Farm Bureau Acceptance Speech for Legislator of the Year 2024
Rep. Mary Dye:
Delivered at the Wenatchee Convention Center for the Washington State Farm Bureau Annual Convention
November 20, 2024
”This is truly a great honor.
I jotted a few of my thoughts to tell you how much it means to me to be recognized by Farm Bureau, by my kindred fellow lovers of the land, stewards that share the common bond with place, rooted to history, keepers of the secrets, held in the soul of the land, and the weathered hands that work it.
To be recognized in this industry, by my fellow sojourners, those who love and live the land, following her leading to truths revealed through perpetual surprises, the land whose fickle seasons meld and hone our characters into to forged steel.
This year is particularly fascinating, as are so many others. We who hold the institutional memory, the silk thread that sews the fabric of our common bonds, we recall the hard times and good times shared over the generations.
So, it is with bitter understanding when this year, our fruit growers, those who planted trees on the hills above the valley recall, this one’s like ’68. Followed by that knowing, bitter smile and cynical laugh, that we’ll get through this, just like mom and dad did back then. And we all remember ’68.
The long memory of an agrarian, whose very life is woven and stitched by such stories, who’s community shares the same.
We face, as the 1% who feeds beyond our borders some of the most desperate communities suffering famine and war…. and the most particular people, who’s culture and food are woven together with the identity of their ethnic cuisine. Our food defines us.
And this room, we are the people who dance with land and seasons, holding our society and cultures across the world together, providing social stability and peace, because abundant foods to cook and bond families in communities that build their memories and carry those traditions and customs to children and children’s children is the symphony of life, that we, as American Farm Families give generously to our country and countries that have little regard for us, but by enjoying our bounty and having a meal from us, may draw their heart closer to ours, should our fellow countrymen allow that secret to be known.
So it was a small thing this last session, and an opportunity to work with Bre Elsey and make a connection with Aaron Czyewski from Food Lifeline, to challenge the food donation/government/welfare complex. In light of increasing need, the system takes for granted our surplus, assuming we have more than enough, not accounting the costs borne that cannot be recovered, that we should feel obligated by the system to provide those in need, in particular those who never had a ’68 to remember, and thus have not the resilience to soldier on.
The progressives in a long march of 60 years through the legislature, starting in ’68 if I recall correctly, have placed in policy, have said in bold stark terms, that we ought to be their tool for social justice and shame on us if we resist.
We are different in perspective and spirit. We are the hope for our nation! We are the memory of the Spirit of who the Real America is. We hold the promise that free people can survive ‘1968. We can arise from the despair and the loss. Remember the Real American, the ones that dig deep, reflect on truth, that there are things bigger than us, and we are the repository of resilience through hard times, the overflowing of abundance and good will through better times.
We know it in the dirt under our boots, the dirt line on our teeth and the dirt balls in the corners of our eyes.
Those in Olympia, have no appreciation of who the essence of who we are and how their feigned generosity falls on our shoulders.
We don’t want their sympathy, and don’t like their plans. We want our freedom back.
Things are-a-changin’ in Ag Country. Progressives chant “Nothing About Us, Without Us”, meaning give us more of what you built. They are shaking the very foundations of the American Family Farm. Energy policy is the lynch pin, and Ag country stands on the gallows.
We cannot give up. Think of your great-great grandchildren you will never know! Don’t sell out, especially to foreign equity companies that make your legacy a small line item in a portfolio. Don’t sell out to the fake energy cabal, a scheme to exploit our poverty and vulnerability in hard times. Trust me, they won’t be there for their ’68! They’ll cut and run.
Producers! You are the foundation of our Nation’s wealth: moral, spiritual, and economic. Don’t let them buy you cheap, steal the wealth capacity of your land. Land means nothing without you, and they are the death of stewardship on your legacy!
It is the generational memory of farmers exploring the mysteries the soil reveals, the whispers of the seasons, with curiosity and humility combined with the innovation applied from nearly two centuries of ag research, each farmer applying the knowledge uniquely to his own piece of dirt, that is the secret sauce of American Abundance and Prosperity.
Never forget who you are and the stories that made you. And go tell it well to Olympia and the nation.
Thank you again for this great honor.
Representative,
Mary Dye, WA 9