- A New Vision for Iowa Food and Agriculture, Food, Energy, and Agriculture Commentary
- November 3, 2010
For every contribution of $20 or more, you'll receive a copy of Francis Thicke's new book.
Thanks For Your Support
by Francis Thicke
To our friends and supporters:
By now you have seen the election results, and know that we did not win the race for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. However, we did engage the public in an important discussion and debate on the future of our food and agriculture, and we moved the dialogue forward.
I very much appreciate the huge surge of support for our campaign in the last weeks before the election, and all your uplifting messages of encouragement after the election results came in.
Clearly, we have a lot more work to do to move our food and agriculture towards greater sustainability. And, it is also clear that there are no simple political solutions. We will all need to keep working on many fronts to keep our issues moving forward. It will take the involvement of educators, researchers, farmers, and concerned citizens. In short, it will take a change of thinking – a change of consciousness – in the general public to support the changes we are working toward.
Thank you, everyone, for your support of our campaign! I am encouraged that we made important strides in changing the thinking about food and agriculture, and I look forward to crossing paths and working together in the future.
Francis Thicke
18 Comments
I am proud to have shared the journey with your Francis. You gave us a voice from coast to coast and we’ve just begun.
I agree with Will Merydith…from coast to coast. I followed your campaign daily from Moscow, Idaho and you are correct Mr. Thicke, the conversation and action will continue. Many kind thanks for all of your hard work.
Francis, I was rooting for you from out here in Southern California! Many of yesterday’s results across the nation were very disappointing. But we will NOT give up!
Three cheers to you!
I just want to let you know you made an impact.
I spread around a few of your books to a few farmers that I knew would be receptive to your ideas. They were very appreciative. I felt it was a way to plant a few seeds, so to speak.
I am hoping you are or were considering working on a movement. I would like to help such a cause if this is a possiblity. I would encourage you to consider something along those lines. Thank you for all your effort.
Empowering farmers… it doesn’t get more grassroots than that. And if they managed to look up from their labors long enough to hear you, they came out to support you. It was moving to watch; inspiring to be a part of.
On my way home at night, I’d often hear my grandmother saying “Now Litz, tell me what he has to say about the CAFO issue” or some other issue. She loved politics and she’d have loved this campaign. “Oh-who-whoo!” she’d have said regarding the foolishness of Mr. Northey’s response to the egg catastrophe. She’d have liked that you opened the debate with that issue.
You moved the issues forward and you demonstrated integrity in politics. That’s a punch that’s going to cut the wind of Agri-corp in the later rounds.
Thank You!!
Alitza Blough
Francis,
Thank you for your dedicated effort to move our state and nation in the direction of sustainable agriculture. Your integrity, intelligence, and concern for the health & well being of all citizens and our whole environment are a shining example to all around you. It was a true pleasure to meet you and to be able to support your campaign.
I was so hoping you’d beat Big Ag! The conversation will definitely continue! I blogged about you out here in So Cal. All the best to you!
Betty C
Francis, you are wonderful and, were I a citizen of Iowa, I would have certainly voted for you. Seeing you talk at MUM in Fairfield was so deeply inspiring and amazed me. Hopefully you will run in future years. I was rooting for you!
Francis – Yours was the first campaign I’ve ever donated to. It’s also the first campaign I’ve ever volunteered for. When I filled in the circle next to your name, I felt the same uplifting butterflies I felt when I voted for Barack Obama. Although the election didn’t turn out as I had hoped, I am forever grateful for your inspiring message. Thanks, Francis!
Francis – Thank you for your vision. It has inspired me to be a food activist. I honestly think we are way ahead of the curve. Iowans just have to become more educated about what is served on their plate and what our harvest is invested into. We have to vote with our dollars and from there change happens. Let me know how I can help on your next run for office.
Blessings, Deidre
Thank you all for your kind words. This campaign has certainly been a learning experience for me. A highlight has been the many wonderful like-minded people I have met along the way. That in itself has made it all worthwhile. I hope we all find a way to continue to work to build on the momentum we started here. – Francis
Thank you for running a courageous campaign and raising the entire country’s awareness of these issues. As we work on local sustainable food systems all around the country it can feel isolating since we are all working, well locally . Your vision and your voice help us all know that there are thousands, millions of us from New York to California who share your vision and are working now to make it happen. STAY WITH US. Keep this growing movement alive.
Greg Leonard
Board Member
Sustainable Community Gardens
Having grown up on a farm in Connecticut and seeing the corporate invasion of small business sustainable farming, politics and quality of food over the years, I followed your work and campaign with great interest. Working in the media (Radio) where we are trying to inform the public you, Francis Thick, were a great inspiration to our newly activated consumers. The fact that far from Connecticut in Iowa, where a lot of our food comes from, there was this highly qualified man making the effort and sacrifices to represent agricultural sanity was great news.
Francis, I was rooting for you from Illinois, and am so grateful for your campaign and how you raised awareness of issues so important to the health and well-being not only of Iowans, but to to our entire country.
Like Rob, yours was the first political campaign I ever donated to. Thank you, thank you. I sincerely hope you may consider another run in the future. We are sorely in need of leaders with like values and vision.
God Bless You Mr. Thicke. Reading about your crusade reminds me of days protesting with Iowa CCI at the Meat Institute in Washington, D.C. during National People’s Action. Then as now we made it clear that we don’t need nitrogen fertilizers polluting our water and creating dead zones in the gulf of Mexico, or factory farms creating lakes of manure and other animal waste, or genetically modified corn and grains with suicide genes. But don’t give up the fight- you may have lost the battle but we haven’t lost the war. Keeping your network of supporters alive is the most important thing you can do right now. Make sure that you keep up the pressure to create policies that don’t destroy farming communities…
Francis, I understand that you use your Radiance Dairy as a teaching facility where farmers can come to learn about sustainable agriculture.
Suggestion for next steps:
(1) write a book describing a complete farming operation that uses all the techniques and knowledge you are advocating. Be as detailed as possible so it becomes a handbook / blueprint for farmers everywhere.
(2) build that farm as a demonstration so farmers can see that it isn’t only talk, but can see that the techniques work.
(3) use that demonstration farm as a commercial enterprise so farmers can see that it is possible to be profitable using sustainable ag.
Thank you for all you have done!
Eddie
Good suggestions, Eddie. We do get lots of visitors to our farm, including other farmers, consumers, and classes from elementary school through university graduate classes. I generally emphasize how the design and management of our farm mimics a natural ecology as much as possible, which enables us to rebuild our farm’s ecological capital rather than deplete it, as much of agriculture does today.
Energy is one thing I am focusing on now. We have solar photovoltaics for pumping water and electrifying fences, solar thermal for heating hot water, geothermal for heating our house and for keeping water tanks from freezing in the winter, and next year I plan to put a wind turbine on the farm. My goal is to make the farm energy self-sufficient with farm-scale technologies that are truly renewable and sustainable.
Dr. Thicke,
It was an honor to place your sign in our yard. The culmination of our year’s life changing efforts in food choices and lifestyle led us to your campaign. Please don’t give up, any of you, if a once staunch republican has just seen the light, I assure you there is a huge future in this right and just movement!
Let’s live by example, right our path and make the last 50 years a slight deviation from the long, sustainable path ahead!