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Show Farmers, ranchers provide base . ; v:VvV. toft.''.-'; when developments come and go MX, iron mines, industrial developments alt come and go, the economy of southern Utah goes on primarily because of livestock people. Thus was one of the conclusions offered last week by Met Johnson, owner of the Cedar City Livestock Auction to livestockmen of southern Utah. We at the Record heartily agree. As Johnson said, the farmers and ranchers of the area are the ones we all see around town in dirty Levis, old hats, muddy shoes, muddy pickup trucks with bent fenders. They wear shirts with holes in the elbows. They are many times bow-legged, bow-legged, with a day's worth of whiskers and rough and dirty. But, more importantly, they are able to succeed in an occupation in things things don't go that well that often. Farmers and ranchers are the ones who provide, at the most basicjtevel, the needs of the rest of us. They are the, ones who are closest to the land. They are the ones at the base of any economy. Without the farmer there would be no food processing plants, there would be no grocery stores, there would be no services surrounding these. There would be no high-gtandaTa1rvi)(!g:'r-- And yet, sometimes, we . forget that and continually malign them. J-''J.4 ; Farmers and ranchers are theses' ''who take better care of the land than anybheJThe various federal agencies and bureaucraciesiy think they are doing them all a favor, and sometimes they may help, but no one takes better car? of the land than the livestockmen and farmers. : - No one else has to live off the landia& a year. No one else is going to depend on. itrjjf or his living. No one else has that i,o(;ret, that type of understanding. Farmers and ranchers are the 'hban' of . the land. Sometimes we forget that,;bor'iQy at least, we at the Record remenilj''' tepe that we, and all the citizens ;of (Jie a'rea, will remember more often. . ' -f : V We hope that someday, because; we.'?don't remember, because we neglec4lthepieiii and women, that someday we vonve'iearh through sad experience just howvaluableian asset they are. |
