By Carie Moore
Agriculture means everything to me. It drives me, my family, my community, my state, my country, and the world.
Earlier this year, when misinformation about Starbucks came out, I had no idea what was in store for us just a couple months later. I have worked in dairy and seeing the effects of this pandemic on the dairy industry has upset me, to say the least.
Now the pork industry is in distress, and it makes me sad. It take a lot for me to be this sad. I'm not emotion. I'm facts driven. But I'm passionate about the swine industry, so this breaks my heart.
It really sucks when hail, tornadoes, rain, wind or snow ruin your crop. It sucks when the markets tank or when elevators won't take your product. Wheat, corn, beans, vegetables and more have suffered incredible losses this year. The dairy industry is dumping tanks of milk. These sectors of ag take a knife to the heart when time and money are all washed away.
As I listen to what's happening in the pork industry (and beef will follow suit I can guarantee) this is a whole different ballgame in gut-wrenching ways. Those in animal ag get accused repeatedly of raising animals for slaughter and that we're heartless. When wheat gets flattened and milk gets dumped, it's gone. Cows can still be milked and wheat can be piled on the ground if need be, but some animals are raised for meat production and to provide medicines and byproducts for everyone.
Animals like pigs, raised in confinement, follow biosecurity. You can’t just put pigs wherever. They grow fast and are great converters of feed to muscle. If you hold off for two weeks on butchering, what do you do with them? Where do you put them? Rumors have started that some plants will euthanize overstocks. No single farmer in any state of mind wants to take a live, healthy animal and have it euthanized. We are not even talking about money or space at this point. We are talking about our responsibility as human beings, being caretakers of God’s animals. We don’t just raise animals to kill them.
We talk about food waste and food need all the time in the United States. Farmers are not wasteful people. Every plate of food you throw away would be like a farmer euthanizing a good animal. We just don’t do that. We raised that animal for a purpose. We treat it with care throughout all seasons, provided quality food and water, vitamins, minerals, proper housing and health care. We do it so when you go to the grocery store, you have a choice. Pork chops, ham, bacon, ribs, lunch meat; we do it because we know we are capable, able, and fortunate to provide people, families, and restaurants a nutritional meal.
We are educated, smart, resourceful, and act out of emotion just as much as anyone. Sometimes, only the animals in the barn see our tears or hear our muffled cry. We have a connection with the animals we raise, and we aren’t just having them die to make more space in a barn, especially when there is space on the shelf for meat for another family just like ours.
Carie Moore is a farmer and mom from Rocklake, N.D. She loves tractors, coffee and pigs (among other things). Follow her on Twitter at @tractors_coffee.