Food for Thought

The Culver Young Farmers provided their Farmer’s Share Breakfast, Saturday April 3, 2010 at the First United Methodist Church in Plymouth. 

A very small cost of, $.49, to enjoy a hot and satisfying breakfast was served to approximately 200 people Saturday morning.  The breakfast was held to educate the community on the price difference of commodities from the producer to the retailer.  The low-priced cost of, $.49, is the amount the farmer earns for the sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, potatoes, and biscuits and gravy that was served at the breakfast.  The rest of the money that consumers pay to purchase their groceries at the store goes to the middle man and the retailer, not all to the producer.

Not only did many community guests attend this breakfast, but Congressman, Joe Donnelly, State Representative, Nancy Dembowski  and State Senator, Ed Charbonneau were also in attendance. 

“Farmers feed us. With that, our world is expecting to double its population in 20-30 years. This leads to our agriculture industry needing to support technology developments to improve efficiencies in delivering the yields of food that will be demanded,” said Ryan Sieber, a prominent member of the Culver Young Farmers.  “I was talking to Joe Donnelly on how important Agriculture is to our country and the importance of production agricultures sustainability. Joe has been supportive of biofuels.  Joe feels it is important to keep our energy production jobs and resources local.”  

State Representative, Nancy Dembowski, expressed her thoughts on the breakfast event, “There are many people who come to the breakfast that may not know all of the specific facts and information about young farmers and how difficult sometimes their business enterprise can be especially today and today’s economy.” Dembowski was also impressed with the slide show presentation that showed different facts about each different species of farm animal and learned that hog hair is used to make paint brushes.  “Best business practices are always a good way to go and farmers have much more education than they did many years ago and consumers need to realize how crucial the agriculture economy is to them.”

Along with Dembowski’s thoughts, Congressman, Joe Donnelly, said, “It is an indicator to the public when they see the price of the breakfast how much the farmers get and that the farmers are the backbone of the entire ag system and our goal always is to try to get a bigger share for the farmers.” Donnelly encouraged farmers stating, “The ag community is so critical as our population continues to increase.   Our greatest exports are farm products.  They are central to the success to this country. Without the farm community and famers nothing else works. I want them to know the United States Congress supports them one hundred percent. Our focus is on our ag community and how to help them. It is important to remember the best environmentalist is the agriculture community because our ag families live on the land, they take care of our animals, and are extraordinary stewards with everything that goes on.”  

 

Pamphlets and activity books were handed out at the entry of the breakfast that were aimed towards the facts about the different agriculture commodities and the way farmers care for the animals and land.  A donation box was also set up at the entrance with all donations going to local food banks and some food items were donated to the neighborhood center. 

The Culver Young Farmers thoroughly enjoy having the breakfast event, hoping to reach the public in a way to show how hard farmers work but yet get very little in return.  Consumers are very fortunate to have the benefit of inexpensive food thanks to the efficiency of farmers. 

 

The Culver Young Farmers are comprised of various farmers from Culver, Rochester, Akron, Mentone, Plymouth, Etna Green, and Bourbon dealing with a variety of agricultural interests.