The Grange just
celebrated its 140th birthday and did so by once again adapting
to a changing world. The members of our organization live in a
wide variety of communities in 40 states plus the District of
Columbia. Those communities range from sparsely populated rural
areas to high-density metropolitan centers. The Grange has and
continues to change to serve our diverse membership while
retaining our traditional tie to agriculture.
Fewer than 15% of
farms in the U.S. today are commercial scale, farming-only
businesses. These farms produce 75% of all domestic agricultural
production. The remaining 85% of all farmers in the United
States rely on off-farm income to remain active in the
agriculture sector. It is these small and moderate sized farms
that remain the only segment of agricultural production that is
actually increasing in numbers of participants and is the
segment that the Grange is committed to assisting.
The challenge that
we face is that the proportion of our population that is
directly involved, or has had direct experience, in agricultural
production has fallen from nearly 50% a century ago to fewer
than 2% today. This means we can no longer take for granted that
the general population, and their elected representatives, have
any realistic appreciation of the work and commitment involved
in producing the safest, least expensive, and most abundant
supply of agricultural products in the world.
Today, the average
American under the age of 50 is two generations removed from
daily life on a family farm or ranch. If we do nothing, the
generational distance from direct experience with active farm
life of any kind will increase over time, until farm life is
only a faint cultural memory in our society. Ignorance and
antipathy regarding current agricultural practices among the
non-farm population, compounded by nostalgia and myth about our
nation’s agricultural heritage are among the most dangerous
threats to prosperity in our nations’ farming and rural
communities.
Each of us who do
understand the realities of agriculture must become educators if
we are to ensure the future success and prosperity of the
communities in which we live. We have seen what can happen when
urban voters cast emotional votes on agricultural issues while
rural voters were casting their votes based upon the realities
of life.
When we educate
people of all ages about who we are, and why we choose to live
and work where we do, we will introduce them to a part of
America that is crucial to them in many ways. You don’t need to
live in a rural community to appreciate a safe, inexpensive, and
reliable food supply, but you do need to understand where food
comes from. You don’t have to make the choice of which crop to
plant or which animal to send to market to understand freedom,
but you do need to understand real-life consequences for your
actions.
The Grange has been
a significant force for educating rural America since its
earliest days. In more recent years many communities have
transformed from rural to suburban or even urban areas. The
traditional Grange hall often remains as a reminder of the past
rural community while it stands in the center of urban business
activity. Yet it also still serves agriculture by remaining a
source of education to those who have never worked in the fields
and will never understand the race to finish the harvest before
the rains arrive.
The Grange, both
rural and urban, understands the importance of teaching every
citizen about the realities of agriculture and how critical it
is to each person’s future regardless of their occupation. We
stand ready to work with any organization that shares our goals
and will welcome those individuals who share our appreciation of
American agriculture into our Grange family for the next 140
years.