The Work Goes On

By Glenn Brunkow @Brunkow

“Alone together.” I believe that is the mantra for staying at home and trying to flatten the curve of COVID-19. If we stay separated from others, together we can continue to combat this virus.

As a farmer, staying “alone” may be easier than for those who live and work in the city. For the most part, our professional lives have gone on unchanged.

Life as we know it may have changed, but it goes on.

Unchanged unless you have crops or livestock to sell. We all know what has happened to our markets and the fallout is far reaching and painful. Agriculture is certainly taking its lumps as we are all acutely aware. It is just another blow to all of us who have suffered through hard times even before this.

In times like this, it is easy to feel alone – like no one is looking out for you. Many days we get up, do our work, hear the bad news on the radio, through the internet or TV and never talk to another person outside of our immediate family. It is easy to think that no one has your back.

Let me just assure you, we are in this together. Maybe not physically, but we are in this together.

Kansas Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation have been fighting for our farmers and ranchers. We have been fighting in different ways than we are used to, but we are still working hard to protect our farmers’ best interests. Life as we know it may have changed, but it goes on. We have maintained constant contact with the decision makers and let them know about our concerns and challenges.

It isn’t easy to do, but we have found ways to get our important work done and maintain social distancing. Many hours have been spent in virtual meetings with elected officials and in committee work. Contacts have been maintained, and each day our Farm Bureau staff works tirelessly on behalf of each of us. They might not be as visible, but work continues to get done. Yes, this is an unprecedented series of events we live in, but rest assured that Farm Bureau is continuing to advocate for each and every one of us in all facets of agriculture in unprecedented ways.

I’m sure you’re just like me — ready for us to move forward from the time we are in now. And we can do that, together.

Glenn Brunkow is a farmer and Farm Bureau leader in Kansas. This column originally appeared on the Kansas Farm Bureau website as part of the Insight series.