Dear editor,

I&8217;m writing in response to the picture column depicting two crop dusters flying over two farms in your Monday, May 19 issue of The Selma Times-Journal.

My husband and I farm cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat right outside of Orrville and find the picture cartoon very appalling.

Both my husband and I grew up on a farm and have spent many hours working in the fields and know the true value of a dollar and how hard it is to come by.

Not only did we learn the value of hard work by growing up on the farm, but we learned that money doesn&8217;t come easy, especially when your occupation is farming. This picture is sending the wrong message about the American farmer!

There is no doubt in my mind that there are some &8216;Big Agribiz&8217; farmers out there that are cheating the crop insurance systems and farming dishonestly,

but the average everyday farmer like ourselves and many others feeding the world are not!

The average farmer, which makes up 80-90 percent of the farming population in America does not live a life of luxury nor does he make million or billions of dollars.

Now let me make it clear that we may have thousands of dollars to pass through our hands in a year, but with the price of farm fuel, seed, fertilizer and chemicals continuing to escalate, we will all continue to see ourselves coming up short in the long run.

We may see a million dollars in one year, but it takes a million and a half for us to survive!

The media and speculators are killing us in the farming business.

The media make commodity prices the headline of their news segment when they see wheat, corn or soybeans swing up limit on the Chicago Board of Trade in one day because the speculators have their hands in the marketplace, but they fail to mention the most important information of all……the farmer&8217;s farm fuel, fertilizer and seed costs have been rising just as fast.

Unfortunately, when the commodity market softens and comes back down our costs of input do not, and people wonder why farmers drive around old, beat up looking trucks and wear worn out clothing!

Farmers today are struggling to make ends meet and keep their families fed, not to mention their bills paid, so when I see a cartoon, read an article or watch a news segment on how much money the American farmer is supposedly making, it makes me very angry!

Wake up America before you put all your farmers out of business!

If you aren&8217;t careful, you as Americans will want the countries overseas to be sending you food because you will be the ones starving to death on the streets!

Fuming Farmer&8217;s Wife

Wendy S. Yeager

Orrville