18 wheels, and full plates

Thank a farmer

thank a trucker

thank a woman

thank a man

agriculture is so broad, the average person doesn't know how many different parts and sections there are to the ag world.

For years my family has been in the trucking sector, from summer loads to winter hauls. Growing up it wouldn't be uncommon for me to hope in a semi and travel halfway across the united states.

I remember a conversation once with a class where the teacher asked how many states we have ever traveled to and it hit me that I had visited over half the states in the US and didn't even really know what they looked like. I hadn't visited these places to go on vacation, we had a job to accomplish. From moving a massive piece of John Deere equipment to a small farm in Indiana to taking a load of Christmas trees down to California, agriculture is all around us.

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One of my most ag passionate friends was educating the class a few days back about the process of how milk goes from the cow to your cereal. After several minutes of listening to her speech, I realized how critical it was for the trucker to be at the farm at a certain time to keep the milk cold, or how the trailers needed to be a certain temperature to keep the milk fresh so it can get to the consumers safely. I already knew all of these things, but I had never heard it from a Dairy farmer's perspective.

From the trucking perspective, it was just a critical thing we had to do. Even someone who has grown up around agriculture from day one of life has to look at ag through different perspectives sometimes.

This goes to show the highly critical part that truckers play in agriculture.

What if we had hundreds of pounds of food and no one to haul it?

it. wouldn't. do. us. any. good.

But that my friend is the most beautiful part of agriculture. It takes a community, relationships, men and women, working together, to create a more sustainable beautiful tomorrow.

Did you know that every 1 in 17 jobs in Oregon is related to Trucking? That equates to 92,620 total trucking industry jobs.

Did you know that there are over 84,549 CDL holders in Oregon? and over 8,000 of them are WOMEN?!?

Thank a farmer.

Then thank a trucker.

Because they are the ones that are feeding you, every day. Every day they wake up before the sun. hit the alarm clock. roll out of bed. work a 15 hour day. come home after dinner. take time away from their family. living a life on the road. to feed you.

xoxo, two truckers daughter