This column originally ap­­peared in Fox News Opinion on FoxNews.com.

It all started with fog, my watch and a chicken on the brink of starvation nearly 50 years ago. This is when I realized that it was my duty to be an American farmer to grow food for our country and the rest of the world.

I served in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine back in the late ‘60s, and there’s one distinct mem­ory that’s etched in my mind — every few days, a heli­­copter would drop food for the soldiers, and there was one foggy week that prevented air traffic from flying over and aiding us with supplies. We got to a point of being without food for three days, and I, along with my squadron of nine, had never been so hungry in our lives.

We were walking...