My grandfather, Thomas Kamiya, who started up the farm as his livelihood.

I decided to take some time off and enjoy myself.  I took my daughter to go and see the Lion King that is playing here in Honolulu.  I saw it 10 years ago in San Francisco and forgot about how wonderful that show really is.  From the intricate costumes, colors, music, artistry, and puppetry, it is one of the best shows around.

As I sat in wonder of all of this, I thought to myself more about it.  You know, if it weren’t for a farmer, things like this would be non-existent in our modern day living.  Let’s make a list of the things we enjoy today that a farmer had something to do with…

-The nice homes and buildings we live in.  Someone had to feed the architects, masons, steel workers, plumbers, contractors, lumber workers, carpenters, permitting people, electricians, cabinet makers, carpet layers, flooring specialists, window makers, painters, and truckers so that our homes could be built.

-The cars we drive to take us where we need to go.  Someone had to feed the engineers, steel workers, welders, mechanics, auto painters and workers, the glass makers, the upholstery crafters, rubber makers, safety inspectors, and oil workers to make our cars and keep them running.

-The wealth of communication options we have with computers and cellphones.  Someone had to feed the computer designers, chip makers, programmers, component parts makers, electrical engineers, patent specialists, graphic artists, plastic makers, alloy metal workers, and operators to keep our lines of communication open.

-The roads we drive on to and from our journeys everyday.  Someone had to to feed the asphalt makers, road workers, stripers, traffic light engineers, electricians, heavy machine operators, civil engineers, budget managers, and concrete workers who put that road together for us.

-The schools that our children go to.  Someone had to feed the people who built and maintain the school, the teachers, the janitors, the administrative staff, the cafeteria workers, and superintendents who run the schools to educate our children.

-The constant access to fresh running water and power.  Someone had to feed the people who built the infrastructure of pipes, engineers, scientists who know where the water comes from, the heavy machine operators who laid the pipes, the helicopter pilots who carried the lines over the mountains, the pole workers, and people who monitor the power and water to keep it on.

-The freedom from preventable illnesses.  Someone had to feed the scientists who had time to search for a cure, a chemist who studied solutions to hold the vaccine, nurses to give the vaccine, the biochemist who figured out how to make large quantities of it, doctors to educate people about the diseases, public health officials to monitor for outbreaks, and companies who made these vaccines available to the masses.

-Access to the culture and arts.  Someone had to feed people so that they could have the freedom to get off of the farms and develop their creative interests in making musicals, choreographing plays, singing, dancing, set making, story writing, and other forms of art and entertainment.

-Travel around the world.  Someone had to feed people so that Wright brothers had the ability to design the first plane, study aeronautic engineering, workers to build the planes, and pilots to get one to his or her desired destination.

-Have a hobby garden.  You don’t have to grow most of your food because a farmer grew it for you.    Nor do you have to raise and kill animals to eat.  You have some time to work a real job and make more money to start up a hobby garden that brings some fresh produce to your table.

If it weren’t for the ingenuity, efficiency, and sustainability of our farmers, we would not be lucky enough to have the kind of lives that we do.  We never have to worry about whether our crops are going to be able to feed us or be decimated by disease.  We have constant access to food and just have to walk in the store to pick it.  We don’t even spend the majority of our lives growing food because we don’t have to.

We have so much time on our hands to do other bigger and greater things.  It’s all thanks to those creative and hardworking folks called our farmers.  It’s really sad that some folks, who benefit from the farmer’s hard work, have decided to protest and disrespect this very work with false information.  That’s simply not right.

If you feel the need to protest, remove all of the modern technology in your life because it was all started with the work of a farmer.  If you long to go back into the “good old days,” you should live in it and see for yourself how life really was.  Get off the computer, turn off your power, stop driving a car, stop using running water or any of the modern conveniences of life.  Stop shopping at the grocery store and produce all your own food, if you can’t appreciate what the farmer has done for you.

For lawmakers who want to turn back the hands of time on farmers, they should live the way they propose to legislate and then see if that is the right path to take.  Then ask your activists to get out of their Waikiki apartments and live the life that you propose.  The experience will be a true wake up call for most, who have never spent a day on the farm.  There won’t be any time for marches because you’d be working on the land and preventing the pests from attacking your food.  A real farmer knows all of that too well.

Just remember, that you would not have that nice life you do today if it weren’t for all the people that were fed by that farmer.