In keeping with the theme of Authentic Agriculture, it seems a good time to share some background on how all this came about.  This is my own personal history, but it should lend some clarity to the definition of “Authentic.” 

I was very well trained in many principles of Authentic Agriculture.  However, I didn’t know it.  I grew up on a largely Authentic Farm.

I left the farm and studied Industrial Agriculture, at one of the key sources of Industrial Knowledge, Purdue University.  To say that Big Ag and Purdue are closely affiliated is a major understatement.  At any rate, upon obtaining paperwork declaring me learned in the field of agriculture, I immediately went to work for Big Ag. 

My first job was as a retail salesman for Terra International, at the time they were a large supplier of chemicals, fertilizers and seed to farmers.  I was required to work 90 hours a week in the springtime “helping” farmers with their chemical and fertilizer application needs.  I liked working with farmers, but I didn’t like having to represent products and companies that didn’t fulfill the expectations they had promised. One thing I did notice was that the farmer was seen not as a person, but as a certain number of acres.  The more acres a farmer represented, the more important he was to us as a customer and consequently the better service and price he got from us.  I also noticed the chemical and seed representatives all had nice vehicles and ate out for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.  We used to joke that if we didn’t have a rep. coming in for lunch on a particular day, we better get on the phone and bring one in for a “meeting” so we could all have lunch.

The job just wasn’t for me, so, in the mid-90’s, I landed a job with Purdue University as a County Extension Agent in northeastern Indiana.  I enjoyed this job very much; because I got to do what I really enjoy: teach.  I thought I was really helping farmers by providing unbiased, research-based information to assist them with decision making.  At the time, I was not aware of the deep connections between Purdue (and all Land Grant colleges for that matter) and the ag industry. In the course of my work, I met a west coast biotechnology consultant who was very interested in the progress and acceptance of biotechnology in the Midwest.  He asked me to help him with his research, so I spent a day touring around the county with him and introducing him to farmers.  He asked them questions like, “If Roundup Ready soybeans were available today, would you use them, and what percentage of your acres would you use them on?”

The answers these and other farmers gave helped the consultant to formulate recommendations for Monsanto regarding their launch of RR soybeans, corn and other crops.  During our travels, the consultant encouraged me to consider employment with one of the biotech companies.  “It’s the cutting edge.”  He said, “There are significant amounts of money to be made by someone with your combination of education, experience and skills.”  One of the companies he mentioned specifically was Mycogen Plant Sciences.  I thought about what he said, and just sat on it for a year or so.

Then, out of the clear blue one day, I got a call from a recruiter, a “head hunter” as they are known in the business.  This person was looking for an agronomist for a company called Mycogen Plant Sciences and wondered if I was interested.  During the interview process, I was impressed with how much biotechnology was controlled by this little company.  They only had about 600 employees, but clearly, they had a leading position in the biotech race.  In fact, Mycogen had patented the whole Bt gene expression process well ahead of Monsanto, and was in litigation over that at the time of my interview.  They offered me what seemed a tremendous amount of money, sadly, honestly, that was the deciding factor. 

I took the job, got the nice company vehicle and went to work.  Very quickly the job began to consume me.  I was good at it, and was excited about it, and was willing to do anything and go anywhere they asked me to.  I advanced quickly, not because of my skill or intelligence, but rather because of my willingness to say, “Yes.”    Within a year, I was managing the entire Agronomy Services Department for the Eastern Corn Belt, a territory covering Indiana and east to the Atlantic, as well as southeastern Canada. 

About this time, my wife and I had a long talk, actually several.  Our first child had been born, and I wasn’t much help around the house, because well, I wasn’t around the house.  I was off driving my new company vehicle, entertaining clients, jet-setting here and there.  During this time, my expense budget was about $2-3,000 a week..  My salary climbed right along with me up the ladder, but I was unsettled.  I knew the job was taking too much of me.  Meanwhile the company was purchased by Dow Agrosciences, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.

In 1998, I landed in the company headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.  If you’ve ever seen this building, you’ll understand the rest of this story.  Internally, it’s called the “Crystal Palace” for its 5 stories of glass walls.  It truly is a beautiful building.  It has office space for about 2500, as well as a company cafeteria and health club.  A walk through the parking lot one day shook me to the core.  Every car was new or less than 5 years old.  No one drove anything with a speck of rust, a dent, or a scratch.  These were not all company cars, either.  These were employee cars.  BMW’s, Mercedes, Buicks, lots of BIG SUVs, Saabs, you get the picture.  

I began to think more deeply about what my life was contributing to.  Who paid for these cars?  Who paid for my $150,000 a year expense budget?  Who benefited from those expenses?   The answers honestly sickened me.  The luxury we were experiencing at Dow Agrosciences was multiplied manifold in other organizations, Pioneer, DuPont, Monsanto, etc…  The answers were the same there.  This largesse was the product of the American Farmer.  Yes, the one whom we celebrate for producing the cheapest food on the planet.  That’s right, the farmer who is supported by tax dollars so that he can be profitable.  In a very real sense, the government support received by farmers for the most part, is passed right on to Big Ag. That's why they are always so interested in the Farm Bill

I began to see that corporate America was literally raping the farmer, the land and ultimately the American People, all in the name of cheap food and technological advancement.  I felt that the policies and sales promotion programs had a very dibilitating effect on the individual farmers we were dealing with. I also began to see how the consolidation of the food industry, from "dirt to dinner table" was really hurting the consumer. The system is geared toward corporate profits only. Food safety, food quality, and the choices consumers have regarding food are not concerns of the industry at all.

I began looking for a way out.  One day, I went to a meeting where the Director of Research for the company was talking about the latest up and coming technologies that we would see soon.  He was most excited about an anti-sperm gene they had patented, and were going to put in corn. The idea was to help third-world countries with birth control.  Even as he said the words, I was renewing my resume in my mind. This was the last straw. Within 2 hours of that meeting, I had an interview scheduled with Purdue.  High income or no, I could no longer give the best, most productive years of my life to such an ungodly, wicked endeavor.  At the time, there were over 50,000 employees at Dow Chemical.  I know I wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable with some of the potential impacts of the organization's work.  Why weren’t others leaving?  I thought long and hard about this, as I left behind some good friends and colleagues  They didn’t leave, because the pluses outweighed the minuses.  For most, the biggest plus was the salary. 

When I left, a friend who had worked for many years for a large pharmaceutical company told me, “Hey, I didn’t agree with everything they did either, but I didn’t run off and quit!”  To me that just seemed like sitting on the fence.  If it’s wrong, it’s wrong, and if I keep on as an employee, it’s the same as saying I agree with what the organization is doing, and I couldn’t do that.

Another stint at Purdue didn’t seem too bad.  I knew Purdue was in the hip pocket of Big Ag, I also knew my time would be temporary, because I knew we were going to farm.  I just needed to transition for a few years.  Purdue seemed a decent choice, because I wouldn’t be asked to directly promote biotechnology.  It was OK, but after 4 years, it was time to leave.  Time to start our dream, to live and farm Authentically.

Authentic Agriculture™ is more than organic farming and grass-fed beef.  It is living in such a way that you are true to your convictions, even if that means going through some hardship as a result.  There is no middle ground here. 

There is nothing Authentic about Big Ag employees driving around in new pickup trucks, eating out at the finest steakhouse in Chicago at $100 a plate while the farmer has to take government handouts just to make ends meet. 

There is nothing Authentic about university Extension Agents carrying around the latest high speed laptop computer, purchased at taxpayer expense, while farmers are clunking along trying to hold an old desktop together. Government employees and offices should not be better equipped than an independent businessman would be in his own business.

I know this because I’ve been there.

James 5:4: Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.