Response to Time Magazine's Article: America's Food Crisis and How to Fix It.

The media is at it again folks - Playing the blame game . Today's victim? You guessed it. Our farmers and ranchers.

Although no expert on publishing a magazine, I venture to say that Time magazine has no desire or intentions of reverting back to the way in which they ran the business in 1923, when the first issue of Time was released in the United States. Why is it then that the magazine and writer Bryan Walsh expects livestock farmers to return to agricultural practices of the early 1900’s?

Walsh’s biased allegations are disturbing. One of my first red flags was thrown at the statement, “…filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America’s obesity epidemic.”

The obesity epidemic can only be cured by one’s own decision and behavioral change to bypass that second-helping of dessert or a “super-sized” value meal and to incorporate exercise. It is not farmers force-feeding a lesser quality of food.

The accusation that farmers cram livestock into cages and barns for extra profit is ludicrous. Maybe not every writer knows, but trust that every farmer does know, that in order for livestock to be healthy and productive they MUST be comfortable (in housing, temperature, feeding schedules, etc.) and modern agricultural practices provides just that – satisfied animals for America’s high-quality food supply.

Just last year a farmer-friend of mine invited the community out to his swine farm to see for themselves how the animals were housed, protected and cared for. Those people who were removed from the farm by several generations were surprised to see how much care and attention was given to the animals. We were even served a high-protein, high-quality pork dinner 100 feet from the barn. No one complained of odor that night, because there was no odor to complain about. I wish Walsh had been invited.

Why is the media in constant attack of farmers taking on the task of successfully feeding six billion people through modern practices? Let consumers make their own decisions. Just this weekend at my local grocery I had the choice of organic verses non-organic and free-range verses conventional food. Although I chose non-organic conventional food, I was not in the face of other consumers making a different choice. Consumers have a choice and the last time I checked that was what it was all about – the freedom to choose.

Get Real Time. I am left to wonder if this biased journalism is causing the sharp decline in paid circulation of Time. This story alone has greatly disappointed my confidence in Time as a viable news source.