March 16 to March 22 is National Agriculture Week in the United States.
Inspired by the Agricultural Council of America that was formed in 1973, it is a time to commemorate, acknowledge, and salute the role that agriculture plays in the economy and our daily lives, in addition to the historical significance of agriculture and the agricultural industry to the growth and sustenance of this republic.
Volumes could be and have been written about the American farmer, and the importance of the American farmer not just to the United States, but the entire planet.
If you have ever been fortunate enough to know a farmer, you know in your heart and soul just how vital farmers are to the human race, the daunting challenges that they meet each day, the physical and financial risks that they take, and the knowledge, courage, and strength that is required to feed the world.
Perhaps no one has ever more eloquently captured the indispensability of farmers better than the late radio commentator Paul Harvey. His brief speech to a national meeting of what was then known as the Future Farmers of America (now the National FFA) is one of the most brilliant contributions to American rhetoric ever delivered, the definitive description of the life of a farmer:
Harvey concluded his masterpiece thusly:
"It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church; somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does'".
Grassroots is a term often associated with agricultural areas of a country, and it is not a stretch in the least to say that all of the COS grassroots embody the spirit, strength, and self-governance of the American farmer.
In our effort to call an Article V convention to reduce the power of the federal government -- a federal government that has often meddled to the detriment of the American farmer -- we plow deep and straight and do not cut corners.
Our efforts to educate our fellow citizens and our representatives in state legislatures involve a lot of seeding as we attempt to repair the broken mechanisms of the gargantuan federal government that has often plowed over us. We weather the storms of myths and outright falsehoods about our cause, our methods, and our aims, and return to the field bloodied but unbowed even after a bad season in this or that legislature.
We do this out of love for our country and its timeless principles, which have sustained our union for nearly 250 years. As our farmers are stewards of the land, we must be stewards of the Constitution and the first principles of limited government and ordered liberty.
This week, celebrate National Agriculture Week by not only thanking a farmer or keeping farmers in your heart and mind, but doing what you can to sow the seeds of liberty and self-governance, in order that we can continue to enjoy the yield of freedom for ourselves and future generations.
