Rick McNary

Roger Thurow was a reporter at “The Wall Street Journal” for 30 years, including 20 as a foreign correspondent based in Europe and Africa. His coverage of global affairs spanned the final decade of the Cold War, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany, the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid in South Africa, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the humanitarian crises of the first decade of this century — along with 10 Olympic Games.

In the delightful movie, "Secondhand Lions,” Robert Duval and Michael Caine star as Hub and Garth McCann, a mysterious pair of wealthy older brothers who retire to country living. Their first order of business was to plant a garden, so they purchased tomato, carrot, pea and bok choy seeds from a traveling salesman, donned a new pair of bib overalls and carefully planted their seeds. However, once the plants began to grow, it was apparent they had planted nothing but corn. When Hub (Duval), realized it was all corn, he threw his hoe down in disgust and griped, “Corn, corn, corn!”

Jacqui Folks of Eudora is an integral part of agriculture but quickly admits she grew up as a city girl. However, after working for more than 14 years as the Douglas County Farm Bureau coordinator, she understands clearly.

“I knew nothing about agriculture when I started working for Douglas County Farm Bureau,” Jacqui says. “And I have learned we have nothing without agriculture.”

Jacqui’s previous role in corporate America focused on environmental health and safety regulations. However, the company she worked for in downtown Kansas City sold and moved out of state.  

As Shanda Mattix describes the home near Colby where she and her husband, Caleb, are raising their two children, she recalls helping build that very home when she was in sixth grade.

“Dad and Mom built this entire home by their hands,” Shanda says. “I remember laying cinder blocks to build the basement walls and Dad taught me all the things about construction like wiring, plumbing, framing, sheetrock and all of it. My room was my room to do all the things in!”

Andrea de Jesus looks out over a storm-ravaged apple orchard on her A&H Farms near Manhattan. She planted the trees four years ago and hoped this year would finally be a bountiful harvest.

However, in early May of this year, a storm with winds gusting up to 70 mph did the first round of damage. Another storm in early June brought even more destructive storms with winds from 80 to 90 mph, golf ball-size hail and torrential flooding.

Imagine being stopped at a railroad crossing and counting 108 railcars filled with sorghum grown in Kansas slowly rumbling by, headed to hungry people around the world through a Kansas-based program called Food for Peace. Thanks to the National Sorghum Producers (NSP) and their chairwoman, Amy France of Marienthal, those 108 railcars held 400,000 bushels of Kansas-raised sorghum headed to various destinations around the world where people suffer from acute hunger.

We are excited to announce a new membership benefit program to offer you perks for supporting your Shop Kansas Farms farmers and ranchers. We call it, “Riding for the Brand.”

The practice of branding cattle and the American cowboy has deep roots in Kansas from the early cattle drives to Abilene to the cattle trucks backing up to the Bazaar Cattle pens along the Kansas turnpike. It is common to see the entrance to a farm or ranch with the cutout of a brand in an arch over the drive or mounted to posts along the side.  

When Angela married RJ Dake in 1993 at the end of his military career, they both shared the dream of farming, which had been in RJ’s blood since he was a child. However, California land prices near their home in Sacramento made it cost-prohibitive to begin a farm.

Cherie Schenker is a problem solver. One such problem was her husband, Kevin, was longing for the homegrown Kansas beef raised on their farm near McCune when he was stationed in Afghanistan. Although it took considerable work navigating the bureaucracy and red tape of international governments and working with an outside company to invent a shipping system, she was finally able to ship Schenker Family Farms beef to hungry soldiers longing for a taste of home.

Today marks the sixth anniversary of Shop Kansas Farms (SKF) and here are six reasons to celebrate!