#2 What Are They Telling Us?
Farmers are very concerned these days with animal pressures, primarily from deer and hogs. I have heard stories from our District Manager in western Pennsylvania, Don Carter, that deer have totally mowed down several corn and soybean fields. Stories from South Carolina about hogs digging up whole fields. I recently visited my daughter in Hawaii and found out the wild boars are a huge problem for the agriculture community, destroying new tree growth along with all forms of crops. The Dole Pineapple plantation is having its own hog issues destroying their valuable fruit crops. The cost to control these animals is tremendous. Farms need to install high-cost fencing at least 8 feet tall and sometimes electric. Others are using slash fencing as a less expensive option. Slash fencing is basically building up or stacking tree branches and brush in piles around the property. Propane cannons with motion sensors or timers is another option, but is very disruptive to neighbors and other desirable wildlife. Another option is repellents like Deer Away and Milorgranite, or soaps and scented products. But these are temporary and expensive.
Why are the populations of these pests increasing and why are they eating certain crops and not others? In my travels around the country, I hear story after story about beavers, raccoons and other pests traveling through GMO fields to get to non-GMO fields for their meal. John Sensenig, District Manager in New York, has a customer in Connecticut that grows cabbage with Growers Mineral Solution and neighbors that don't use Growers in their operation. The deer love his cabbage but won't eat the neighbors. Why? Why do they prefer non-GMO crops to GMO crops? I have always heard that animals are the best nutritionists and never seem to be overweight or fat. They eat what is beneficial and nutritional. What are these animals telling us? Do the animals know something about GMO crops that we don't? Are crops grown with non-toxic fertilizer like Growers better than crops grown with traditional toxic fertilizers? Do cover crops encourage high reproduction with year round food sources? Are there less hunters these days to control populations? What do they know?
According to Statista and the USDA, in 2024 the United Sates spent over $ 2.58 trillion on food and believe it or not around $ 4.9 trillion on health care! We in USA, also have over 10,000 chemicals approved for food consumption. Compared to 300 to 400 in Europe. In my view, this is a huge problem, spending almost double in health care as we spend on food. Do all those chemicals we use in food cause the crazy health care spending? Maybe we should pay more attention to the animals around us and what they are telling us.
It's time to start rethinking how we grow and process food in this country. We are slowly killing ourselves and future generations with our diets and processed food consumption. We need to get the toxins and chemicals out of our food, along with paying more attention to the animal's behavior around us. Nature provides everything we need to survive and thrive. Time to start paying attention! As my travel partner, Jim Halbeisen, likes to say, "Humans think very highly of themselves." Maybe a little less thinking about ourselves, and more about what nature has given us. After all, we are truly what we eat.
This is an excerpt from the Spring Growers Solution (2026) written by Chris Kohls, National Sales Manager.
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