with the question: What kind of an impact are you leaving on others? Are you making sure that those you encounter leave with a positive impression of you…or are you making sure you win the argument at all costs? With all of the division, hatred, and violence in the world today, my challenge to you is to make sure you are leaving a positive impact on those you encounter every day. Doesn’t matter if it is in person, or online. You don’t have to agree with everything a person does or stands for to have a positive impact. If nothing else, be kind. Always.
The way each of us sparkle and shine in the world is different, just as each firework in a show is different.
In the age of social media, it’s tempting to try being like those who are more “liked” or to “go viral”. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it dulls your sparkle.
It’s okay to be different, to have different opinions, to use your gifts in a unique way. That’s what brings joy to life. Those that tell you that you need to act like them, or agree with them are just dulling your sparkle.
