Celebrity Spotlight - Mike Rowe Supports American Farmers

I get excited every time I hear a front-and-center celebrity stand up for a cause that I support. Mike Rowe, the host of the television show Dirty Jobs, is a guy worth getting excited about.

Not only does his show Dirty Jobs highlight the occasional agricultural industry, but earlier this year, Rowe had a guest contributor write about his concerns with American agriculture on his Web site www.mikeroweworks.com/. The article gets a bit long for my tastes, but it's worth the read.

The author is a California native and addresses not only Proposition 2, but also offers his opinion on the moral dilemmas presented by some of our nation's leading animal rights organizations. Check out this excerpt from the piece:

"I didn’t vote for the proposition they’re talking about because it didn’t make sense to me. I couldn’t buy into the emotion of seeing animals in cages and using the worst examples of some unethical people as the end-all be-all for every farmer in the state – passing that measure would negatively affect our food sources and our farmers.

I happen to believe that using emotion to manipulate voters is just plain unethical and wrong. Who wouldn’t get choked up to see a mistreated animal? And look, I’m sure that some farmers use methods that are not humane. I’m equally sure that there are many who don’t. Just like all blonds aren’t dumb and all polish people aren’t stupid, the few bad eggs shouldn’t represent the many good ones (sorry – I just couldn’t resist saying that). Should we put every good citizen in prison and let the prisoners run free? Just like you can’t say that every person who owns a puppy is going to treat it like the bozo down the street that runs a puppy mill, you can’t say that all farm animals are abused and all farmers are to blame. I don’t believe that keeping a chicken in a cage, free from bad weather or predators and feeding them well and making sure they stay healthy is a bad thing. My grandparents had chickens. I know what the chickens did all day and what they were happy doing and it didn’t include much else besides eating, “talking” to all their pals and laying eggs. Seriously (no disrespect to all the chickens out there)."

Again, it'll take you a few minutes to read the entire entry, but I think it does a great job at capturing the heart of the battle we are up against as supporters of U.S. agriculture.

Next time you are in conversation with someone who questions your meat-loving American motives, you'd be wise to remember some of the points brought to light in this piece.