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When I was growing up on our 53-acre dairy farm, we were obsessed with food; it was the center of our lives. We planted it, grew it, harvested it, peeled it, cooked it, served it, consumed it - endlessly, day after day, season after season.

When you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don't take a day off. So you work every day and my dad always said, 'No one can outwork you.'

Not only do I know how to milk a cow, but I know how to herd a bunch of cows, too, which is a life skill that I think may come in handy someday.

I was raised - my mom and dad were dairy farmers. Once you've made a decision to plant a crop for that year, you can't go back and undo that decision.

What I learned growing up on the farm was a way of life that was centered on hard work, and on faith and on thrift. Those values have stuck with me my whole life.

I was brought up on a farm, and I've learned that every opportunity that I've had in my life has come from hard work and persistence.

I know how to set an irrigation tube, and I helped with the harvest. I learned the law of the harvest without even knowing I was learning it. On the farm, you learn early that you reap what you sow.

If people learned what they were contributing to every time they ate meat, eggs, or dairy, surely they would be just as motivated as I was to change.

I came from a farming background, and my career was teaching.

Because of my Calvinistic upbringing, I was trained to think that what you do has to have a purpose.