𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐘𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐍𝐨

Before I even poured my first cup of coffee this morning, a friend sent me a TikTok that stirred up a hornet’s nest in the ag world. So I grabbed my mug and settled in to watch the rebuttal videos—some thoughtful, some fiery—and got my thinking muscle fired up.

The original post lamented the growing size of farms. The creator shared how tough it is for his kids to come back to the family operation when a few large row-crop farmers dominate the neighborhood. The follow-up videos fired back with words like 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺, 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘪𝘢, 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. Some called it whining. Others called it truth.

But here's what I think both sides are missing: this isn’t a yes-or-no issue. It’s messy. It’s layered. And it’s deeply personal.

The discussion around a complex topic like farm size requires more than soundbites. Both sides bring important truths, but the answer isn’t binary.

Yet sometimes, in our daily work, we do need a yes or no. We have to make go or no-go decisions. So how do we take the time to wrestle with nuance while still moving at the speed of business? How do we acknowledge complexity and still lead decisively?