Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
Since we have been talking so much about the youth of in our agriculture world lately, I wanted to touch on an alarming trend that may impact our future. Thanks for tuning in today to Ranch Raised.
This morning, I was reading an article on Southern Ag Today (southernagtoday.org),
“There is a growing concern about the rising U.S. agricultural trade deficit.”
In the fiscal year 2023 the US experienced a significant trade deficit of $16.7 billion and now in 2024, we are on track to double that! While all this sounds like a lot of multi-billion dollar jargon, I tend to read between the lines. What I read is we are a nation that cannot feed itself and that is terrifying to me! We are a nation that decided to value cheap blueberries and tomatoes imported from foreign countries and let our own fruit rot on the vine with no market which would later mean those acres would be taken out of food production and used for more financially beneficial options, like urban development. We are a nation that was once at the height of self-sufficiency but in a quest to become a world power, we seemed to demean the most simplistic function that we would need to stay at the top, the ability to feed ourselves.
And this folks is why I am so passionate about reading labels and supporting American farmers and ranchers at the grocery store with my consumer dollar! It really does matter if we want the next generation to have any chance at being fed by our own neighbors.
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children near Broken Bow, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her former role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the Jones Ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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