God Made a Farmer

I didn't watch the Super Bowl last night. Actually, the guy from Direct TV is here currently installing our satellite. I missed every single commercial but there was one that I have heard about that I can't get out of my head.

When I woke up and checked Facebook this morning, I kept reading these statuses about the Dodge commercial. If you know anything about me, you know I grew up on a cotton and peanut farm in the midlands of South Carolina. This is something I am EXTREMELY proud of and I will most likely bring up in conversation.

My family's farm dates back to THE beginning of America. In fact, we have the original Land Grant from the King of England when my family came over here. Perrow Farms is one of the oldest farms still in business today and we are going strong. We all live close together and you can see tractors of some sort behind all of our homes. We have old grain bins that haven't been used in a long time, and when you drive into my little town of Cameron you can hear the hum of our cotton gin. Agriculture has been a way of life for my family. We eat, breathe, and sleep it. We pray for rain, sunshine, mild weather, and a healthy crop. Farming is in our blood.

I digress. So, back to the commercial. My family always forwards around any type of pro-farming emails when we receive them in our inbox. I had actually heard this commercial on YouTube that Farms.com made, and man is it powerful. I am tearing up as I sit here and type this.

You truly don't understand how important agriculture is to our country AND our economy. People think peaches come from the grocery store... WRONG. They are grown all over the country, and South Carolina is the 2nd largest peach producer behind California. My state grows everything from soybeans to collards to tomatoes to broilers (did you know broilers are chickens?-- that's the state's #1 commodity). You get it.

Farmers don't farm for the money, I can promise you that. They don't make hefty salaries. They do it because they love it and I am so thankful that Dodge acknowledged this during a time where millions (maybe billions) of people are watching! If you ask anyone in my family, they will tell you they could have chosen any career path, but they chose working on our family farm.

God truly did make each and every farmer. Farmers put food on our table and fiber on our backs. Like this NPR article says, this commercial during the Super Bowl was "selling the virtue of farming."

Thank you Dodge for spreading the message about American agriculture. I am proud to be a part of it and damn proud to say that my family provides both food and fiber. Next time you put on your t-shirt, think about all of the hard work that goes into making it- from the seed to the factory. When you eat peanut M&Ms, you may think, "these peanuts might come from Charlotte's farm," because they might.

Thank a farmer each and every day.