My husband and I attended the annual Madison County Farm Bureau banquet two weeks ago, and what a delight it was. For those who couldn’t make the event, you really missed a special treat.
Congratulations go out to the Kevin Leslie Family for being named the Farm Family of the Year. The prestigious award for Service to Agriculture went to Senator Bill Montford and former Representative Halsey Beshears. The George Townsend Good Neighbor Award was presented to Phil Roberts. The Soil & Water Conservation Award was presented to Jerry Herring and the 2019 Outstanding Young Farmer of the Year was awarded to John Cone. Congratulations to all this year's winners.
Dinner was absolutely delicious, as usual. All attendees enjoyed delicious pulled pork, which was cooked by Steven and Jennifer Williams. The MCHS FCCLA (Family Careers Community Leaders of America) and the MCHS FFA (Future Farmers of America) were on hand to help serve the dinners and drinks and to help clean up.
Greene Publishing, Inc. made an entire special section, honoring all the Farm Bureau winners and providing coverage of the entire banquet/meeting in last week's Madison County Carrier. I hope it can be a special keepsake for the many award winners as well as a good read for the rest of you. If you missed the section, be sure to come out to our newspaper office and pick one up. We still have some copies.
Through my many years in the newspaper business, I have found myself attending and covering a lot of events. I have covered the Madison County Farm Bureau Banquet, dinner events, early morning breakfasts and Farm City Week events for many, many years and have always been greeted with open arms and enjoyed the company tremendously. And this past week's event was no exception.
I truly feel that the farmers of America (and farmers of our individual counties) do not get enough credit. Working a farm takes a lot of long hard hours and a lot of long hard labor; far more than many of us put in each and every day in our own jobs that we have.
We need to all try to remember that our food does NOT come from Winn Dixie, Pic N Sav, or Clover Farm. The food on our table each night comes from a farm; and some farmer, somewhere, is way underpaid for what he does.
So, I ask you, "Have you thanked a farmer lately?"
Make sure you do!!!