“Hug a Farmer” Campaign Takes Off this Week February 8, 2010
By Julie Murphree
Being the sentimental type I am, I wanted to do something special for Farmers and Ranchers this week since we’re coming up on Valentines. So we launched the “Hug a Farmer” Campaign. To get all the details go to the Fill Your Plate Blog:
Of Note: I did hug my farmer Dad and Mom this weekend, but being employed by Arizona Farm Bureau I’m not eligible to play. But pass on to friends and family, you could win two free Harkins tickets to take your valentine out this weekend.
Happy Birthday Rick, Jim and Mom …. and Alice February 3, 2010
By Julie Murphree
This week is kind of fun in the birthday world for the Arizona Aggie community. Rick Lavis with the Arizona Cotton Growers had a birthday Monday, February 1. So Happy B-Day big guy.
Jim Klinker with Arizona Farm Bureau (and my boss) had his birthday today. He gets to tout the fact that he’s younger than Rick. J We had a cake with candles that refused to blow out … came close to sounding off the alarm. No the candles were not my idea. We did have fun though.
And then Mom. It’s one of the big ones but I’m …
The Professor, the Farmer and the Extension Agent: Why the Partnership Works (Part II) February 2, 2010
Second in the two-part Series. First article here.
By Julie Murphree, Arizona Farm Bureau
The way modern-apostles of the food movement tell it, you and I might conclude today’s agriculture is evil and lacking in rational science and research-based practices. That’s simply not the case. And, the relationships between professors, farmers and extension agents prove it.
The Professor and Farmer
University of Arizona’s Andrade-Sánchez says, “Our role as applied researchers is to test the limits of new commercially-available technology in solving real problems of farmers as they attempt to grow plentiful, affordable and wholesome food. But that’s not the end, …
A Professor, A Farmer and an Extension Agent … February 1, 2010
Three Guys Walked into a Test Plot
A Professor, a Farmer and an Extension Agent …
Why agriculture technology advances depend more than ever on relationships to protect and advance our healthy, abundant and economical food supply. First of a Two-part series
By Julie Murphree, Arizona Farm Bureau
Around the breakfast table before the sun’s rise, one Midwest farmer explains why even the simplest of technology advances are important and helped keep him in agriculture. “Without the enclosed cab on tractors, I may not have followed my father into farming. Growing up I froze in winter when driving the tractor and melted in the …
Agriculture is Bright Spot in a Bad Economy January 29, 2010
By Lynne Finnerty, American Farm Bureau Federation
With the U.S. facing deep economic turmoil and unemployment hovering around 10 percent, it might seem as if there’s little to be optimistic about. Agriculture, however, has helped fortify the economy when it needed it most, as other sectors such as U.S. automobile manufacturing, real estate and construction have contracted and shed workers.
Funny thing, how agriculture often is overshadowed by seemingly more exciting industries, like, say, derivatives trading, but turns out to be the old reliable when other endeavors fail. Just like the tortoise and the hare in Aesop’s fable, farmers and ranchers keep …
Why I Wrote Fresh Air January 23, 2010
By Julie Murphree, former farm girl always farm advocate
In a letter to Bruce Weston Munro in 1881, Mark Twain wrote, “Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted; one can make no judicious use of this capital while it is new.”
Fresh Air is my capital. It is my life. But more important than that, it is a life that is uncommon today.
It is about a life – a lifestyle that is going away. … has gone away for most: Farming.
To preserve the memories, we write. To …
Misguided Meatless Campaigns January 18, 2010
By Stewart Truelsen, American Farm Bureau Federation Contributor
Throughout the course of history there have been attempts to get people to stop eating meat. An early advocate of a meatless diet was Priscillian, the bishop of Avila. Priscillian urged followers to renounce their marriages, stop drinking wine and avoid eating meat.
The reason he is remembered at all today, however, has little to do with the ascetic lifestyle he advocated. Priscillian also was a mystic, and he has the unfortunate distinction of being the first Christian condemned to death for heresy in the year 385 AD.
In the 19th Century, a Protestant minister …
Excerpt from my book, Fresh Air … Tip #50 = Attend Church January 5, 2010
Special note: I was visiting with a friend the other day about attending church. She was frustrated that she couldn’t get her family to church on a regular basis. It reminded me of what I wrote about attending church in rural communities in my book Fresh Air. You sometimes went because it was a major activity in a sleepy town. The excerpt is below.
By Julie Murphree
Whether Catholic or Protestant, you might identify with going to church. The tie small-town churches have to the local community is typically strong and enduring. In some rural settings townspeople didn’t need a …
Give to Your Local Animal Shelter, But Don’t Give to HSUS
Once again the spending habits of HSUS have been revealed and the results uncover that not very many dollars (Of all the money they have) are truly spent to protect abused animals. Here is their IRS 990 Filing
Rise Above the Little Things … December 31, 2009
One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. ~John Burroughs
Good advice from Burroughs … I pray to make it one of mine in 2010.
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