Taylor and Cathryn Kerns and Brian McGuire of Western Heritage Meat Company discuss what they're doing to advocate for the ag industry, as well as the disconnect between agriculture and the public.

Last week, I visited Western Heritage Meat Company in Sheridan, Wyoming to take some photos, get a tour of the new meat processing plant and retail space, and meet with the Western Heritage crew. My visit can be summed up in one word: refreshing.

In October, Activists vs. Agriculture turned one year old. Over the course of a year, my blog reached 32,938 unique visitors spanning across all seven continents — I was overwhelmed. These statistics were reported to me after a month long break I took to focus on WAR’s annual Herd Reference edition and to break ground on my freelancing business’ website, www.walkingpproductions.com.

***The Western Heritage Meat Company Team: Taylor, Jack, and Cathryn Kerns; Brian McGuire***

I was on cloud nine, I couldn’t believe these numbers. Sure, maybe they weren’t as high as some of the other ag advocates’ blogs out there… but it broke my goal of 10,000 visitors in a year. I thought this milestone would push me to do more, to “top” any of the stunts I’d pulled in the past through my column/blog but instead, I got burned out.

This happened for a number of reasons, the first being that stupid word — which I promise, I will try to never write about again in this blog — COVID.

Many people were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and yes, I lost loved ones, contracted the virus myself, had some public speaking gigs I was super excited about canceled, and spent some time in lockdown, unable to fly home to see my Texas family. However, the way COVID-19 affected me the most was in my career as a journalist. Every, single day of my life for the past 365 days I have heard about this virus, wrote about it, proofread articles on it, and scrolled through endless social media posts about it.

I realize it’s a privilege that this was the way a global pandemic affected me the most… but it punched me in the gut when it came to writing. It was all anyone in my anti-ag Facebook groups could talk about, from vaccine arguments to blaming the ag industry for the initial COVID-19 outbreak. Frankly, I quit checking up on my frenemies (friends because they keep me on my toes, enemies because they have the sole mission of destroying mine and most of y’all’s livelihood) due to the fact that nothing new was happening. No one was going to animal rights protests, no one was blaming animal ag for global warming anymore, and honestly, this cause wasn’t at the forefront of their minds anymore with a global pandemic to worry about.

It seems silly to say COVID-19 burnt me out on my small agvocate blog — but it did, and ya’no what? I’m over it… enter the Western Heritage team…

I have a handful of questions I always ask interviewees when I do a profile story. One of these questions is, “why do you do what you do?”

Most agriculturists answer the same way, “agriculture is arguably the most important industry because it feeds the world;” “I’m a fifth-generation farmer/rancher, it’s my legacy;” and my all-time favorite (no sarcasm) “I guess I just like cows,” with a sly grin.

When I asked Brian, Taylor, and Cathryn this question, they had similar answers. However, they hit me with another answer I wasn’t expecting: education.

“We rely so heavily on agriculture within our society to produce everything from the carpet and shoes we wear, to the food we put in our bodies, and yet people demonize them all the time for working their butts off for a 2 percent margin for the sake of people. Because, like I mentioned earlier, they don't do it for the money,” Brian said.

Cathryn chimed in with the reason they chose to name their company Western Heritage, which is to pay homage to the American agriculturist.

I know I’ve used this photo 1,000 times, but it’s my favorite picture of my dad. This was a day the crew at Woodland Ag (the ranch Dad manages) shipped calves. He was taking a break at the back between truck loads and just watching the dust settle. … — I know I’ve used this photo 1,000 times, but it’s my favorite picture of my dad. This was a day the crew at Woodland Ag (the ranch Dad manages) shipped calves. He was taking a break at the back between truck loads and just watching the dust settle. He looks so content to me, just happy with what he’s doing. I think this showcases why ranchers do what they do — because they love it.

The four of us jumped into a what could only be described as an impromptu round table discussion on the emphasis we as a society should put on agricultural education, or the lack thereof.

“Taylor and I ran the numbers one time, and we figured out that it would take a hundred years for a cow to pay for the land that she needs to live,” Brian laughed. “I mean, who goes into a market where you take a hundred years to just break even?”

“Ranchers do,” Brian added with a chuckle, “they do, readily, every day. They put their faith, and their money, and their families on the line to make it work.”

Taylor stated he believes it all comes back to a lack of understanding from the consumer.

Brian echoed that and said a large part of the anti-animal-ag movement is all based on the demonization of the industry and people who are willing to fabricate blatantly false statistics and science to back up their claims, all to destroy us.

We continued to discuss the marketing behind organic farming, the antibiotic-free movement, and the climate change “cow farts and burps” debacle, but one statement stuck out to me more than the others.

As Cathryn paced with her and Taylor’s baby on her hip, she made one of the simplest, yet most compelling arguments I’ve heard in a while.

“I like to compare it [animal agriculture] to gardening. People find joy in planting a tomato, there's excitement when that first sprout finally pops up after weeks of anticipation. Then, that plant grows. And when the tomato is ripe, you pick it and eat it because that's what you grew it for and there was joy throughout the whole process — there was tender care that went into taking care of that tomato plant. But when the tomato is ripe, you eat it, you don't let it die on the vine and just say, ‘well, that was fun.’”

We all laughed at the thought of planting a garden — tilling the soil, fertilizing the plants, watering the sprouts — yet not harvesting any of it. That would be crazy, right?

Just like it would be crazy to take care of animals which you KNOW are put on this earth for human consumption yet choose to let them die of old age and never receive the bounty you’ve raised in them.

It would also be crazy to work your butt off to publish a successful blog/column then just let it fizzle out because you’re sick of reading and writing about a stupid virus.

In conclusion: yield whatever “crop” you’ve planted, fight for its success, and be proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Life Update…

So, here’s what I’ve been doing since October. I know I posted a few times here and there, but I was pretty busy starting my own business, Walking P Productions, getting engaged, planning a wedding, and renovating our (soon to be) home.