Allow me to shed some light by painting a picture that accurately portrays the life of an American cattle rancher who raises cattle for beef.
Before she could even walk, a young girl was riding along on the saddle with her dad, moving cattle between pastures in the mountains of New Mexico. Before she started kindergarten, she was taking care of baby calves by warming milk and feeding them from a giant bottle almost too big for her little arms to hold until the calves were old enough to feed on their own. By high school, she was able to do any and every task necessary to care for the livestock on her family’s cattle ranch. She spent her summers building snow protection for the cattle preparing for winter, and she spent her winters chopping through inches of frozen ice so that the cattle would always have fresh water.
The person portrayed above — the one who spent their life devoted to the care of the animals and the land — is not the exception when it comes to agriculturalists. That person is the rule; that person was me.
It perplexes me to know that there are groups, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, who say I don’t raise food with integrity, that I don’t care about or meet their standards of “animal welfare” or a variety of other myths about how our food is raised.
This great nation is filled with more than 800,000 cattle farmers, ranchers and feed yard owners and operators that raise beef and strive for the highest standards of health and well-being for our animals. Chipotle has recently opened its doors here in Amarillo, an area that many of these cattle raisers call home. Though they may not be the only group that feels this way, their perspective is proof that we need to have this conversation about how our food is raised with the farmers and ranchers who grew it.
...I am beyond grateful to live in a country where the diversity and safety of the agricultural system is so great that we can purchase any kind of food we crave, raised by a variety of farmers and ranchers who may use different methods or technologies to raise that food, yet have one thing in common — a commitment to high quality food that we feed to our own families. The reality is that by the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to jump from 7 billion to 9 billion people, resulting in billions more mouths to feed in a proportionately short period of time.
...I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the food that I eat — the food produced by Americans — is food with integrity. I will testify to that fact, because I hold myself to a high standard of integrity, and I know that my fellow farmers and ranchers, my family and friends, hold themselves to that same unwavering standard. All we ask is one thing in return — include farmers and ranchers in the conversations about how your food is raised...
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