Thankful for the Culture of Agriculture

I caught a snippet of an interview with country music singer Lainey Wilson the other day.

The interviewer asked her why she bothered to sing about the olden days that are long gone.

He implied that her songs were hokey and irrelevant to today’s society.

Nobody looks out for one another anymore, it’s every man for himself, the interviewer said.

The only winners are people who do whatever it takes to win. Life is a battle. Why pretend it isn’t?

My recent experiences confirm the urban interviewer’s belief.

At least with some industries, in some places, sometimes.

But not mine.

As the interviewer insinuated that farmers and ranchers who enjoy Wilson’s music must be naïve, unsophisticated simpletons, I mentally defended my culture, the culture Lainey Wilson sings about.

In agriculture, we all are neighbors first.

I go about my independent business, often doing things differently from my neighbors because we aren’t clones.

But if one of them needs help, I’m glad to do whatever I can.

And if they see I need help, I usually don’t even have to ask.

My neighbors’ daughters do my chores whenever I leave overnight.

The other day, another neighbor spotted a grass fire on my ranch and spent the next three hours putting it out.

I depend on people I do business with to be honest and fair.

My business partners expect the same from me.

That doesn’t mean we are naïve or living in the past.

I find that farmers and ranchers from Australia to Montana to Oregon to Peru all treat people with integrity, honesty and respect.

They assume they will be treated the same way.

I take agriculture’s cocoon of character for granted, but it doesn’t necessarily extend to other industries.

I am happy with my purchase of my super-efficient retort food processor, but I am not happy with the company’s attempt to profit at my expense.

The people I dealt with were truthful, but not forthcoming about options that might be a better fit for me.

As long as my check cleared, they were not interested in making sure I would be successful.

I was not impressed.

The tension of conflicting cultures brewed under the surface of a potential sale that both of us wanted.

I expressed my displeasure with a few curt sentences.

They quit their blatant jousting for a profit at my expense, but I don’t and won’t trust them as partners in my project.

They burned that bridge.

Fortunately, I found advocates who understand the food manufacturing industry and are used to dealing with that culture while embracing the character of agriculture.

Personally, I’m glad to insist on doing business according to the cultural expectations in agriculture.

I don’t see honesty, integrity and respect as naïve and old-fashioned the way Lainey Wilson’s interviewer sees these character traits.

I see them as the basis upon which our nation was founded and the only way our society will thrive.

I feel sorry for that poor sap interviewer who feels only contempt for these fundamentals.

He can’t know how it feels to trust his community.

He can’t count on his neighbor when he needs help.

He can’t understand the unspoken rules that keep all of us in business.

He doesn’t know that the culture of agriculture is the culture of a successful future, not an irrelevant past.

So this Thanksgiving season as I count all of the aspects of my life that I am grateful for – and that list is stunningly long -- I include the assumption that I will treat people the way I want to be treated and they will reciprocate.

Because that’s how we all live our best lives.

Happy Thanksgiving.