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As a fourth-generation family farmer in Montana for almost
40 years, I speak from a background of personal experience
when I say that chemically based agricultural production methods
today are unsustainable, and therefore ecologically disastrous.
My experiences range from working in a large organic dairy
to raising registered beef cattle to owning a large factory
feedlot. I have farmed thousands of acres of grain and have
reproduced a herd of over one thousand commercial cows. In
addition, I have raised chickens, pigs, and turkeys. I have
also grown crops such as wheat, barley, oats, corn, alfalfa,
and grass.
I was involved in agriculture at a time when the message was
"Get bigger and better or get out." I was educated in modern
agriculture, and I can tell you from firsthand experience
it is not sustainable. I followed all the modern advice and
turned a small organic family farm into a large corporate
chemical farm with a thousand range cows, five-thousand head
of cattle in a factory feedlot, thousands of acres of crops,
and as many as thirty employees. I saw the organic soil go
from a living productive base to sterile, chemical-saturated
mono-cultural ground because of my so-called modern methods.
In 1979 I was paralyzed from the waist down due to a tumor
on my spinal cord. That changed my life forever. I promised
myself that, whatever the outcome of the surgery, I would
dedicate the rest of my life to doing what I believed to be
right--no matter what changes that necessitated.
The period before and after the surgery gave me much time
to think about the changes resulting from my methods of farming.
Convinced that we were going the wrong way, I decided to become
a voice for the family farmer and the land. In 1983, I sold
most of my farm and started working for farmers in financial
trouble. This led me to work for the Montana Farmers Union
and from there to Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist for the National
Farmers Union.
For five years I worked on Capital Hill for America's family
farmers. In that time we had some small successes, such as
passing the National Organic Standards Act. But even after
the Act became a law, it took several years before the administration
allowed funds for its implementation. I became convinced that
the changes we needed had to come from the producers and the
consumers at the grassroots level. Until that alliance is
put into play, the big money interest will continue to control
public policy in the Congress of the United States.
My goal is to see a producer-consumer alliance controlling
public policy decisions in North America. To that end, since
1991, I have been speaking and educating the public about
organic sustainable agriculture and the dangers of current
methods of food production. Informed producers and consumers
can help by making humane choices in their personal lives.
My progress in achieving sustainable agriculture has been
marked by some very interesting events. I ran for Congress
from Montana in 1982 and was able to enlist over two dozen
full-time volunteers to carry the message through the political
campaign. Although we lost (by less than 4% to a six-term
incumbent), we were able to focus the voters' attention on
who was producing our food and how they were doing it. I was
the Executive Director of the international Beyond Beef Campaign
in 1992. We organized over twenty-four hundred teams consisting
of over ten thousand people who handed out over one million
pieces of information in one day at over three thousand separate
locations around the world. This information was to educate
consumers about their food choices.
Since 1991, I have traveled approximately 100,000 miles a
year, for the purpose of educating the public. I have appeared
on over one thousand radio shows, hundreds of television stations,
and have spoken to thousands of groups from small audiences
to an assembly of over twenty-five thousand people at the
Earth Day celebration in Oakland, California. In 1996, I was
a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show on food safety, where I
spoke about Mad Cow Disease. City University in Los Angeles,
California awarded me a Doctorate of Law degree, and I was
also elected to the office of President of the International
Vegetarian Union in 1996. As a result of my appearance on
Oprah, the Ark Trust selected me to be an honored guest and
presenter at the 1997 Genesis Awards. The Peace Abbey also
honored me with the Courage of Conscience Award in 1997.
The message is always the same: if there is to be a bright
future for our children and grandchildren, it will come from
consumer support of producers who work in concert with nature--organically,
sustainably, and humanely.
madcowboy.com
vegsource.org
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