#2: Flint’s Top Blog Posts of 2019
In the coming days heading in to the New Year, I'll be sharing my top Montana blog posts for 2019 (based on "local unique visitor" counts).
Coming in at #2: Former Miss Montana USA Weighs In, Supporting Ag |
PRIOR POST FROM OCTOBER 24, 2019
Former Miss Montana USA Tahnee Peppenger (pictured above) is speaking out in support of agriculture, and sending a strong message to the Miss USA Pageant.
This, as the current Miss Montana USA, Merissa Underwood, is facing criticism for her radical animal rights activism, and recent social media posts viewed as being anti-agriculture. Some of those posts have apparently since been deleted.
On her Instagram page, current Miss Montana USA Merissa Underwood encourages her followers to "join the animal rights movement 🐷" and to "go plant based to battle climate change 🌱."
Former Miss Montana USA Tahnee Peppenger of Great Falls spoke out in support of agriculture, adding "I would not be the woman I am today without agriculture." Check out her full video below that we are sharing with her permission.
(By the way- she would have joined us on the radio this morning, but she is busy studying for a big organic chemistry exam! It also should be noted that the Miss Montana and the Miss Montana USA programs are two separate programs, so Miss Montana is not the same woman as Miss Montana USA)
The Montana Stockgrowers Assocation is also trying to bring out the real facts about farming and ranching in light of the controversy. One commenter on their Instagram attempted to defend the current Miss Montana USA, saying that she wasn't criticizing all farming and ranching, just the larger farms. Here's how the Stockgrowers responded:
While we understand the idea of what she was trying to say the question comes down to "What is a small scale local farmer/rancher?" In Montana we have some pretty big operations that are apart of the 91% of family operations that would also be considered "large scale" and we promise that those operations are just as sustainable as any operation in our industry. The point of the post was to stop the spread of miss-information because even vaguely stating that small farms are more sustainable that large farms is a harmful narrative not only to large sustainable farms and ranches but the industry as a whole. Our association advocates for all ranchers in the state of Montana and we are very proud of what we do. We hope that explains why we chose to respond!
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