Anyone who knows me personally knows that although I live in the big city, I am very much a country girl! My entire family is based in the South. I fondly remember all of the warm summer days spent running around on my Grandfather’s farmland with my cousins while the adults gathered and prepared farm-fresh foods for us to eat for our daily meals. As a child, I was taught that healthy farming makes healthy families.

 

As I got older, my Father, Aunts, and Uncles would share their stories with me about their days working in my Grandfather’s farm fields. I was always intrigued and amazed at the hard work and dedication that it took to ensure successful crops for consuming and selling, and how important their job was to the livelihood of the other families in their community and beyond.

 

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My Grandfather’s old 100-acre farmland stretches as far as the second row of trees that you see off in the distance

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Coming from a family of farming, I know how challenging it can be to balance day-to-day family activities with the workload that comes with managing a farm. Especially nowadays, when the demands of family and food consumption has increased so significantly. As a Mom who strives to steer clear of processed foods and prepare meals made with fresh foods as often as I can, I seek to learn more about the foods that I buy for my family.

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Last week I had the opportunity to do just that with a private tour of a farm in the West Alton, Missouri area to learn exactly how healthy farming makes healthy families. I got the chance to talk one-on-one with Adam, a farmer who grows one of my family’s favorite foods corn, as well as soybeans and other vegetables.

 

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A look at the Alton farm

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Spending a day in his shoes and hearing him talk about his family’s background in farming and the love he has for what he does helped me to learn more about the day in the life of a farmer. I also learned about planting season, water management and conserving resources.

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The most interesting thing that I discovered is that farmers are not made to buy their farming seeds from major agriculture corporations. Instead, there are other farms that produce—you guessed it—farming seeds! Farmers buy from other farmers, which keeps the farming community economically strong. I also learned the latest methods and resources that are available to farmers to help keep the foods that they grow as pesticide and chemical-free as possible. This definitely helped me feel more at ease with the foods that I feed my family!

 

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This tractor is 16 years old – and still operates perfectly. Tractors nowadays come equipped with many tools and technology to help farmers do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. Some even come with GPS. 

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One of my favorite parts of the tour – up close and personal with the silos

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It was great to learn more about the foods I eat! Where it comes from and how it was grown is all very important to me. Food plays such a major role in keeping my family at their best, so being able to educate myself on the dynamics of farming and farm life certainly helped me a lot! By taking the personal farm tour, I realized that America’s farmers work tirelessly to grow crops and raise livestock that help our country flourish and keep our families healthy. That is something I never take for granted.

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*Many thanks to Janice of JPLovesCotton and Monsanto for inviting me to be a part of this experience!

healthy farming makes healthy families #plant14