To the rural community: Thanks for blogging

I think it's great that we have farmers and ranchers who blog, and I hope we continue to encourage more to do it.

Consumers and especially people in urban areas who may no longer have direct connections to farms and rural areas need this: voices (well, words and images, too) from those who grow and produce those agricultural products they need and enjoy.

As we produce an agricultural newspaper and website, unfortunately as reporters and editors we act as a filter. We try our best to communicate to farmers what we think is important to them and valuable to their businesses and families; however, the reality is it's difficult to always know what's on their minds, what are their preferences for information, and why they even do what they do.

As a small company, we don't do the fancy surveys, focus groups, and professional polls that perhaps some of our competitors can do so regularly.

More modestly, we try to meet with the farm community in person: on their farms, at their events, or yes, sometimes online through our blogs or other ways.

We welcome those who write from across the country, to us, but especially on the Web themselves. Share your experiences and your opinions; help teach others to respect and understand better what you do in your lives; create an environment where hopefully more people will understand what it's like to till the land, milk a cow, watch a seed grow, help a cow with its calf, toss a bale, pick a berry, or harvest the crop.

The Web — and blogs — offer everyone an excellent opportunity to connect more than any other generation before us.

For those of us in the agricultural community, at a time when there are so many challenges and misinformation against agriculture, the Web offers some of the best potential we've ever had to get our message out.

Thanks for accepting the challenge and long may all of you write.

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