Opinion: Agri Culture

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At a recent dinner, I was introduced to the speakers’ podium with a reference to my rural roots. “Believe it or not,” it was declared with a grin, “Terry grew up farming.”

Raised in unincorporated Indiana, somewhere between Delphi in Carroll County and Monticello in White County, my earliest memories are of chasing my granddad around to “help” with chores. Ultimately our family owned a fertilizer and seed distribution company, which meant long days (and often nights) of driving nurse trucks and delivering anhydrous ammonia to waiting tractors.

Yet, Mom and Dad always focused on keeping me and my sister in the classroom. It wasn’t until years later that I began to realize how little they’d expected of me – and how much of the burden that they’d carried, especially in the spring and fall. Dad would arrive home well after dinner. Mom would have me fed and finishing my homework. In the hardest times, we’d meet Dad for supper in the field on a pickup truck’s tailgate. Mom worked a full-time job in town and still managed to keep everything running.

Winters were slower. School activities and the occasional fishing or hunting trip filled the calendar. This all seemed very natural to me. It was our culture. Our agri-culture. Everybody worked. Everybody worked hard. Sure, we had fun; but when the skies were dry and the season was in, we stayed in the fields – it might rain tomorrow.

The farms once known to populate most of our fair state have faded into our collective memory. Large, capital-intensive, operations continue to consolidate production. We may be better off for it. But what of our culture? Even as urbanization replaces traditional America, what can we expect? For me, I value our agri-culture and hope that it continues to have a place in the new order.


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