“Never Do Anything Until After You Sleep on it.”

As you have read from our previous blogs, we all gained and learned many different things from out visit to the Eastern Shore for Seminar II.  Below is my “Top 10” things gained from Session II:

1. Personally, blogging needs to be done ASAP
2. 2017 was the largest crop of U.S. Peanuts ever
3. There are two types of peanuts grown in Virginia including: Spanish and Virginia
4. In-home consumption of pork makes up 23% of hogs’ overall carbon footprint
5. There are varieties of cotton that grow in other colors besides white
6. Folks in the Eastern part of Virginia are not just peanut farmers, or cotton farmers, they usually grow 4-5 crops in rotations such as: soybeans, peanuts, cotton, corn, and wheat
7. Perdue Agribusiness has the only East Coast deep water grain port
8. Accomack County is one of the poorest counties in Virginia
9. You can get “cat milk” but not “cats milk” at farmer’s markets
10. You should “never do anything until after you sleep on it”

Mr. Paul Rogers, who hosted us with his wife Pam and others, shared with us a great quote:

“Never do anything until after you sleep on it.”

When standing up for what I believe in, this is definitely the most effective model to follow.

In recent years I have backed away from ag-advocating.  I was tired of people being hateful and not feeling like it made a difference.  After Seminar II, an article circulated widespread that had some mis-leading information about animal agriculture.  A large part of my participation in VALOR was to get back into ag-advocating, so I worked up enough nerve to contact the organization who sent out the article.  Quickly, I drafted a response and was ready to click “send.”  I thought about what Mr. Rogers said and decided to sleep on it.  The next day the email was reviewed and was edited to be less angry and accusing, and more concerned and helpful. In the end, the group was happy for my feedback and plans to release an updated article on the subject with credible sources.

As Seminar III sneaks up on us I’m sure we’ll gain a lot knowledge about agriculture policy.  Not to devalue that knowledge, but our greatest growth will likely continue to be from those we meet along our VALOR journey.  Like Brantley mentioned in his last post, folks in agriculture share uncommon kindness.  With that, they share their knowledge, wisdom, and experiences; which we can apply in own lives – just like Mr. Rogers’ quote to mine.

Please continue to support and follow VALOR Class IV as we make our way around the Commonwealth, United States, and across the globe!