In a few days Americans will celebrate their independence from Great Britain by feasting upon hotdogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, watermelon, and homemade ice cream. Inflation will make our Fourth of July celebrations more expensive this year, especially for farmers in Nebraska who are struggling to make ends meet.

For many Nebraskans the state of the farm is not good this year. Severe weather has destroyed the crops for many farmers. When I traveled from Lincoln to Grand Island last week, I noticed how hail had beaten the leaves off of trees and how high winds had overturned pivots for a 20 mile or more stretch along I-80. High winds have already overturned at least 1,000 pivots in Nebraska this year. This kind of devastation can be seen all across our state, especially in the Panhandle. For instance, I know a farmer near Alliance who has already planted six times this year.

Although commodity prices have risen, many Nebraska farmers won’t be able to cash in their crops this year. What good is $7.50 for a bushel of corn if you have no corn to sell? This is no small matter once you consider that production agriculture comprises 92 percent of Nebraska’s land mass and contributes more than $25 billion annually to Nebraska’s economy. Agriculture is the engine which drives our economy.

238 years ago many Europeans held a very romantic view of the American farmer. Because lands were plentiful, many of them viewed American farmers as wealthy landowners. They romanticized the idea of living off of rents and taking life easy. These erroneous views of the American farmer prompted Benjamin Franklin in 1784 to write a famous essay entitled, “Advice for Coming to America.”

Writing from his home outside of Paris, France, Benjamin Franklin proceeded to describe the kind of hard work and self-reliance that is needed to live successfully in America. The first thing he had to do was dispel the myth that all American farmers were wealthy. So, he wrote, “The truth is, that though there are in that country few people so miserable as the poor in Europe, there are also very few that in Europe would be called rich: it is rather a general happy mediocrity that prevails.”

Benjamin Franklin then went on to describe the hard agricultural life that most endured in early America, saying, “There are few great proprietors of the soil, and few tenants; most people cultivate their own lands, or follow some handicraft or merchandise; very few rich enough to live idly upon their rents or incomes, or to pay the high prices given in Europe for paintings, statues, and other works of art that are more curious than useful.”

I share these things with you today to remind you that the heart of American independence is self-reliance and the essence of American freedom is to be able enjoy the fruits of your own labor. Nowhere else in the world are men so free as to reap the benefits of their own hard work. So, as we take a day off on the Fourth of July to celebrate our freedom, let’s remember what makes America such a great place to live. May God bless America and may God bless the American farmer.