UPfront
Correspondence
A stop for energy
Missouri U.S. Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond was on the road with Missouri Farm Bureau President Charlie Kruse in anticipation of the November 2008 election. One stop was the Rolla, Mo., Farmers Exchange. Bond’s message was that voters should carefully consider U.S. energy policy in the voting booth. While election results nationwide will color energy policy in tones of blue, Bond and Kruse continue to push for a policy that keeps fuel prices affordable for farming and transportation along with reducing dependence on foreign fuel supplies. Both agree that Midwest agriculture will have an important role in that process. |
Hurst could be more modest
In regard to the article “A modest proposal for old farmers,” by Blake Hurst (November 2008 Today’s Farmer), we must express our opinion as farmers and customers of MFA. If this is the best you can come up with in this publication, you can count us out.
This proposal by Mr. Hurst is anything but modest and to be honest makes this customer hurt, disgusted and mad as hell. Sure, we are approaching the over-the-hill stage, but that does not mean that we are ready to be put out to pasture. His opinion may have been all in fun, to him, but, for one thing, it was put in a crude manner. Perhaps when he grows up he will be more considerate of enlarged prostates and pacemakers on the farm.
His idea of providing housing way off the farm by government is bordering on stupidity. Would he like to be shoved off a home and a livelihood that he perhaps has worked all his life to obtain? We think not. We intend to be our judge as to when it will be time for us to quit.
Sure, in time we will need to retire, but in the meantime, how many young men want to give up their 9-to-5 jobs for our profession? Not our sons or grandsons. How many young people can take over a farm now with machinery, rent, fertilizers and chemicals as they are now? When the farmland is all turned over to the huge corporation farmer, what do you think will happen to prices and to places like MFA locations that depend on local farmers?
We think an apology would be in order for all of us “aged” farmers who love the profession we have chosen.
George and Louise Jansen
Chaffee, Mo.
Editor's note
The “Modest Proposal” portion of the headline for Mr. Hurst’s essay was stolen from the famous satirical essay by Jonathan Swift about feeding unwanted children to Britain's starving during famine. Any deeper labeling would be a lit applause sign, which tends to dampen satire. Meanwhile, Hurst, who tells us that he is actually scheduled for a prostate exam, responds: I sincerely hope that you can farm forever. It is a blessing to love your profession, a blessing that I share, and I wish you and Mrs. Jansen many successful harvests together. But I can’t help poking fun at our profession and myself. As far as when I grow up…well, not much good news there either—my faults are pretty well set in stone. But my grandchildren do think I’m funny.
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One Missouri enterprise goes green and yellow Deere & Company has acquired full ownership of ReGen Technologies, Inc, a remanufacturing company located in Springfield, Missouri. Deere had already owned 50 percent of the business. Operations will be more fully integrated with remanufacturing operations in Edmonton, AB, Canada and the overall name of the business will be John Deere Reman—an organization focused on growing Deere’s remanufacturing business globally. ReGen was founded in 1998 to remanufacture engines for John Deere products in the U.S. and Canada and has broadened its product line since then to include other engine components, fuel injection systems, starters, alternators, air conditioning components and other key parts for John Deere customers of agricultural, construction and forestry equipment. |
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Today's Farmer contributor wins Missouri Governor's award
Mitch Jayne celebrated for his work in Ozarks
Mitch Jayne, famed Missouri author, musician and true lover of everything “Ozark Mountains,” was honored with a Missouri Governor’s Humanities Book Award for his novel Fiddler’s Ghost. This distinguished award, presented at the Governor’s mansion in Jefferson City in October, recognizes individuals or groups whose books or publications have increased our understanding and appreciation of Missouri’s history and culture.
In Fiddler’s Ghost, Jayne delves into the multiple cultural layers of his beloved Ozarks, featuring the musical specter Hiram and a cast of wildly assorted characters who inhabit the backwoods community of Indian Glade.
Just as he does in his Today’s Farmer humor column, Jayne brings life and laughter to the pages of his book with his unique descriptions of the hard-working descendants of the Ozark settlers, their customs and values. He explores the genuine connectedness of all people and uses music to mend conflict among his characters. “People whose souls soar with music seldom find time or room for hate,” Jayne’s ghost declares.
Jayne’s extraordinary career has centered on weaving the tapestry of Ozark character, music and language. The career of this TV actor, musician, radio personality, author and all-around raconteur has been centered on this colorful region since he arrived there in 1951 to teach in one-room schools.
A popular musician of Missouri bluegrass and member of the musical group The Dillards, Jayne counts among his proudest achievements their multi-year stint on the Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s, portraying Ozark culture to the nation as “The Darling Boys.” Jayne and The Dillards also had the honor of celebrating Ozark bluegrass at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
We asked Jayne about his career in telling the world about the Ozarks. Here’s what he had to say:
TF: The Humanities Award celebrates work that has increased our understanding and appreciation of Missouri’s history and culture. You’ve done that through books and columns in Today’s Farmer and other publications. What brought you to become a student of Ozark culture?
MJ: I met an Ozark girl in college and was fascinated by her use of language as a visual art. Her mother had taught one-room schools, and when I married her daughter, she convinced me to try that myself. I outgrew the girl, but never the Ozark people I discovered.
TF: While your writing is widely read in the Ozarks, in a sense, your work has been a translation of the Ozarks for the wider world. How is it that people of a common language still need translators?
MJ: The common language we speak has as many accents and cultural derivatives as old England, where people from London need translators to understand a native of Lancashire in the north. It has to do with the value of words as well as sound and the way people need—in different ways—to “see” what they are saying. A Londoner might say, “Aside from glitter, we’re all alike.” Someone from Lancashire would say, “Aye, thah’s fine as peacocks, but still mus’ go to closet, sam as ah.”
If our Missouri expressions don’t need any translation, why would you hire me to amuse readers with our wonderful variety? The truth of the matter is that every editor is a born translator, trying to make facts interesting or at least readable to an audience of varied minds.
TF: The Ozark region is celebrated for its natural amenities and history. What else should we celebrate about it?
MJ: What must be celebrated about the Ozarks, far beyond history and amenities, as you put it, is that it is the reservoir of America’s strengths: a love of colorful language, an almost Thoreau-like appreciation for simplicity in lifestyle. It’s a love for hounds, wood smoke and stories, homemade music and valued customs—like the hunting of deer, which is a ritual as fiercely protected (and as practically unlikely) as keeping hounds.
It’s my very familiarity with both place and people that inspires me to pass on what I have learned to others who have forgotten how to conduct a love affair with their own environment. And that’s its most memorable lesson. As an old neighbor told me once, “You have to really love farming to work one that mostly stands on edge.”
Finally, Jayne said that Fiddler’s Ghost answers a lot of these questions, and it’s available for Christmas gifts. Find it at Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com.
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