From the senatorial race in Massachusetts to the TEA parties around the nation, people are letting their voice be heard in one way or another.

Agriculture has not been left out of the vocal arena, as ag people are now in the process of boycotting a company who donated a large sum of money to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

Here are a few of the details I found published on the Pork magazine website:

The Humane Society of the United States has announced that they will receive a $100,000 donation from a campaign they call “tails for tails.” Specifically, HSUS says, “Through ‘tails for tails,’ Yellow Tail is donating $100,000 to support us and our programs to help animals, including our Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest.”

Through the end of March, consumers will see special Yellow Tail displays bearing the HSUS name and logo in stores across the country.

Yellow Tail is an extremely successful brand of wine produced by Casella Wines Pty Ltd., based in Yenda, Australia. Yellow Tail was developed about 10 years ago, and became the number one wine imported to the U.S. by 2003, with sales of around 4 million cases annually.

Sales have nearly doubled since, and wine industry analysts say Yellow Tail now accounts for almost half the Australian wine purchased in the U.S. According to the company’s website, over 2 million glasses of Yellow Tail are consumed around the world daily.
While I agree that we should not support any company who supports the abolishment of our industry, I am even more impressed at how this boycott has spread like wildfire. It only took a day on the social network Facebook for word to get around about Yellow Tail’s poor choice.

Agriculturalists spread the word to consumers and the comments just kept coming on Yellow Tail’s Facebook page. Nearly every comment I read on Facebook was either telling Yellow Tail they were going to stop drinking their wine or asking them to rescind their support of HSUS.

Once again, agriculture formed a united front in support of each other and their industry. With less than 2 percent of the population, we are small in numbers, but mighty in strength when we join arms and unite.

Now from the mailbag: The following is a letter received after I wrote about the New York dairy farmer who committed suicide. I have responded to Mr. Finnila in person, and promised not to throw him under the bus in print.

Ref. your article in the Farmers Advance, I would like to offer some constructive criticism. First I agree that there is hope and no cow is worth a human life. That said … I am tired of dairy farmers crying about poor prices when they have been receiving subsidies from the federal government for the last 50 years. My property taxes were driven up because the local dairy farmers out bid other land owners and the tax assessor stated “expect that when you live next to a dairy farmer.”

As soon as grain prices come up where I can make a few dollars … fertilizer, spray and seed prices go out of sight. I don’t see hog producers and beef producers crying fowl (sic)! Maybe the government should give the dairy farmers crying towels along with my tax money.

-Mark Finnila, Fowler, Mich.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments may write to Melissa Hart in care of this publication.