May 2022 - 4

EDITOR'S LETTER
Deep ag, rural roots
I am grateful to be writing for this great farm audience.
Like many, I am indirectly connected to the farm to be assistant editor
of Vegetable Growers News, Fruit Growers News and Organic Grower
magazines and websites. I am the third-generation offspring of a
Midwestern farming family.
Many summers I spent at my grandparents'
central Kansas wheat and cattle farm. Of their
children, only the son remained in agriculture,
after teaching. None of his children chose
agriculture.
My little brother and I would play around the
farm - in the grain silos, machine shed and old
chicken shed - while Grandma prepared meals
for the farmhands and did all the housework.
When the adults weren't looking, we may
have trekked to the creek or railroad tracks.
We would accompany Grandpa feeding cattle
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MSU's new Pollinator Performance Center comes
together
In March, builders began to convert an existing
facility on Michigan State University (MSU)
Campus farms into the new MSU Pollinator
Performance Center.
Doug Ohlemeier
Assistant Editor
and during wheat harvesting, watch combines dump grain into trucks for
transport to the local grain elevator.
It was difficult work. Though we didn't think much about it at the time,
Grandpa would often be absent from home. He would leave for work
before dawn and return after dark, eating his dinner late at night before
retiring for another day's work.
Hearing dinner table talk about how hard it was to make a living with
$2 a bushel wheat was likely similar to farm family meal discussions of low
apple, tomato, onion or potato prices.
At my high school newspaper, I covered the Future Farmers of America
student group. While I didn't entirely understand the members' struggles,
I could see what farming and ranching meant to them.
I wrote about the farm crisis, which struck a dagger through the
country's agricultural soul in the 1970s and 1980s. Agriculture was as
crucial to the region's economy as was oil, which was also on its knees.
After college, I worked in broadcast news, mostly in small towns and
rural areas from Nebraska to Texas. Later, I was in marketing for the
Kansas Wheat Commission where I worked closely with producers and
ag writers. In the 2000s, I wrote about the business of produce buying
and selling at two trade publications, The Packer and Produce Business
magazine.
The hard work and dedication required of a grower was instilled in me
early on. Those farm visits helped me appreciate farming and rural life as
did talks with one of my uncles on my dad's side who was in marketing for
a state rural electric cooperative.
I've always enjoyed riding with growers to see their farming operations.
Visiting New England cranberry bogs, Washington apple and pear
orchards, the expansive Salinas lettuce fields, Colorado potato digging,
North Carolina blueberry and watermelon picking, Georgia Vidalia onion
and peach harvests and Florida bell peppers and sweet corn were always
insightful.
Growers invest much into their operations. I learned a lot seeing
canal-fed irrigation systems, freeze mitigation efforts before arctic
temperatures struck central Florida strawberry fields, as well as produce
transplanting.
Other professions require high effort, of course, but growers seem more
dedicated, a breed highly equipped to withstand the long hours required
for something that often brings low returns, distinct from other careers. I
relate to growers and understand the highs and lows of growing food.
I look forward to talking with many of you about your growing
operations and struggles.
Please send me your story ideas by contacting me at
dohlemeier@greatamericanpublish.com or 616-520-2162.
-Doug
THEY SAID IT
Every month and season, we're learning a ton of
lessons and capturing a lot of information and data. "
- BRENDON KRIEG, REVOL GREENS
P. 12
4 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
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$9.98M
in grants aimed at strengthening
specialty crops
The USDA announced April 14 it has awarded
$9.98 million to 14 collaborative, multi-state
projects impacting 28 states to enhance the
competitiveness of U.S. specialty crops.
FIRA launches US edition in Fresno, California
World FIRA, the leading event in ag robotics, will
launch FIRA USA in Fresno, California, Oct. 18-20,
to provide autonomous systems and robots to
California and North American growers.
Growers impacted by freezes could get legislative
help
U.S. Representatives Greg Steube, R-Fla.,
and Darren Soto, D-Fla., introduced April 11
The Temperature Endorsement for MultiPeril
Policies Act that would protect farmers
impacted by crop-damaging freezes.
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May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2022
