We Should Encourage Family Farms
I learned a lot from growing up on a farm. I learned about responsibility at an early age by caring for animals and working with my family in the fields. To this day, those lessons I learned about the value of an honest day's work have stuck with me.
There is no doubt that society is changing. Nowadays, many kids have to go to a petting zoo to see what a pig or a chicken looks like. I even read about some folks who fly here to spend their vacation working on a farm. They found the hard manual labor a nice change of pace.
That's why groups like the FFA and 4-H are so important. They provide hands-on training to future farmers. The fact of the matter is that we desperately need more young people involved in agriculture. We need to encourage the next generation of producers and growers to ensure that the United States continues to have the safest, most abundant food supply in the world.
Last year the administration floated a rule to try and stop younger kids from working on the farm. The outcry stopped the rule before it could go very far. However, as family farms become fewer, silly regulations may become the norm.
Working on a family or a neighbor's farm is a part of the rural way of life. It helps teach young people responsibility and gets them interested in agriculture. Instead of writing regulations to stop it, we ought to be looking for ways to encourage it.
Sincerely,
