Just get it done yourself
As June is rolling in that means that half of 2020 is nearly history. How will history remember what we are living through? Certainly every aspect will be covered: COVID-19: The global conspiracy.
The other angle will be COVID-19: The virus that was not taken seriously enough and governments should have done more. My take on how history should be recorded is that everyone seems to be sitting back waiting for the new normal. What is normal? It certainly depends what your daily life is like.
I fall into the camp that we must control and ride the horse we have drawn to the best of our ability. To me, this pandemic is not much different from the Nebraska flood of 2019. The storms came, we watched the water rise and, during the brunt of the storm, we felt helpless and literally just waited and hung on. When it subsided, we went out to evaluate the damage. When our assessment was complete, we rolled up our sleeves and got busy trying to restore our operations to something close to normal. But regardless of what normal was, the storm will forever be etched in our minds and drive our decisions from now forward.
Clearly the 2019 #NebraskaStrong storm did not impact all individuals equally; some had a long ride with a ton of sweaty blankets to complete the journey. The horse and rider got tired, but kept pursuing the goal of returning to productivity. For that reason, we saddled up, day after day, trying to be part of the solution. Our attempt to restore life after COVID-19 should not be any different.
The biggest division in America comes about today when we consider who will fix the damage. Back in April of 2019, many farmers and business owners went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency town hall meetings and educational seminars about how the government would help restore the normal. From where I sit, that ended mostly in frustration because of all the strings attached and other government-dictated parameters that just were not practical.
I don’t hold a grudge or even a judgmental eye for those checking into the latest government program in livestock agriculture and a Band-Aid that might help sustain them until things improve. But I don’t, for the life of me, understand how people (in particular USDA employees) believe that payment assistance is going to solve the problem. The problem is quite clear, too few people making decisions that affect too many and too many hands in the kitty.
Farmers and ranchers really only want one thing: to take care of land and livestock so they can produce the essentials of life that improve mankind and get properly paid for doing it. What if the “investigation” into monopolist activities by companies in the food business had the same amount of time and effort the government puts into administering handouts? Would we not get a quicker fix?
Why doesn’t the USDA figure out why so many small and mid-sized meat and milk processors struggle to remain viable? For 27 years now my wife has reminded me, “you are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem.” Clearly every aspect of the government, in this situation, is the problem and the solution.
Far too many civil liberties have been sacrificed in the name of protecting people during this “pandemic.” Yesteryear in the United States, there were so many challenges in living that just making it to 50 years of age was a major accomplishment. Today, we live to be 80 years old and seem to wish everyone could live forever. At some point we must start to question who had the best quality of life?
So if you ask me when will life get to this new normal, I am going to answer sternly, when you stop looking for assistance and just get it done yourself.
Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
