Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 25, 1994 TAG: 9411250001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: CURRENT EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's the lunch rush at a Montgomery County greasy spoon. Two young men dressed in college student garb are discussing the dangers of fat and cholesterol when a farmer interjects.
"I know what you mean, son," he said, a John Deere cap covering his head, a pair of overalls barely covering his belly. "All daddy ever ate when he was on the farm was eggs and bacon and butter and all that and it finally killed him. He was only 97."
Although everyone laughed at the farmer's joke, he may not be as lucky as his father.
As technology becomes more common on Virginia farms, farmers are spending less time working their muscles, more time operating equipment, and the same amount of time eating the fat- and cholesterol-rich foods that are a staple of farm cuisine.
The result is a phenomenon somewhat new to the farming industry: overweight, out-of-shape farmers.
"It's a situation I've never seen before," said Glen Hetzel, a farm health specialist with Virginia Tech. "I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better."
Technology may be good for the farm, he said, but it's bad for the farmer. Cattle farmers who used to spend their days hiking hundreds of acres now spend them in pickup trucks. And farmers who used to bail hay with their biceps and pitchforks now use machines.
"Most major activities have become mechanized," Hetzel said. "Now you see barnyard cleaning being done with machines and even feeding being done more and more with machines. All these things add up to farmers who are less active."
The answer is an obvious one, he said: It's time the fitness craze went down on the farm.
Although farmers may not need to shed their work shirts and blue jeans for T-shirts and jogging suits just yet, Hetzel said farmers do need to adopt a more healthy lifestyle.
"I think they need to watch their diet; I think they need to get plenty of rest, and I think they need to exercise," he said. "We've got hunting season coming up and I think we're going to have a lot of middle-aged farmers out in the woods who aren't in shape for it."
Hetzel said younger farmers tend to share his concerns, while older and middle-aged farmers think they're not at risk, leaving them in prime condition for strokes and heart attacks.
It's a lesson some farmers have discovered the hard way.
"I thought at the time of my heart attack that I was in great shape," said Madison Marye, a Virginia state senator who has been farming the family land on Poor Mountain near Shawsville for more than 25 years. "I aged about 35 years in one day - that's how I look at it."
Marye, who also credits his 1992 heart attack to the stress of politics, said a bad diet and lack of exercise were the principle causes.
Marye said during his youth, the family farm would typically employ some 45 farmhands, as well as several teams of horses.
Today, Marye and his wife rely on only themselves and their machinery to work the 250 acres. He said even though his diet remained unchanged up until the heart attack two years ago, the amount of exercise he spent working the farm has declined over the years.
"In the old days we used to plow the corn with horses and a three-foot cultivator. It meant walking back and forth all day and that really was a lot of walking," he said. "The walking has definitely been reduced now. The machinery has reduced the labor requirements."
But treadmills and Nautilus equipment to go with tractors and combines? For Marye, a diet and aerobics program isn't such a strange idea.
"I ate two eggs and two slices of bacon every morning, but not anymore," Marye said. "My wife and I also take about an hour a day and go walking. According to my doctors, walking is one of the best exercises you can do."
by CNB