My father was a farmer and so was his, most of his brothers were farmers.  I grew up on a farm and love the freedom, the outdoors and the life.

I've always felt, rightly or wrongly that farming was the most important part of civilization.  It allowed people to pursue other things which enriched all our lives.  Without food and fiber supplied by the agriculture industry nothing else is possible.  There would be no civilization if everybody was forced to grow or hunt for their own food, it would consume all their time and effort.

Farmers save billions of lives by providing food.  All the medical care in the world won't save you from starvation.

Some would mistakenly argue that transportation, education and other jobs are important or farmers would be out of business but long before there were schools, before there were highways and trucks farmers produced food to feed people.  When doctors were letting blood and teachers were teaching the earth was flat, farmers were raising crops and livestock and then hauling it to the marketplace.

I think that farming is one of the highest callings a person can engage in and I find that even those who appear to be BTO's are also people that love being out in the fields.