PARKER, S.D. - Consumers want to know more about where their food comes from and they heard it directly from farmers at the Farm to Fork dinner held at the Bones Farm near Parker, S.D. The dinner is part of the Hungry for Truth Initiative put on by South Dakota soybean farmers.
Consumers and key leaders were invited to share a meal of locally grown products, while joining in on conversation with farmers about growing food.
At the dinner, host and farmer, Walt Bones talked about the diversified grain and livestock operation he runs with his family and the production practices they use. "It gets us an opportunity to tell them what we're doing, how we're doing it," says Bones. "There's no better opportunity than to go one on one with them and tell them what we're doing."
He believes being transparent with consumers is important because they're getting farther removed from the farm. "We've been so caught up with trying to understand technology ourself that unfortunately, we've kind of left the consuming public a little bit behind us," he says.
Sioux Falls Mayor, Mike Huether, attended the dinner and says his takeaway was that consumers should not take agriculture for granted. "We've got such great foundations in terms of our economic development stool, but folks are reliant on agriculture. We need these farmers and ranchers; these small towns. We need them to do well so that ultimately Sioux Falls can do well," he says.
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Brookings food blogger Staci Perry attended to learn how farmers raise livestock. "I like to learn about farming and how the farmers take care of their animals," she says. "There is so much care and I don't know that people realize that."
Perry says the dinner also changed her perspective on modern agriculture. "Sometimes I think we have the picture of these big conglomerate large farms and don't realize that there's so many family farms," she adds.
For Tripp, S.D., farmer and South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council Chair Marc Reiner, the Farm to Fork dinner is a chance to connect with consumers and show them that he shares the same values they do about food. "To sit down with consumers here in South Dakota, to sit at a table and not just have brief discussion, but an hour and a half to sit and talk with folks - we find out what kind of questions they have about food, what questions they have about farming."
Reiner says the most popular questions they get are about the safety of GMOs and herbicides, but there are many other things they want to know about farming. "Everyone has a little different take," Reiner says. "Some people are really concerned about what kind of crops you grow, what kind of livestock you raise, how do you take care of that livestock, how do you manage the water on your farm. The questions we receive are really varied."
