Before you sharpen your pitchforks, let’s see what Mary Kay has to say.

   Yesterday, HumaneWatch.org made an announcement that the famous Mary Kay brand was supporting an HSUS fundraiser event in Dallas. Obviously, agriculture groups and people are up in arms. And it didn’t take too long before the word started to spread, just like the Yellowtail fiasco.

  But, before we clean our medicine cabinets of our Mary Kay products and stop our next orders maybe WE should ask some questions. Does Mary Kay really know how their name is being used, and what HSUS stands for, likely not. I guess I am maybe a bit too much of an optimist, but I would think there are just too many rural and agriculture women that sell and wear this brand to let their name be associated with HSUS.

 According, to several posts on HumaneWatch’s facebook page Mary Kay is already working to resolve a problem that they weren’t even aware of. It appears that Mary Kay has been involved in a case of fraud to be quite frank. I would hate to see agriculture women suffer because of lies that HSUS has spread.

  I am asking that agriculture does the same thing that we are asking corporations to do – research. Research what you see in the media, research where you are putting your dollars, and continue to research the moves that HSUS is making so we can fight against them.

  It looks like it is going to hopefully be safe to keep on supporting the pink!

   Update from Mary Kay - March 9, 2010

  Humane Society Concerns

  Some fans of Mary Kay® products and independent beauty consultants have expressed concerns over a recent sponsorship of a Dallas-area event. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We have heard you and want to clarify any confusion.

 First and foremost, Mary Kay is not a sponsor of this event. Mary Kay’s owner’s wife was approached to make a personal contribution towards a local event here in Dallas sponsored by the Dallas chapter of the Humane Society. This event specifically supports efforts to stop puppy mills and the organization’s stop puppy mills campaign. Out of caring and compassion for addressing puppy mills, our owner’s wife agreed to make a personal contribution. Mary Kay has contacted the Humane Society to clarify that we are not sponsors of this event and the company logo is being removed from the website.

  As a company, we sincerely apologize for any confusion or causing any offense to members of the Mary Kay community.

I turned the first draft of the last chapter of my Master’s thesis in today! I’m sure I’ll share more about my thesis project with you as I get closer to defense time. My project focuses on how beef producers can effectively communicate with an urban public. For now, I’ll share one of my recommendations and a bit of my personal experience.

In my tactical recommendations for producers, I encourage them to advocate for agriculture in a variety of communication mediums – from printed letters to the editor and news media to the online environment and face-to-face communication. Social media in particular is a place I think is a good fit for “agvocacy” (agriculture + advocacy).

In my personal experience, social networking advocacy works. The Humane Society of the United States is an organization that – despite its misleading name – does not operate any animal shelters or spay and neuter clinics but does spend a considerable amount of its time and money lobbying against animal agriculture. From time to time, I utilize my personal Facebook page to share this with others. Below is a screen shot of an interaction where my friend Craig’s opinion of HSUS changed based on my Facebook advocacy. Craig is a law student specializing in administrative law with an interest in politics.  

I had a similiar interaction recently with my friend Tina, a Wichita nurse.

Check out this new web site HUMANEWATCH.ORG.

 It’s a great attempt to combat the HSUS!!!  You can also become a fan on Facebook by searching for humanewatch.

The weather seems to be a reoccurring theme in everyone’s conversations right now.  I just keep waiting for a break in the snow and cold.  Just a few days ago, I got that break in the weather.  After I was finished feeding the cattle, I was enjoying some sunshine and my mind started to wonder.  Being the fifth generation on my family’s farm, I was wondering  how did the old timers survive these kind of harsh conditions?

As I sat there, looking at the piece of land my great grandfather spent his entire life on, I was thinking of all the changes that have taken place since he was my age.  Things like buying his first tractor, rural electricity, and milking the cows by hand each morning.  He lived to be an old man, and since he lived a quarter mile up the road from my parents place, I knew him well.  I was eighteen when he passed.  I remember his stories almost word for word.

Then I came back to the here and now.  I started to reflect on the challenges that are facing me.  While most are just the normal struggles of life, one stood out to me as totally uncalled for.  I live in an age where media biased is accepted.  I’ll quickly recap, what I am referring to.  In 2009 there was a terrible article in “Time” magazine and the movie “Food Inc.”

I felt so flabbergasted when each of these were released.  I was wondering why somebody that had never met me would spread lies about what I do.  Where did these lies about food production originate from and for what purpose?  I’ll probably never know.

I once heard somewhere that the word fear is an acronym.  It stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.  I guess that is about how I would sum the “Time” article and “Food Inc” movie.  I have been one to ask lots of questions.  So I pondered, why didn’t the outlets mention the Beef Quality Assurance program that so many ranchers participate in?  Why didn’t it mention how the beef industry spends millions of dollars of its own money on things like food safety, research and testing?  Why didn’t they point out how farmers and ranchers, like me, are good stewards of the land, and how our goal is to improve it for the next generation?  All I could do was shrug my shoulders and offer myself this simple answer to my own questions.  The truth about what I do wouldn’t fit the FEAR theme.

As I stood there looking off at the horizon, to where my great grandfather’s house once stood, I came to a realization.  His dad had the same goal I do.  To produce safe, wholesome, delicious food for the people around us.  At that point I had to grin and shrug my shoulders again.  Some things haven’t changed that much after all.

Watch CBS Evening News with Katie Couric tonight.  They will be running a story on the livestock industry’s use of antibiotics.

The preview of the story (Farming Super Bugs) is on now at their website and it doesn’t look to animal agriculture friendly to me.  I am putting my MBA skills to work by posting a comment to the preview, I urge you to do the same.  My posted comment is below –

"Remember that American farmers produce the safest and most affordable food supply in the world.  Antibiotics are a tool used by farmers to keep it that way.  Farmers would not care if the government banned antibiotics if Americans were willing to pay substantially more for their food.  And right now reputable research shows no adverse effect to consumers.  If that was not the case the government would not have to ban antibiotics, farmers simply wouldn't use them.  The only way livestock producers can be profitable is if we consume their products.  If the product is unsafe we wouldn't consume it! 

 I sure hope CBS Evening News, in an effort to preserve their journalistic integrity, reached out to the livestock producing community.  I'll be watching and waiting to see!

 I suggest that tonight you watch the news while enjoying a safe, wholesome, nutritious, and delicious steak.  I'll have mine medium rare thank you." 

Yes, I tried to go a little “P.C.”   So tell me what you think.  Also they will be discussing this topic tonight on the live Cattlemen to Cattlemen (http://www.cattlementocattlemen.org/), airing on RFD-TV at 8:30 p.m. EST.

The Internet has been a buzz the last couple days with news that [yellow tail] wine donated $100,000 to HSUS. I’ve read about it in blog posts, on twitter, in Facebook updates and all over the agriculture media. YPC blogger Crystal Young wrote about it here in her personal blog. You can even watch Advocates for Agriculture’s Troy Hadrick dump his last bottle of Yellow Tail out on YouTube.

I’ve been very proud to see everyone’s quick reactions and [yellow tail] has taken notice. I’d love to see an environment where companies are afraid to donate to HSUS because of the backlash that follows.