We’ve talked more and more in recent years about how agriculture is becoming a global enterprise. That was truly on display last week on a North Central Indiana farm.
“We had 22 countries represented here looking at the way we farm, talking to our family, getting to know what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and building a relationship,” says Isabella Chism from Chism Farms in Howard County who hosted agricultural attaches from countries like Australia, Chile, Hungary, Mexico, Spain, the Philippines, South Korea, and others last week.
These ag attachés are based in their respective countries’ embassies in D.C. and are not farmers. They largely focus on trade issues. They were excited to learn about the farm but also about some of the cultural differences.
“Anything from us sharing traditional foods of persimmon pudding and they never had heard of it. Cornbread, they had never heard of it or tasted it before. And it’s corn from our farm, persimmon from a tree in our yard. It’s those type of things. The Cass County Pork Producers provided the pork, it was the best pork chop they’ve ever had they said. Well, when you let the experts cook the meat that they grow, then you end up with a quality product.
“It’s also the opportunity,” Chism continued. “I was just invited to several of the embassies to share what I do, or to learn more about what they do, or to bring the committee, to bring any of our members to their embassies.”
As Chair of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee, Chism encourages opening your farm to groups like this to build relationships. It doesn’t have to be a group of international ag attaches; it can be just a group of folks in your community.
“If we’re transparent, then they will respect us first, and then they begin to trust us as we build them into our conversations and into our farm. And when they understand how we feel and what we do and why we do it, then they begin to accept things. They begin to become our advocates. So, on the Women’s Leadership Committee, we’re building programming for advocacy and leadership for women in Farm Bureau. And then if we do the same thing on our farm for our communities, we end up building stronger communities across our country and a safer food supply.”
The ag attaches were most interested in seeing (and riding in!) the equipment and learning about new technology on the farm. Overall, the visit was a tremendous success, and Chism knows the message of American agriculture got through from this interaction she had.
“One gentleman came up to me with tears welled up in his eyes, shook my hand and held onto it and said, ‘You know, I am learning more and more that farmers are the same everywhere. Their heart is the same. Their heart is for community. Their heart is for growth and for understanding, and that’s what I see in you and your family and throughout agriculture.’ That’s the message. That we’re all people, and we all care about each other, and here on the farm we want to do what’s right, not only for us, but for our community, because without our community we couldn’t survive either. And so now we’re just enlarging our community.”
We’ll have more tomorrow from one of the ag attaches that visited the farm on what they gleaned from their trip to Indiana.
