Land O’Lakes, Inc. is disappointed by Tulare Mayor Carlton Jones’ recently posted comments on the My Job Depends on Ag Facebook page. As a nearly 100-year-old farmer-owned cooperative, we value the work of our member farmers and retailers, and the larger agriculture community, to unlock the greatest potential of food production to feed a booming global population and help agricultural communities around the world build a sustainable future.

Land O’Lakes’ proudly works with nearly 200 dairy farm families and employs 985 people in California, primarily in the Tulare area. In addition to the direct economic benefits, Land O’Lakes and our member farmers made nearly $365,000 in charitable contributions to California non-profit organizations in 2017 alone.

Farmers are the original stewards of the land, with very personal reasons for keeping the planet healthy for the next generation of farmers, many times their own children.  Many farmers have made investments in environmental measures, despite a challenging farm economy.  In fact, Land O’Lakes members have been working proactively with the Environmental Defense Fund and other organizations on many efforts to grow more with less resources.

Land O’Lakes has also worked proactively with lawmakers and our farmer-members to help the California agriculture community meet the state’s emission reduction goals. Last year we introduced a new financing program to help our dairy members implement new technologies or management systems focused on driving measurable outcomes for air, soil and/or water, and we look forward to expanding our offerings in the years ahead.

We are proud to share the story of modern farming on a daily basis.