Farmers aren't Hick

A couple weeks ago I was on twitter and saw a tweet that talked about how farmers are hick. Now, most of us know what hick means but here is what dictionary.com has it as: “an unsophisticated, boorish, and provincial person; rube”. After I saw that tweet I was immediately offended from the fact that I come from a farming background and that someday I hope that farming is my main occupation.

Yet, I know I am not a hick and the farmers I know aren’t hick either. However, after thinking on this comment a little more, I soon realized that a lot of Americans still have this perception that farmers are still living in the 30’s when it was just a horse and a plow. It’s amazing to see this gap between the farmer and the consumer continue to grow and the consumer not seeing the advances that are taking place in Ag!

I really do believe if the consumer was able to experience a farmer’s life, their opinion about farmers and agriculture would dramatically change in a good way. Almost everyone uses technology these days, but some use more advanced versions. When I say advanced versions, I am talking about using GPS to automatically steer a tractor or farmers being able to turn an irrigation system on by the click of a mouse. How many people in America can say they get to do that in their daily life? Not too many. It truly is amazing to see the technology that farmers are using compared to what they used 10 years ago. These days’ farmers can even take their computers out to the field with them to log in data from crops or diagnose problems with their equipment. A lot of farmers are even buying tablets, such as iPads, to take out to the field with them so that they can keep an eye on the markets and get the latest weather updates.

Now, what I just describe sure doesn’t sound like something a “hick” would do or use. To me it sounds more like highly sophisticated people that are trying to feed a growing population while also making sure the food grown is safe and nutritious. So the next time someone says farmers are hick or calls them another demeaning name, be sure to ask them how many hicks they know that use GPS, computers, iPads, smart phones, email, and etc. Most likely they won’t know of any and you can tell them that you just described the American farmer.