Can Agriculture Lead into the Future?
Last week we had a big birthday celebration for the little peep in our house. As I watched the friends giggle at the party, I couldn’t help but think back to the day I became a mother. Don’t worry, I’m not brave enough to share child labor stories here; suffice it to say that calving ease, come-alongs and my refusal of a c-section were all a part the discussion.
What does thought leadership in agriculture really look like in the future?
Celebrating that day caused me to consider what we teach children who grow up in agriculture. Creativity to solve whatever problem comes up with animals or land, work ethic, honesty and perseverance are great farm kid traits. At some level, so is the independent mindset, stubbornness and modesty that’s so prevalent on farms and ranches. But is that what we really want to be passing on to the next generation? Don’t get me wrong; my farm roots trace back generations, so I know those traits are ingrained in agriculture’s culture. And for the record, I’ll fully own that I’m as stubborn as a mule and rather hard-headed.
However, working with people from across the agrifood system makes me wonder if those are the skills we need to lead in agriculture’s future. I see farmers and ranchers who care deeply about the cause of bringing a voice to agriculture, but can’t work together because of being so independently-minded. This is true in policy discussions, the most well-intended efforts to connect with consumers and as new groups are forming to benefit the big picture of agriculture. I may have rotten vegetables and cow pies thrown at me, but I have to ask the tough questions to people across all sectors of agriculture.
- Why is it so very easy for agriculture to be divided and conquered? HSUS. Organic vs. conventional. Food vs. fuel. Why do people, for example, feel the need to line up behind Grocery Manufacturer’s Association or corn folks? There is MORE than enough corn to go around. Sure, feed prices stink for those who have animals. As a dairy person, I get that! But, were the corn and soybean growers squawking when beef, milk, chicken and pork producers were making a decent profit? Let me suggest this: count to 50 before you condemn another part of agriculture because in the long-haul, this will likely impact YOUR success. And I’d strongly encourage you to hold your national organizations to the same standards. This is true whether you’re talking, tweeting or Facebooking – know that agriculture is agriculture to those outside of our business.
- Does agriculture care enough to speak out proactively? It’s easy to respond to the nasty videos, get up in arms about defending your favorite piece of legislation or promote a group you’re affiliated with. It’s a lot tougher to take the risk of agvocating in a different way – whether that’s a conversation with an extended family member or engaging in a Twitter debate, going to your local economic development meeting or writing a blog. I’ve worked in advocacy for nearly a decade and I have to ask whether we care enough to truly listen and seek ways to enage proactively. Every day. Or can we only respond?
- Is it possible that we try to fix things that aren’t broken? This is a disturbing trend. If it’s not our idea or we weren’t involved at the front end, we have a need to fix it. Consider this: other people bring qualifications and creativity different than our own and likely care as much. We all need to embrace the diversity of skill sets. This means we have to be O.K. with leaving our welders in the shop unless seams are broken!
- Do we sometimes get so hung up on bringing recognition to farmers that we lose the millions of others responsible for food, fuel, feed and fiber? I’ll be the first one to say that the non-farm public needs to talk to a farmer or rancher if they want to learn about food. However, the reality is that MANY are responsible – and just as important to food producation – as what we all eat goes from gate to plate. With all due respect to farmers and ranchers; there is a need for all parts of the food system to be understood. That includes agribusinesses, meat scientists, food technicians and many others.
- Are we so stubborn that we sometimes lose sight of the big picture? Frankly, the micro-climate impacting a vegetable farm in California or the nuances of a small meat processor in Ohio aren’t of great concern to the people we are trying to educate. The well-being of the BIG picture of agriculture is. I understand that individuals have to worry about their own well-being first. However, shouldn’t we all be responsible for taking the blinders off a bit more and focus on the big picture rather than our own small piece of the ag world?
- Why is OK to text a photo of your new combine but not talk to a reporter or update your Facebook? Studies have clearly shown that mainstream media don’t have access to enough expert sources to food and agriculture. You don’t have to have all the answers, but know that the media will source information – and that it may just be from Greenpeace or HSUS. If you want the story told truthfully, it’s time to push modesty and fear aside. And take a couple of minutes to put that picture on Facebook with a note about why it’s so cool so those outside your world will understand.
I know not everyone will agree with or like what I’ve written here. That’s okay. If I’ve inspired some thought, incited discussion or caused action – I’ve done my job. I ask you to spend some time thinking about what lessons you’re teaching the next generation. Actions speak louder than words. Are you sure your actions will best serve agriculture’s future?
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I think that you wrote a great blog and agree with many your points. Especially about fighting amongst ourselves in agriculture and also the independent mindedness that is so common among small business owners. You are right that the consumer doesn’t care much about individual businesses and farms that is until they know their story. When we put a face and personality with the products people purchase they tend to become our best supporters. But that doesn’t mean they support everyone else with a similar operation. Is this a bad thing? I think not. When building relationships with consumers we need to keep that in mind. Building relationships may not cause a consumer to support a whole industry but it will give them the connection to it that they won’t be swayed to oppose it as a whole. Thinking big picture is good and helping to connect consumers you have relationships with to those in other segments of ag is even better. It seems to me when we do broad advocating for the ag industry as a whole it tends to have a smaller impact with shorter duration of support from consumers than when we bring it home and talk about our operations specifically. I think the key is in telling our own stories and building relationships based on positives rather than comparisons and connecting those consumers to others in ag who can share their stories as well.
Great points, Tim. Building relationships is critical and will help consumers have a connection to mitigate the nasty messages from anti-ag folks. Each person needs to tell their story; hopefully in a way that illustrates why they make the choices they do on their farm rather than comparing and negating other production practices. However, sometimes it seems as though we collectively fail at that.
Amen, Michele! All the points you make here are points I have thought about as well. Thanks for bringing them up.
Thanks, I really believe that our reality will change dramatically if we don’t start answering these types of questions.
Agree with points made, past what is listed. All animal use and ownership is fighting the same battle. Learning to work together for a common goal, against a common enemy, instead of only looking at our own little slice is necessary or we will all lose.
Agreed. So why does it seem to take a battle to rally the troops?
Agree completely on several points – the last one hitting at the moment. This is SO important. There’s been many times over the last couple years I’ve tried finding people to talk about something for an article and I KNOW they’re out there – but nothing. From footing in cattle feeding area to handling dust and drainage on farms – things I KNOW operations of all sizes deal with – but it’s hard to get someone to talk to about it. Which means those articles haven’t been done but in the last year how many “farming harms the environment” articles have appeared? 🙁 This is a market to the public – but somehow that’s threatening.
Additionally while we’re all in the same boat there are different levels. When something happens that affect rabbit raisers or mint growers or aquaculture does it go mainstream discussion? Usually not – it’s not as ‘important’ as dairy or pork or soy – and some of that is not as many use it, true. I saw a comment yesterday about imported rabbit in the northeast…imported from China. The manager was asked why – (I’ll blog about this) it was because it was cheaper to import than domestic rabbit cost. Now domestic rabbit sells commercially for about $1/# in most areas (white, colored fur is docked). US grown rabbit is so much fresher/better – but the regulations were cited. Similarly many meat counters have long held NZ imported lamb…while US producers struggle and often went under. How many beef/pork/poultry raisers think much about that? Probably none aware of it ’cause they’re busy – now what happens when these increasing regulations affect them? It seems like lamb and rabbit is the canary in the proverbial mine – I hope other sections of ag will unite to support ALL domestic products before it’s too late.
Interesting example, Jan. Perhaps an agriculture that worked together could educate each other about the lesser known parts of our business. Kind of hard to do that when we hold our shields up in defense.
Great points. Many I agree with, some I do not. So is life.
I don’t begin my day with “how will I agvocate today”. Right or wrong, I begin my day with…checking on my animals to make sure they are all where they belong & well, getting my kids up and ready (hopefully, in time to catch the bus so I don’t lose precious time driving them to school), then herding farmers & hopefully minimize my chaos (sidenote: herding farmers is much harder than animals), then on to how can I improve my business and the lives of the customers I serve.
Notice, that is a lot of “me’s, my’s, I’s”. I’m fully aware of that and I don’t see a need in changing it. Each action (while mundane) is thought out. It relates directly to my world. While others may not want to publicly admit the same for fear of appearing flawed in some way, I fully embrace my own flaws. Most are not that different. They are concerned with what affects their own world.
With regards to trying to fix what’s not broken, what’s seems broken to me may seem perfectly fine to someone else. Here’s where we disagree. I don’t believe that consumers need to solely look directly at a farmer to learn how their food is made. Can this farmer tell me how the food is made? Where it is made? Can they explain to me the processes used, precautions in place, regulations abided by, and consequences of not abiding by them? Can they tell me the measures used directly daily to make the food supply safer? Can they tell me why sugar seems to be in every single processed food on the market? Can the egg farmer tell me how they get the crème in the middle of my twinkie? Can the soybean farmer explain to me how tofu is made? Can a cattle farmer tell me the difference in E.coli 026 and 0157? Explain STECs to me? Can they tell me how hot dogs or bologna is made? Why nitrites are used & where they come from? Or can they only tell me the US meat supply is safe, nutritious, affordable, and abundant? Should we be putting farmers on the front line to explain food? Or only their direct role in the raw agricultural production they make possible? Shouldn’t consumers be asking food manufacturers these questions?
In short, the big picture of one may look vastly different to that of another. So, whose big picture do we need to focus on?
In summary of your points and perhaps developing my own conclusion from your posts, we cannot agree upon the “big picture” because the majority of agriculture is somehow on one “side” or the other and as a result, we are inventing battles that do not need to be fought. I think narrow world view (I’m echoing Amy here, I think) is the source of the problem.
Farming, processing, distribution and foodservice are symbiotic industries … that often like to bicker (a lot). And rather than existing as a complimentary ecosystem (which is has to be), phase A views phase B as a pest, a leech, sucking away their profits. Sure, there are examples of abuses of the relationship (consider milk prices as an example).
This view is not a choice, but could be an evolutionary reality caused by the course that agriculture has endured in recent decades. Who knows, perhaps it could even be an unintentional side effect of “monoculture” (whatever that is) or more accurately, specialized or precision farms that produce perhaps only one or two raw materials. And it is perpetuated by rhetoric.
Is it appropriate to refer to many of our common agricultural products as food, or as raw materials for food products? How often does one eat a cow (as in, the whole cow)? Commodity soybeans, wheat, soybeans? What dairy farmer fortifies milk with vitamin D? Someone somewhere turns that miracle (which it is) into something edible, and through other processes, some of which are old as the hills (i.e., making tortillas) or completely cutting edge, can then improve quality of the food and subsequently, the profitability and demand for the raw material (aka “food” can be improved). This is somewhat similar to the anecdote that you often hear of cattle producer referring to his/herself as a “beef producer” though never hear of a wheat producer as a “bread farmer.” There are disconnects within production agriculture.
This is why I opt, with due credit to everyone, to say:
#thankafarmer for providing the raw materials
#thanktheoilrigworker for fueling the food distribution system
#thankataxpayer for supporting on-farm production
#thankataxpayer for supporting food safety inspections
#thankamaintenance expert for fixing the retort in which my cranberries were canned
#thankarabbi for killing my Kosher turkey
#thankalineworker for gutting my turkey
#thankafeedmillworker for formulating the ration fed to my turkey
#thankatrucker for delivering food to my grocery store
#thankanengineer for designing the freezers at the grocery store
#thankachecker for helping me check out of the store … or …
#thankanengineer for designing self-checkout (though this may be #curseanengineer)
And #thankmanymanymanyotherpeople.
How can we expect people to understand the modern food system if we pretend that it is exclusively the responsibility of the farmer? It’s easy to forget that without the farmer, the supporting industries would not exist, and it’s equally as easy to forget that farmers wouldn’t be able to farm the way they do today without the supporting industries to bring their raw materials to your table.
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