Ok, I’ll openly admit that I got misty eyed when I watched the Shark Tank video of farmer Johnny George’s Tree T-Pee sales pitch to investors. He tells them that he only makes $1 on each of his t-pees and gets pressured as to why he won’t sell it for more. He comes out with his honest answer that he sells it to farmers to help them. You can see that he’d have a hard time feeling good about making more expensive for farmers because he knows how hard farming is to begin with.

As I thought about it more, there is a lot of irony in this story. Here we have a farmer who resists trying to up his product’s pricing because of his target market is his fellow farmer. He’s also working hard on conservation efforts too. However, farmers and the efforts of agribusinesses are constantly being criticized and attacked for their efforts with being good environmental stewards and helping others. He clearly has a conscience and can empathize with his fellow farmers and their work.

Then on the flip side, we have the likes of Dr. Oz, Dr. Mercola, the Food Babe’s Vani Hari, Vandana Shiva, and Natural News’ Mike Adams, selling pseudoscience products for tons of money touting bogus claims and essentially ripping people off. I feel as if these scammers have no honest bone in their body and apparently lack a conscience to even stop and think that they are doing something questionable. These people should be called out by millions of people who wasted their money on these bogus products but they aren’t. Instead, millions follow these people and believe everything they say. These quacks have the gall to send their followers to attack farmers with misinformation perpetuated on their sites and There’s something very wrong with this picture here.

Have we as a society decided that it’s okay to reward dishonesty just to make a quick buck and take advantage of people’s ignorance? Is it okay to make up ” information” and scam folks who have gained your trust? Is it okay to propagate misinformation against farmers so that fearful folks attack their work?

It’s been ingrained in me to do what is right. The very people who decry the evil money made by farmers and agribusinesses have the dirtiest money made in reality. They took advantage of someone’s lack of awareness about basic science and agriculture, used misinformation to create fear, and took people’s money through all of this deceit to gain it for themselves. That’s the most despicable type of folks out there and yet we are rewarding them.

Honesty and doing what is right has gone out the door when we as a society attack those who give us sustenance. Its time to seek truth and justice for the many unseen hardworking folks. It’s time to bring back honor and respect to the farmers.