I'm just along for the ride

In another lifetime, I was an aspiring-field-ecologist-turned-timber-cruiser. In those days, mining and timber companies didn’t believe something as small as a little snail darter fish in Tennessee could ultimately shut down an enormous hydroelectric project. Employment for someone who wanted to specialize in a concept called Environmental Impact Statements had not yet evolved. After all, those statements were bound to be short-lived bumps in the road to progress. A grad student, way ahead of her time, I tried to be content hanging out in the woods cruising timber for an international timber company. But who was I fooling? Measuring trees and fighting head-high brush in the pouring Oregon rain, wasn’t enough to keep my interest for long and I quickly moved over to drier, friendlier opportunities eventually becoming a volunteer manager for a regional food bank. Natural  sciences became a hobby instead of a vocation and I was free to read, study and form any opinions I liked. My husband has had a long career in vegetation management. He was quick to defend the use of pesticides, genetic modification and the companies who brought these concepts into the market. He supported our family with sales of herbicides and raised our kids to believe inΗbetterliving through science.” I wasn’t always so sure. The moms in my daughters’ playgroup planted large, “organically-grown,” seeds of doubt about the safety of what he did for a living. I subjected my husband to laser-like interrogations on issues of environmental consequences, organic, pesticide-free, natural vs. synthetic and demanded answers to questions my friends were raising. Dedicated, focused moms make a powerful peer group and I felt pressured to maintain their trust.

When I took my present job as an executive assistant for a trade association that represents farmers, foresters and their suppliers, I realized I would have access to a wealth of resources addressing my now barn-sized collection of questions. Having spent years trying to end hunger in the Northwest, I understand the last thing we need is a smaller, more expensive food supply. I find I have become a hitchhiker in the field of ag-science. My job allows me to take a journey along this roadmap of sources of our food and fiber. Along the way, I’m discovering a landscape of communities of scientists, farmers and regulators who are operating with a wealth of information that is often only sporadically accessed by the general public. I hope to help intelligent people connect the right dots and get a larger, more realistic picture of what is going on in ag-science today. I invite you to come along with me on the road while I discover why farmers and foresters make the decisions they do.