Uhg! I had to strain some unwanted foriegn material out of the milk before I drank it. Today, the milk you drink never sees the light of day until you pour it out of the jug and into your glass. You can blame those, supposed, inhumane loafing and milking parlors for your privilege of pure, clean, and consistent tasting milk.

Having been born and raised on this farm, I have experienced the adverse conditions facing both man and animal. I've braved the wind, rain, hail, snow, cold, and heat many times as we attempted to get the animals into the best shelter we could afford for them. And, believe me, nature didn't provide any better accommodations for the buffalo and fowl that roamed across this vast prairie that was called 'The Great American Desert'. Neither did nature provide an abundant and consistent food supply for the scattered nomadic tribes of Native Americans, who subsisted in the area.

Megan and Taylor, we are not nearly as far apart on our ideals and desires for a system of food production as you might think. But, realities are realities and we must always strive to attain a balance of compassion and care for all the participants, both man and animal, who are involved in the service industry, manufacturing system, and food chain. How can we do that? Our system of government allows us to establish fair and equitable rules and regulations that protect all of society. Those equitable rules and regulations cannot be had until we understand where we are and how we got here.

Having been semi retired for a number of years now, we don't have any livestock of any kind in the operation. So, now I'm not a diversified farmer. I raise only wheat and corn. Those two commodities don't require me to confront the elements of nature on a daily basis. So, no, I didn't do all those chores I described, earlier. But, I'll guarantee you, I've done my share of them in years past!

In a pristine and ideal culture farmers were satisfied to provide for themselves and enough to meet the needs of the society around them that provided those things the farm family couldn't, or wouldn't, provide for themselves. Those days are forever gone. When the farm families began to notice and crave the amenities and comforts their city cousins were enjoying, they had to change their strategy and began specializing and reaching for more lucrative markets for their produce. We have progressed from that family farm, which depended on their immediate family for all the labor and resources. Today we have mega specialized and integrated production units that depend on cheap labor for those menial tasks that technology hasn't mastered and the high priced automated technologies that require volume production to sustain themselves. The lower economic end of that system, cheap labor, has a difficult time managing to meet just the basic essential requirements for life. The upper economic end of that same system has increasingly become more and more greedy, and since they have control, their lust for economic leverage and power has created havoc with social structures and environmental conditions.

Our political system today has come down to a battle between the haves and the have nots of our society. So long as those battles are being fought by the two extremes, justice will never be had for the betweens in our economic and social system.

I surely hope that the Megans, Taylors, and me's of society will strive to find that middle of the road governance that protects those struggling to meet the very basic essentials for life and allows for reasonable reward for the individual entrepreneurs who have the ambition and resources to go beyond those basic needs for themselves.

So long as we have the two extremes screaming at each other with unsubstantiated accusations, demands, and promises, we will never have a stabilized system that provides liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.