I first met Karen when I stepped out of my pickup to take her family portraits. It didn't take long to see the passion she has for their farm, to realize how knowledgable she is about the daily operations, current issues and the entire industry. In a world that has questions about where its food comes from, she has a lot to offer, and was gracious enough to share that knowledge:

This home has seen 3 generations of weddings. Ironically, the weddings here haven't been the farmers or future farmers; it has always been the farmer's daughters that get married here. My great-aunt was married here in 1945. My aunt was married here in 1984. And we were married here on July 12, 2015. 

And oh, it meant so much to me. Not only because of our farm home's rich history or because 2 previous generations were married here, but because this place made me who I am. It made me the person my groom loves. The days spent learning what life was about, the days spent dreaming about my future and what it would hold, the days spent sweating our behinds off for the sake of "building farm work ethic", they all happened right here. So it was only fitting that this, our wedding day, happened right here as well.

Factory farm.

I hate that term. So you can imagine how startled I was when I stepped foot into Cactus Feeders, a business that feeds 500,000 cattle at a time, and heard someone say, “We’re proud to be factory farmers.”

Gulp.

And the tour began: