By Gene Hall
Publisher
John Paul Dineen considers himself a spokesman for Texas agriculture, and he hopes other farmers will embrace that role.
He farms on the outskirts of Dallas, one of America’s biggest metropolitan areas. There, he has embraced connecting with urban audiences.
The Ellis County Farm Bureau member does that in a way that consumers—his customers—can easily understand.
“I try to talk about not only what we do, but why we do some of the things we do,” Dineen said. “Not only that, I want to help dispel some of the myths, the perception that we are doing things that we really are not.”
Dineen began farming about 20 years ago, and he caught the leading edge of the Facebook revolution. He later joined Instagram, the social media site driven by photos.
Recently, he was invited to share his story and discuss GMOs with Dallas-based WFAA-TV reporter David Schechter on his special news segment, Verify.
The segment airs on Fridays in the 10 p.m. newscast and is an unusually long six minutes.
That gives Schechter time to dig into controversial and sometimes hard to understand issues.
Schechter often does a Facebook Live segment on location, which was a new experience for Dineen. At the height of that 17-minute live interview on the Dineen farm near Waxahachie, about 6,000 Facebook users were watching, many of whom commented.
“It is a hot topic,” Dineen said. “You are always going to have folks with an opinion that you’re not going to change. That’s okay. I respect their opinion, and there is a choice.”
That choice is to buy organic or look for a non-GMO label. Dineen has learned to roll with the punches, some of which were downright nasty.
“Some of that got out of hand and one of the comments was they wanted me to drink it,” he said with a chuckle. “You just have to smile and go on down the road doing your best.”
Although some comments were negative, others voiced support for Dineen and his chosen method of farming. Many weighed in to support biotechnology and the way Dineen and others are using it.
Despite growing public acceptance of this crop technology, Dineen noted this subject is still one of the best ways to start a fight on the Internet.
Detractors of the technology remain locked into a view that Dineen said does not reflect reality.
“Ignorance promotes fear,” Dineen said. “I wanted to share with them that we care about our crops. We care about the ground we are growing them on. We care about the environment, and we care about our families and the 160 or so other families that, statistically, we provide food and fiber for.”
Dineen admits that it’s sometimes difficult to hear and read online accusations that he and fellow farmers are motivated by greed and heedless of the environmental consequences. He is comforted by knowing none of that is true and relishes the opportunity to set the record straight.
“On our particular farm, we raise GMO crops and non-GMO,” Dineen said. “We sell a lot of that on the commercial market like everybody does, but we also bring a lot of it home. We consume it ourselves.”
Dineen said the GMO crops are ground into livestock feed on his own farm. They also plant a non-GMO “food-type” corn to mill into their cornbread mixes and cornmeal that is sold via his direct-to-consumer business.
His family is one of his “customers,” and he makes that part of virtually every conversation and interview he has as an agricultural advocate.
Dineen invited Schechter onto the tractor and spray rig, to be part of an application of glyphosate, sold under the brand name Roundup.
“Roundup is better for soil health and our health,” Dineen said. “That’s an unrestricted chemical that anyone can walk into a home improvement store and buy.”
There are other chemicals that are potentially more dangerous, Dineen said. Those chemicals are safe when used properly with more training and care.
Dineen said he’ll keep farming and having conversations about it. As ignorance promotes fear, knowledge promotes understanding. That’s something this first generation farmer tries to remember every day.
“They need to respect what we are trying to do and we are taking great care with their health and the environment’s health,” Dineen said, with a reminder that talking about the issues is where mutual respect is born.
The
I cannot believe a person with access to all the negative reports about Roundup would knowingly place himself in contact with it every day.As soon as I read that, I completely disregarded everything else he had to say.
Carol, perhaps because he has access to the even more compelling mainstream science that testifies to the stellar safety record of biotech and glysophate. A negative report is easy to produce, especially if generated by an activist group with its own ax to grind.
I’ve been doing battle all spring with invasive ground clover encroaching into my flower beds. My weapon of choice is a trusty application of Roundup. It happens that you, I or any other person in America can walk into a WalMart and buy all we want. It is one of the least restrictive and least toxic of all weed control chemicals that can be purchased. There are others that might be used in it’s place that are safe enough if you’re careful, but that are more toxic.
Carol, instead of shutting John Paul out because of your perceptions, maybe you should explore the subject more and form a more informed opinion that is not just emotionally connected. For one thing he is not exposed every day: Roundup is used only when and as needed. Two, he is trained in its use. And three, it is a strong testimony when one who uses a “controversial” product also uses the food it helps to produce.
I have also learned to question the sources of all the negative reports and their reasons for promoting their fear mongering.