Agricultural Colleges

Joel Salatin says that he is often asked if he learned what he knows at an agricultural college. His answer is timeless, "No, if I went to ag college I'd be like the rest of them eggheads. I learned what I know from talking to my dad and grampa and successful farmers in my area." My one plea to anyone considering being a farmer is this, Stay Away from the landgrant colleges, and farmers please keep your kids away from them. I believe they have done more to destroy the family farm than anything else. Of course the mainstream farm magazines have helped out, but the articles are all written by college grads. When I graduated from highschool everyone said "you have to go to college. Farming has changed so much, its a business now." Well duh, its always been a business. Just now its dominated by poor debt based business practices. Anyway, I finally gave in and went. After one year I realized what a waste of our families money it was and went home. I had good grades and could have finished if I had wanted to. The crap they were trying to brainwash me with was so awful I could not stand it anymore. If you wonder for a minute why farming has fallen into the mess its in, just go sit in on one of these classes at a landgrant college. They have produced a generation of arrogant know it alls that have squandered away multigenerational fortunes at rate that makes ones head spin.