Michelle Miller, The Farm Babe and columnist at AGDAILY, shares her evolution on why she believes factory farming and industrial big ag should be celebrated not scorned. In her post she passionately and effectively argues that efficiencies from larger, successful farms should be embraced as demand is met at lower costs. Celebrating the accomplishments of industrial ag, namely feeding 9 billion people and growing with a variety of high quality choices is amazing. Miller’s post should be shared with all those who reflectively believe all big ag is by definition bad.
Economies of scale have their advantages, like the ability to afford the latest technologies, equipment, drones, precision ag and data monitoring.
We’ve all probably heard the stories. Perhaps you’ve heard that factory farming is a way for big corporations that greedily care only about profits to control animals in awful conditions. The animals are “pumped full” of antibiotics and hormones, or they’re kept in sick and crowded quarters, right? Maybe you’ve heard “big ag” doesn’t care about the environment and soil health and that industrial agriculture is responsible for catastrophes where “industrial” sounds like sad, gray, dreary, and faceless arenas full of machines.
So what changed? Well, in my opinion it seems as though people fear what they don’t understand.
Technology has improved every aspect of our lives and food, and farming is no exception. When I think of the term “factory” I think of systems that have been put in place where quality assurance is important. Where teams of people specialize in one arena of expertise to make the best product.
And what about “industrial” agriculture? Well, whether we want to believe it or not, food is an industrial-scale business, just like iPhones aren’t made in our parents’ basement. It requires hard work, intelligent engineers, and research and development.
Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe, is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer, who lives and works with her boyfriend on their farm which consists of row crops, beef cattle, and sheep. She believes education is key in bridging the gap between farmers and consumers
Learn more about Michelle Miller, The Farm Babe on Facebook or Twitter.
Images Courtesy AgDaily and thefarmbabe.com
