Down on the Farm

October 17, 2013

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

I was on the farm this week harvesting soybeans. I left behind all the drama, conflict, gridlock of our nation’s capital. It was such a relief.

The contrast, once again, reminded me that America is divided into two different worlds. Rural America and our inner cities don’t see things the same way. The elitists can blame the Tea Party for trying to extract reform in the budget fight. They can blame them if we don’t borrow another trillion dollars to pay our mounting debts. But Conservatives don’t accept this spend, spend and borrow, borrow path we are on. Our debt went up during President Bush’s presidency, but under President Obama, it has doubled in just 5 years. Families cannot live like this, and they know that our government can’t either.

That is just one contrast between rural and urban. The issue of gun control is another. Rural America refuses to accept this Administration’s drive to take away their guns. That is how they see it. When I was on my farm, my 14-year-old granddaughter went deer hunting. She didn’t get one, but 2 years ago, when she was 12 years old, she shot a deer. She was so proud. Our intellectual, bug city fellow citizens can’t even understand that.

Another obvious area of dispute is EPA regulation. As I watched our combine cross the field harvesting soybeans, the cloud of dust was huge. We are all amazed and angered that the EPA has wanted to regulate dust on the farm. What do they know? Another misguided regulation of theirs was to force us to build a wall around our fuel tank. Great idea! The fuel tank could spring a leak and destroy the environment.

Turn to our hog operation. I guess we are lucky because we don’t use gestation crates. Most big operations do. The push is on to outlaw gestation crates. They want to tell farmers how to farm.

There you have just a quick reminder of a few of the differences of opinion. The list goes on and on.

It is not surprising that we have this divide in our government because we are from two different worlds. Compromise sounds good, but who gives up what?

Until next week, I am John Block down on the farm.