It's not really fair to use this as my title, but this is exactly what I thought when the following story happened.
Our suburban house is across the street from an elementary school and an adjacent soccer field. On occasion, people who don't have anything better to do will drink a six-pack of beer in the parking lot. Those who REALLY don't have anything better to do will break a few beer bottles on the pavement and conspicuously leave behind the proof of their idiocy.
Last month, there was a substantial remnant of misplaced exuberant mirth. Broken glass littered several feet of the sidewalk where we walk our dog every day between Math and Reading. Each day, we walked our dog far away from the glass, and I picked up a handful of glass shards to throw away. After about a week, we began to notice a difference, but there was still much more glass to dispose of. Then, it snowed a few inches. The city sent out one of their guys on a little plow to clean the sidewalk around the soccer field. They couldn't have known what their good deed would do. The glass was now pushed off the sidewalk and scattered in the grass alongside the walk.
As we walked past the familiar spot, I realized that I would not be able to easily retrieve the glass any longer. It will be lying in wait for an unsuspecting barefooted child or dog to step in the grass come next summer and receive a nasty cut on their foot.
That was when I thought, 'This is like the difference between big ag and the family farm.' The family farmer knows his animals and land intimately. He rights wrongs, he fixes things, he has personal knowledge and pride in what he raises. He cares about his customers. He knows many of them by name. He may go to church with some of them. His wife may take over a casserole when one of them has a baby. If he has broken glass in his barn, he knows about it and makes sure it gets cleaned up.
God bless the family farmers. May they prosper
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