Stop blaming me for people not knowing where food comes from
You see it flare it up on social media from time to time –
the rhetoric within the ag advocacy groups that if producers had and would do a
better job telling their story, sharing with the consumer their every move,
explaining their practices, decisions, goals and dreams. If they would only
write eloquent statements detailing every twinge of arthritic discomfort and
the cause of that limp, there wouldn’t be the current disconnect between
consumers and the land and people who raise and grow the food that fuels them.
And, as one of those people on the growing, raising and
getting-my-hands-dirty-every-day end of food production, and also one of the
many who try to share my agriculture story with the masses through a variety of
opportunities, such a mindset bothers me. It bothers me because my experience
from a very young age has been that agriculture – its people, practices, farms
and ranches, have all stood with an open door to whomever had the genuine
interest to learn about them. I don’t know that I’ve ever witnessed a farmer or
rancher tell someone to fly a kite when they asked a sincere question. In actuality,
I have seen the people within agriculture embrace every opportunity to share
their lifestyle, to hire and willingly pay someone as they teach them their
craft, to step outside their comfort zone to speak with groups of strangers, or
to invite those strangers into their field, corral or home.
Long before social media, laser fast technology and a
worldwide readership could be obtained from any living room, these people were
working not only at their lifelong occupation of raising food, but on sharing
their knowledge. The issue is not a lack of information provided by the farmer
and rancher, the issue is a lack of interest by the general public.
Yes, there is a huge and important brouhaha over everything
from GMO’s and pesticide use to mom bloggers being our new bosses and organic
versus conventional practices. Everyone has an opinion on these and countless
other food related topics, which ultimately impact those who raise food. It’s
critically important stuff. But, everyone forms their opinions with their stomachs
full, thanks to American farmers and ranchers. Hunger hasn’t been an issue in
our nation on a large scale since my grandmother’s generation. And, before reminding
me of the many hungry people in our country – when government agents came
through the west and killed all the cattle in an effort to improve the beef
market, my great grandmother convinced them to leave one of her cows alive. She
and her children then butchered it, harvested their home raised garden, and
made canned stew that they then lived almost exclusively on for a year or more.
Many others were less fortunate. That is facing hunger to a degree I, and I
daresay most people in this day and age, struggle to even imagine in America.
Until that happens, bickering over a myriad of shallow food
related topics is likely to continue. If and when true hunger faces our nation
again, I’ll bet my last cow people will eat whatever they can to survive,
without concern or griping. They will thank their lucky stars for GMO’s and
drought tolerant seeds, and for the knowledge and skills found in the few who
still farm and ranch.
In the meantime, the perception of food has been altered to
the point it no longer mirrors the reality those in production agriculture know
to be true. Add in the twisted few on the opposite end of the spectrum, who
have a delusional view of agriculture as a house of monstrosities, who rain
misinformation in a slew of sophisticated, attention grabbing outlets, and it
gets messy fast.
Wasting your breathe discrediting the valid efforts of
producers you then attempt to back and tout as being all that we really are
does nothing for your, or our, creditability. No one blames Apple when they
don’t immediately know how to navigate the latest Iphone. Rather, people
generally expect to wade through some research followed by a period of trial
and error, and perhaps call customer service or visit a store and talk with a
human. They take the initiative to educate themselves in order to effectively
use their device. Food should not be the exception to this mindset.
Rather than point a finger in the producer’s direction for
not doing enough to educate the public, consider to what extent the public
wants to be educated. Most want to be able to do the equivalent of the basic
phone functions, a few want to know a few extra things, and minute handful want
to know how their phone was built in addition to how to access and effectively
utilize every function of it. Those people are taking the time to find those of
us on the building side of food production; all we have to do is continue
sharing our legacy of feeding them the best food anywhere on earth any way we
can, just as we have been doing for generations.
So, share on in whatever way or ways you can. If you’re not
farming or ranching yourself, or even if you are, give one of the people who
made you love agriculture a call or stop by and see them. When you’re done
visiting, take a moment to relish in the rejuvenated inspiration you feel, and
share it. The feeling that person just instilled you, that is the purest and
most effective form of advocating and sharing of a story and lifestyle you’ll
ever find. No blame or Internet connection required.
