Is the Fair, fair?

The environmental magazine High Country News ran a cover caption you hafta know was designed for sensationalism that read& Dear Tire Shop, thank you for buying my steer at the 4-H auction. He was a good steer. I could sleep with him. I still miss him. I hope he is good eating. Knowing the majority High Country news readers flip cartwheels over free-range chicken yet despise free range beef, I was fully expecting to read more anti- beef rantings. It's tough for me to admit the essay by Jannelle Holden did make some valid points. Holden wasn't against raising animals for meat, she simply questioned if selling them at fair teaches the rewards of agricultural life. From her past experience showing livestock in 4-H, she found that that in many cases the price an animal brought was more about a family's status and politics than the true value of the animal contending that 4-H and FFA is becoming simply charity fund for college . Noting the lack of animal husbandry by some of our local kids, then the amount they sold their animals for, I must admit in this case I couldn't agree more.