On That Note
"Well, chocolate milk comes from chocolate-brown cows," Dad told me with a wink and a grin one day as I accepted a glass of chocolatey goodness.
Mama gave him the side eye but chuckled.
At 4 years old, this made complete sense to me. I would look for the chocolate cows as we drove around, getting excited at any brown cow we would see. I would point and shout about those chocolate cows.
I believed that lie until for about two years before I caught Dad mixing chocolate syrup with the milk from the store.
I also thought dairy farmers still milked all their cows by hand, especially since that is still what is shown in most movies. It's got to be true if it's on TV, right?
Both of these beliefs were easily remedied with a little education, but oftentimes there's a missing link between new farming techniques and public knowledge of them. This week, I had a tough article to write that dealt with just this. Because of some outdated information, neighbors of two Goshen farmers were driven by fear to prevent them from starting up a poultry barn.
The conflict reached its peak at a recent Elkhart County Commissioners meeting, where neighbors brought before the board several items of protest. They said the poultry barn would smell, causing property values to drop. They said it would pollute the air, causing health issues and environmental damage. They said the chicken manure could leak into their wells, causing illness and water contamination. The neighbors quoted article upon article upon article of research.
The only problem is that it was not accurate to the times.
While it is true that if a poultry operation is improperly managed, it could leak pollution, manure and smell. But today, poultry barns are engineered to minimize smell and exhaust release and there are strict regulations in place to protect groundwater. Farmers know this, and they follow it well. If they didn't, they wouldn't be operating their farm.
I think the ag sector needs to turn NIMBYism around. Outdated misinformation should not be tolerated by farming communities. Not in my back yard. We need more education in the mainstream media and a little faith in our farmers.
On that note, take an opportunity this year to teach others about today's farming. There are still some people who believe in chocolate cows who need your help.