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Wisconsin Dairy Farm
July 19, 2008

We were in an area of Wisconsin with beautiful rolling hills and a lot of farmland. Wisconsin is the dairy state so not surprisingly we saw a lot of dairy farms. I couldn't help taking a lot of pictures including this one of Holstein cattle. As I was taking pictures of this farm with cattle in the barn the farmer drove by on his tractor. He waved and chuckled as I took his picture too but likely muttered under his breath "dang tourists"! It not like we don't have dairy farms here and unlike a lot of folks we get quite close to cows. Still I can't help wondering about those who have only seen cows in pictures or on television.

A large fraction of our society have a lack of connection of where their food comes from. One of my kids teaches grades 2/3 in an urban setting. As a science lesson each student planted a tomato plant. They were totally amazed that from that seed grew a plant that produced tomatoes. Apparently they thought tomatoes grew in boxes in the store! This really presents a problem. If you don't connect to your food source then it is difficult to realize that what you do in your daily life ultimately affects your food source directly.

It can be something as perceivably benign as leaving a light on or tossing the last of an expired medication down the toilet. One affects our carbon footprint and the other our water source. It can be something a little more blatant like ignoring smog day warnings or tossing litter out of the car. Or it can be worse, much worse and it all comes from not being connected with the food source.

Garden Gnome
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