I, along with much of America, was struck yesterday by the Dodge Superbowl commercial featuring Paul Harvey’s poem “God Made A Farmer.”
Although I have plenty of family members who make their living on a farm, I can’t claim that lifestyle as part of my upbringing. But those words and images Sunday still resonated within me, as I suspect they did for many of the viewers in all areas of the country.
Working the land, providing for the world by nurturing a seed from sprout to harvest, is a beautiful thing. It is inherently poetic, and that truth is the inspiration behind the very name of our company. We take a lot of pride in our role in agricultural communities and in the thousands of farmers across the Midwest who are part-owners in POET plants. These farmers invested in a local plant because they wanted a stake in the market for the product they worked so hard to produce.
Contrary to what some believe, the family farmer is still the driving force behind agriculture today. The local land is worked by local hands; I talk to these men and women every week. And the nobility of what they do each day is growing before our eyes. The importance of agriculture is greater than ever before as our farmers produce not only food and feed but renewable energy as well to clean our air and keep our rural communities strong. That’s only going to grow as we find new feedstocks for biofuel, such as crop residue, energy crops and more.
God said, “I need … somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.”
God still needs them. As do all of us. Thank God they’re here.
