Contact Us
AgNet
  • About KDA
      • Office of Commissioner
      • Office of Administrative Services
      • Office of Agricultural Marketing
      • Office of Communications
      • Office for Consumer & Environmental Protection
      • Office of Legal Services
      • Office of State Veterinarian
      • Request an Official Appearance
      • International Trade
      • Kentucky Hunger Initiative
  • LICENSING & LAWS
  • Forms
  • News & Hot Topics
      • KDA COVID-19 Updates
      • Unsolicited Foreign Seeds
      • Kentucky Agricultural News
      • Press Releases
      • News Archive
      • Ag-Related Resources
      • Kentucky Hunger Initiative
      • Dicamba Training
      • Hemp Program
      • Licensing and Certification Portal(login required)
      • Livestock Entry Requirements
      • Market News
      • Pesticide Registration and Renewal
      • Pesticide Training and Testing
  • Online Services
      • Nuisance Weed Spraying Program
      • Ag Businesses Directory
      • Ag Ringtones
      • ARD Inspector Search
      • Free Web Page Builder
      • Hay for Sale
      • Hemp Licensing Portal
        (login required)
      • KDA Calendar of Events
      • Landscape Plant Availability Guide
      • Licensing and Certification Portal
        (login required)
      • Nuisance Weed Spraying Program
      • Online Permitting System
      • Pest Control Company Directory
      • Pollinator Protection Registration System
      • Product Registration and Renewal System
      • Purebred Breeders Directory
      • Service Agency
      • Stray or Abandoned Horses
  • Animal
      • Animal Control
      • Animal Disposal and Rendering
      • Animal Health
      • Animal Marketing Programs
      • Aquaculture
      • Beekeeping
      • Brands
      • Composting
      • Emergency Management
      • Equine
      • Farmed Cervids
      • Livestock
      • Livestock Welfare Complaints
      • Market News
      • Movement and Identification
      • Online Permitting System
      • Poultry
      • Purebred Breeders Directory
      • Spay/Neuter
      • State Veterinarian
      • Stockyards and Dealers
      • Stray or Abandoned Horses
  • Plant
      • Farmers Markets
      • Forage/Hay Testing
      • GAP-Good Agriculture Practices
      • Ginseng
      • Grape and Wine
      • Hemp
      • Hemp Licensing Portal
        (login required)
      • Horticulture
      • Landscape Plant Availability Guide
      • Organic
      • Plant Marketing Programs
      • Produce Safety Program
  • Regulatory
      • Aerial Recreational Devices
      • Amusement Ride Inspections
      • Brands
      • Composting
      • Egg Licensing
      • Food Programs
      • Grain Licensing and Regulation
      • Grain Licensing Search
      • Licensing and Certification Portal
        (login required)
      • Market News
      • Organic Program
      • Pest Control - Agriculture
      • Pest Control - Structural
      • Pesticide Product Registration
      • Pesticide Complaint Form
      • Pesticide Training and Testing
      • Public Pest and Recycling Assistance
      • Rendering
      • Stockyards and Dealers
      • Teen & Tobacco
      • Weights and Measures
  • Promotional
      • Ag Businesses
      • Ag Education
      • Agritourism
      • Appalachia Proud
      • Buy Local
      • CSA - Community Supported Agriculture
      • Eat to Win KY
      • Emergency Management
      • Farm License Plate
      • Farm Safety
      • Farm to Campus
      • Farm to Fork
      • Farm to School
      • Farmers Markets Directory
      • Farmland Preservation/PACE
      • Farms Are Fun
      • Forage/Hay Testing
      • Free Web Page Builder
      • Good Agricultural Practices - GAP
      • Grants
      • Homegrown By Heroes
      • Hunger Initiative
      • International Trade
      • Jobs for Vets
      • Junior Chef
      • Kentucky Proud
      • Kentucky Wine
      • Livestock Tag
      • Market News
      • Mobile Science Activity Center
      • Promotion and Development
      • Shows and Fairs
20
FEB

Opinion: Phoenix, Bloomberg Uninformed About Middle America

FRANKFORT (February 20, 2020) Hard-working people in middle and rural America are under attack from all corners of our country these days. No matter where you turn, actors and politicians are consistently misinforming people about the basics of agriculture and belittling working families across the nation.

First came actor Joaquin Phoenix, who won the best actor award for the movie Joker. In his acceptance speech, he attacked the dairy industry for stealing calves and milk from cows. I don’t know about you, but I like to go to the movies without getting lectures from entertainers who don’t seem to know the difference between a soybean and a green bean. If Mr. Phoenix would spend one moment with a Kentucky dairy producer, he would learn quickly that his ideas about dairy farming don’t match reality. For all of the talk from Hollywood actors about helping far-flung foreign countries, you would think they would want to make sure that the hungry and malnourished in the developing world had access to milk, often referred to as “nature’s perfect food.”

If you turn on the news at night, odds are you are going to see a presidential campaign ad from billionaire Democratic presidential hopeful and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. In an online video that surfaced recently, Bloomberg suggested that he could “teach anybody…to be a farmer” because as he put it, it only involves digging a hole, putting a seed in the ground, watering it, and – in his words – “up comes the corn.” He then compared farming and factory jobs to the information technology sector, suggesting that IT workers require more analytical skill than farmers or factory workers.

I can’t speak for New York City, but here in Kentucky and across wide swaths of rural and middle America, we believe that there is dignity in all work, whether you have mud on your boots, grease on your hands, or a tie around your neck.

The reality is that the comments from Bloomberg reflect the views of a guy out-of-touch with both farmers and blue collar workers. Both careers require analytical skills and sophisticated technology in their jobs every day. Talk to farmers about the latest farm equipment that they control with a smartphone or to a mechanic who repairs the complex machine building Toyota Camrys in my native Georgetown, Kentucky. Brainpower is needed especially in farming, where you have to be your own agronomist, mechanic, and CEO.

Both men look like they have not learned even one of the reasons why some voters sent President Trump to the White House in 2016. A silent majority rejected their condescending lectures in hopes of injecting Washington, D.C. with the commonsense values that we see here in the middle of the country.

A recent Kentucky newspaper article called me a “culture warrior” for sticking up for workers and farmers in the face of these sort of attacks. If defending hard-working people of all backgrounds makes me a culture warrior, then I say sign me up. Rather than belittling this sort of work, we should be lifting up the American farmer and the American worker, both who fulfil critical roles in the American economy.

Ryan Quarles is Kentucky’s Commissioner of Agriculture. He was elected in 2015.

To download a photo of Commissioner Quarles.

Press Release Sign-up

    In the News

  • 12/29/20 – Commissioner Quarles reflects on fifth year in office
  • 12/8/20 – U.S. Department of Agriculture awards emergency preparedness, animal biosecurity grant to Kentucky
  • 11/25/20 – Dr. Katie Flynn promoted to Kentucky State Vet position; Dr. Alex Hagan selected for Deputy State Vet slot
  • 11/11/20 – KDA partnering with other organizations to administer grant aimed at helping veterans
  • 11/2/20 – Kentucky needs to support farmers and restaurants during the pandemic
  • View All Press Releases...

    Broadcast Schedule

  • Across Kentucky
  • Cromwell Ag Network
  • Morning Ag Report - WKDZ 106.5 FM

    Kentucky Farm Fact

  • Kentucky has 184 organic farms that account for $14 million in sales. #KyAg365

KDA Video

Beekeeping 101: A Guide for Beginners

State Apiarist Tammy Horn Potter tells beginner beekeepers the four essential tools they need to get started.

Commissioner Quarles asked Facebook to stop rejecting pages that promote hemp

Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles told legislators about the conflict with a social media giant.

Commissioner Quarles talks to WHAS11 about Industrial Hemp in Kentucky

Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles talked to WHAS11's Chris Williams about the enthusiasm for industrial hemp.

The Kentucky Hemp Comeback

Kentucky farmers are exploring industrial hemp, a crop that connects Kentucky’s past to its future. Kentucky businesses are taking that raw material and turning it into products.

ABOUT KDA AGNET CONTACT US REQUEST AN APPEARANCE
KY Department of Agriculture |Phone: (502) 573-0282 |Fax: (502) 564-2133 |1-800-327-6568 |Disclaimer |Ag links
  • © Kentucky Agriculture Department. All rights reserved.