"Industrial" farmer speaks his mind

    Blake Hurst was on an airplane recently headed back to his farm in Missouri. Like most farmers, when he flies he flies coach. It was easy to eavesdrop on the guy in the seat behind him, because he was so close and because he was talking so loudly.
    About food.
    A subject with which Hurst is more than vaguely familiar. The speaker was holding forth on the evils of industrial farming. Hurst considers himself an industrial farmer - except that he says "industrial" - because he grows corn and soybeans with fossil-fueled tractors, uses insecticides and herbicides and puts nitrogen fertilizer on his fields. He's about to spend the next six weeks on a combine seat, and after that he might schedule a board meeting. Around the kitchen table.
    Hurst is not averse to the idea of organic farming and vegetarian diets, but he is fully convinced there isn't nearly enough organic fertilizer to grow the crops we need to keep the world fed, and he is pretty sure people are going to continue to eat meat and poultry, and they're going to want eggs and milk, too.
    He doesn't use the word "husbandry," but he addresses the concept in passionate and soul-felt language. If a farmer takes care of his land, then the land will take care of the farmer and his family and everyone who depends on them for food and for life itself. A farmer who treats his animals humanely is a farmer who can sleep at night.
    It's a very compelling expression of Hurst's particular point of view. The article is in the current issue of The American, The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute. You can read it here:  http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/the-omnivore2019s-delusion-against-the-agri-intellectuals

    High school ropers, riders and relatives galloped to Framing, New Mexico, last week for the annual National High School Finals Rodeo. There were 1,375 contestants, 7,000 fans and a whole lot of action. A report on the event, and a  great front-page photo, are in the August edition of Mid-Atlantic Horse, a supplement to the Lancaster Farming edition due in your mailbox tomorrow.

    Was that Captain Kirk? And was he really wearing a tent?  http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/shatner-does-palin-072709/1139665/