I LUNCHED YESTERDAY with a guy from northern Rice County who farms and runs an auto body repair shop. The shop is Andy’s primary business with crop farming secondary. He rents out some of his acreage, tending only his alfalfa field. He has plenty of customers for his hay. Mostly people with horses and dairy goats, he said.
Before Thursday, I’d never met Andy. But I asked if Randy and I could join him at a patio table outside Faribault’s Hy-Vee. The grocer was serving free pork burgers, chips and bottled water as part of its “Feed the Farmers that Feed America” event. The Iowa-based supermarket chain is working with Feeding America-affiliated food banks to help end hunger. A donation jar was filling with bills.
Events like this remind me just how important agriculture is to all of us. Without farmers, we’d be hard-pressed to feed ourselves. Or at least I would since I don’t have a garden or animals or anything except two broccoli plants started from seed by my 4-year-old grandson.
Events like this remind me also that agriculture is an important part of my community. Farm fields surround Faribault. Tractors rumble through town, sometimes past my house.
Although I was raised on a crop and dairy farm, I don’t always consider how agriculture impacts us in our daily lives. Without farmers working the land, tending crops, the shelves at HyVee and other grocery stores would be empty. Farmers’ markets wouldn’t exist. And I’d be really hungry because, as much as I like broccoli, that’s not enough to quell my hunger.
© Copyright 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
farmers play such an incredibly important role in any community in so many, many ways. some years we are fortunate to have a few farmers, (men and women, both), who visit my school to talk about what they do, to plant a few things with the kids, and they set up a mini farmers’ market for them to shop for their families, with everything priced at $1, so it is easy for the kids. it is amazing to see how much the children learn from them, about the soil, about how to use their money, to find out where food comes from, and see how to buy food for a family. it is a priceless experience and the children so look up to the farmers.
I love that you do this with/for your kids. The next generation needs to understand the connection between food and farmers.
I think it’s so important
Farmers are the backbone of our lives, for sure.
Yes, what would we do without them? We would be pretty hungry.
Always a good reminder. Thanks.
Yes, sometimes we just take farmers for granted.
You are so right, Audrey. Thank God for people like this farmer and all the others who work so hard to provide food for all of us, as well as a living for their families. So few family farms remain. We need to know more about where our food comes from and to honor the people and the land they farm, around the world.
I like your word choice of “honor.” That fits. And, yes, so few family farms, which saddens me.
Without farmers – whether small and local or big and industrious – most of us wouldn’t be able to eat.
You’re absolutely right, Rose.
They feed the world, maybe more events like the one in your community are needed in places like MSP where people are a bit removed from the food source.
That’s a great thought. I wonder if the next generation or their parents really understand from whence their food comes. Some do, of course. But not enough do.
A HUGE Thank You to Farmers!!! I certainly could not start the morning if a farmer did not harvest and roast coffee. I am grateful and oh so blessed in what I can put on the table for my family and friends to eat as well as drink. I really try to support the farmer’s markets, the ma and pa’s, small businesses, co-ops, etc. Thanks for sharing – GREAT Post! Happy Day – Enjoy 🙂
Thank you for supporting our farmers in every way you can.