Washington DC

What a week. Matt and I spent Monday through Thursday in our great nation’s capitol. We went on the County President’s trip with Kansas Farm Bureau. Kansas Farm Bureau facilitates this trip every year to take agriculturists to DC to meet with Congressman and women. So many of us get so involved in day to day living on the farm and in our lives that we forget or don’t have time to advocate for agriculture. After being in in DC for four days, I can guarantee you that we need to be advocating for our industry.

We’re very blessed to be given this opportunity to go on this trip and experience the capitol. There were a couple things that popped out at me. 1-Always, always, always pack Matt a hoodie on any trip we take. Since this was our first trip to take together that I've packed for him, I didn't realize that a hoodie was as essential as underwear and socks if not more so. I have learned my lesson and will always pack him a hoodie mainly so I don't have to listen to him complain. 2-Our society is EXTREMELY wasteful. It almost broke my heart to see the amount of food that was thrown away. There are starving people right here in our own neighborhood and the amount of food we waste is incredible. Please make a conscious effort not to waste so much food. 3-There a lot of people (aides, Congressmen and women and a lot of the general public of DC and US) that need to be informed about agriculture. People are so removed from the farming population that the understanding of why, how and what is being done on farms isn’t being conveyed to them. Then the problem arises of whom to listen to.  Which is where the activist groups, that I blogged about last week, come in that have an agenda of their own to accomplish.

It opened my eyes a lot to be in DC and see what the Congress is trying to pass through. So many of these come from urban areas and don’t understand how the regulations that they are imposing really affect their constituents. For example, in the Clean Water Act they are trying to take the word, “navigable”, out of the definition of what defines a water source. If this is accomplished, it will give the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) full rights to regulate any water. They explained to us in our briefing that if it rains and there is water that runs across your land at least 10 times per year (I think it’s 10 times, not positive on that) it’s considered an active water source. Even if that water is only there very briefly, the EPA can regulate and basically control that land. So essentially if the word navigable is taken out, the EPA will be able to regulate land AND the water. This is the Clean Water Act and they will be able to tell people what to do with their land that has water run across it only when it rains! This is preposterous! For you Farm Bureau members that read this, complete and send in the action alerts that they email to us. For those that aren’t, contact your Senator and Representative and make sure they are opposed to taking the word navigable out.

This is just one issue. There are a whole host of other issues and concerns out there. As I’ve said in other blogs…if you have questions about what is being done on a farm, please ask a farmer or extension agent or somebody in the field of agriculture. Don’t ask an activist group that will make sure you won’t support agriculture. Remember, producers may not sound as polished as these activist groups, but we also have a whole bunch less money and time. Many producers are too busy running their own operations and keeping them above ground to spend a whole bunch of time recruiting the members. In addition, we don’t have the financial resources that many of these groups have. As farmers, we choose which organizations we want to give our time and money to just like you. For example, corn farmers usually belong to Corn Growers Association; soybean farmers belong to Soybean Growers Association; cattle producers have Kansas Livestock Association or Kansas Cattlemen Association and the list goes on and on. There are a few organizations that represent all types of farming operations like Farm Bureau. So as you can see, activist groups are united and out to accomplish the same things. Producers are divided. Corn growers want ethanol to be big so their corn is highly sought after and raises the price of it, livestock producers don’t so they can feed their cattle the corn, etc. That is why it’s so difficult for agriculturists. We don’t have the united money that these groups do. The money that we do have is split between so many different organizations all trying to compete against each other. Let alone working against the anti-ag activist groups.

Please, please, please if you have questions let me know! If I don’t know the answer, I will find it out for you. Please continue asking questions, giving advice and suggesting topics. Keep sharing with your non-agricultural friends! This blog is worth taking the time to write as long as there is one learning from it. The day there isn’t, is when I’ll stop taking the time to write it. Thanks for taking the time to read it!

The recipe for this week is macaroni salad. It’s something that my mom has made forever. Not sure where she got the recipe, but it’s good and Matt approved!

Macaroni Salad:

1 (16 oz.) bag of noodles

Miracle Whip

Pickles

Eggs

Salt & Pepper

Make the noodles according to package instruction. Mix the noodles with miracle whip. Probably about a cup of miracle whip. Whatever you prefer. Dice up about 3 pickles (bread and butter is Matt’s preference). Boil the eggs-probably about 2. Dice those up and mix in. I don’t use eggs in mine because Matt doesn’t like them. Mix everything together and season with salt and pepper. A lot of this recipe is personal preference on how much of the ingredients. You’ve probably made a version of this anyway. Enjoy! So another week without a picture. Forgot to take a picture of it when I made it and left it in Mom's refrigerator. Are seeing a habit...taking pictures of food isn't real important to me. Eating it is :) Please forgive me but a girl's got to have priorities in life!

These are just a few of the pictures I took while in DC or on the way. 

This is in front of the White House on a lighted monument tour we took.

Our hotel was about two blocks from Capitol Hill. 

On the plane. It was REALLY turbulent on the way back.
Another thing I will pack in the future is a book for Matt on the planes.