By DOUG DONNELLY
Advance Editor
The farm credit crunch. Mandatory crop insurance. Family Farm \u2013 is there a future in it? Where does good government begin?
Those are just a handful of the topics the Seeders & Weeders have taken up over the years. And, while the group of Lenawee County farm families may not have solved any one of those issues, they have helped each other along the way.
Last week, the Seeders & Weeders celebrated 55 years since that first meeting on April 15, 1971, when they gathered in the Blissfield-Riga-Ogden Township area as a spur of the Farm Breau\u2019s Community Action Group.
\u201cWe started a group of our own because the other group was all older and had other issues in their lives,\u201d said Judy Beagle, one of the founding members. \u201cOur group sort of grew up together. We\u2019ve gone through births and deaths, celebrated anniversaries.\u201d
The original six members were John and Pat Bartholomew, Lewie and Judy Beagle, Dick and Debby Beagle, Bill and Linda Bierman, Jim and Kathy Goetz and Nick and Millie Thompson. Other couples have joined along the way, but very few have left the group. The average current age of the group is 77.6.
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten along well together,\u201d Judy Beagle said. \u201cIt\u2019s been nice being together. We\u2019ve all had the same interests when it comes to agriculture.\u201d
Farm Bureau Community Action Groups are fewer these days then they were when the Seeders & Weeders formed. The Farm Bureau provides regular topics in which they want the groups to discuss.
\u201cWe talk and look for a consensus,\u201d Beagle said. \u201cEveryone has opinions. It\u2019s been good to share.\u201d
In the 1970s, the topics ranged from the metric system to tax reform. In the 1980s the group discussed the Social Security myths, stress in family farms and the gas tax. In the 1990s, the Seeders & Weeders took up topics like endangered species and farm labor safety. Voter empathy, fish farming, high speed internet and concerns of foreign ownership of land have been the topics in more recent years, along with road funding and algae blooms.
\u201cThere has always been something to discuss,\u201d Beagle said.
Beagle and others have kept meticulous records of the get-togethers, right down to how many times they have went to a restaurant vs. how many potlucks they have had. The potlucks have been the overwhelming favorite, but the Hobo dinners in the Bierman\u2019s woods and gatherings at the Thompson\u2019s cottage at Devil\u2019s Lake have also been popular. The group has had Christmas parties at the Riga Fire Hall, Halloween Parties and they have gotten together to watch a slide show of one of the members trips to Africa.
The 55 years celebration was held at the Bartholomew Farm.
\u201cAt the beginning, we said we would get together once a month, but that\u2019s hard,\u201d Beagle said. It\u2019s definitely been worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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