Agriculture

New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or get healthier may be long forgotten, but spring, with its beautiful flowers and warmer weather, is the perfect time to rejuvenate those resolutions by getting active outdoors. 

Most of us know that regular physical activity can help prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes, reduce the risk of some cancers, help you maintain a healthy weight; strengthen muscles and bones and improve your mental health. Regardless, most of us do not get the exercise we need.

With the coming of planting season, we see an increased amount of farm equipment sharing our roads and highways.  The following was written by my counterpart in Gallatin County, David Hull, and appeared in their paper a couple of weeks back.  The message is appropriate for us, too.

Farmers markets provide a chance for us to get high-quality, fresh foods and support the farmers in their community. Selling at the markets gives farmers a chance to tell others about their operation and agriculture in general.

Long ago, in a land far away, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the rural countryside with the purpose of motivating his son to work hard by showing him how poor people can be. They spent a couple of days and nights helping with the daily activities of a poor family.  Sharing meals at night with the family, they learned a little about the rhythm of life on the farm.

On their return home from the trip, the father asked the son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”