Saxtonville: what would real farmers think?

Over at New Frames, they've got the take on what real farmers might think about Ron Saxton's claims to the agricultural profession:

This whole "Ron Saxton is a farmer" thing just got my goat to the point that I had to sit down and defend the real farmers out there (like my mom) because when someone like Ron claims he's a farmer he insults farmers and the back breaking, sunrise to sunset work they do. Sitting in a downtown Portland law office, while being a shareholder of a farm operation does not make someone a farmer, as Ron seems to believe and misleadingly states in our voters' pamphlets. ...

When I told my mom over the phone that Ron has "farmer" listed as his first item under "occupational background" in the voters' pamphlet, I swear I heard the coffee she just took a sip of spray through her nose as she nearly choked on it. For those of you who know my mom and have been out to her farm, you know she's what we all would call a farmer, a real one. She's even got a stub of a thumb from a farm accident to prove it. ... Sorry, Ron, but farmers don't have manicurists.

[Ron's partner] added that Ron was "never really a factor" in the farm's operations. If Ron was a distant partner and never really a factor, then I say Ron is not and never was a farmer. And that fact certainly shouldn't take him off the hook for being part owner of an illegal migrant labor camp, even if he was owning it from his downtown Portland law firm.

Read the rest, and discuss at New Frames.

Oct. 30, 2006 Posted in elsewhere.