Circumstances change. Values remain the same.
It’s a great truth that farmers know beter than virtually anyone else. Yes, it was Shakespeare who wrote, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man,” but it is the mind of every farmer that instantly conjures up countless examples proving exactly how insightful he was.
The world has been lucky in the values of its farmers. At times, in fact, we all feel it’s fairer to say the world has been undeservedly lucky in those values.
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Now, great change is coming to agriculture. The last generation was asked to feed the world essentially for free, and they did it. This generation is being asked to feed and fuel and warm and guard the health of the world, and again, they show every sign of scaling that height.
That doesn’t mean the two generations are the same, or that their business goals are the same, but their values persist.
This makes today a good time to repeat what we consider some of our values at Country Guide, even though we recognize that when it comes to our values, you’re the best judge, not us.
As a guiding principle, we believe that the force that is transforming agriculture is the genius of the individual farmer. It isn’t the technology, it isn’t the market, and it certainly isn’t the government, though those things are all important. Instead, it’s individual farmers, on their own, doing that most important of things — making decisions for their own farms — who are creating the agriculture of the future.
Our goal is to try to be a part of that. (Really, what could be a better job for us?) And to do it, we make these promises.
First, we don’t sell editorial space in Country Guide. We never offer to write stories if advertisers buy a page. That means never.
Second, we promise that you will know who writes every line of copy in Country Guide. We don’t accept ghost written articles from companies or agencies. That doesn’t mean we never accept an article from a company or an accountant or anyone else who hopes to gain from it. But it means you will know who wrote it, so you ca judge whether they are credible.
Third, advertisers and company sources don’t get a chance to screen or revise our stories. We do show the stories we write about farmers to the farmers involved, just to ensure we got it right. But we don’t give companies a chance to tell us what we can say about them. That’s an ironclad promise.
Fourth, we don’t accept expensive favours from companies. As I’ve said in past, if we get together, they might buy us lunch one time, and we might pick up the bill the next time, but we don’t accept free junkets or free hotel rooms, and there’s no way we ever accept free product.
Let us know if we’re getting it right. Call me about any farm business story you see, or feel you should see in Country Guide. I’m at [email protected], or you can reach me at 519-674-1449.
