Uneducated Consumers
April 6th, 2008 by Jim VThis past week, we had an interesting discussion with a college student who is a physics major at a small, expensive college. We were talking about the cost of gasoline. I pointed out that a large percentage of the US grain crop is fed to ruminant livestock – livestock that do not need grain. My point was that American agriculture could be more efficient if we would use a grass-based system for raising ruminants. My wife and I were astounded when this student asked what a ruminant was. We thought that someone about to complete a college education would have a little better understanding of basic biology and the nature of our food animals. Over they years we have seen similar instances where people have no real understanding of their food sources. Back when my oldest two children were working at the sheep dairy just up the road from our farm, my oldest son, Nathan, had an interesting experience working with a young man who was attending a high priced ($40,000 a year) liberal arts college. My son and this young man were milking sheep and the young man from the high priced college kept using the male pronouns (him, his or he) for the sheep being milked. Finally this young man asked if the sheep being milked were male or female. Nathan thought that it was pretty comical to have a college student think that it was possible to milk male sheep. NoT only do most people now have very little idea of the basic principles of agriculture, they also have very little idea of the work that is involved in producing quality food. I see many people that are only interested in getting food at the cheapest price possible and most have no idea that the production methods greatly influence the nutrition in the end product. With most people so disconnected from farm life and from agriculture, we probably have an education job on our hands – in addition to just keeping the farm going. A couple of weeks ago, I and Good Farmer John were talking about how Joel Salatin does an excellent job of articulating his vision, of describing why his food is of the highest quality, and of describing the superiority of his farming methods. Polyface farm has a large number of very loyal customers. We talked about how the ability to articulate a vision may be an important ingredient of farmers attempting to market directly to consumers and of those farmers attempting to follow the principles of authentic agriculture. I think we should be able to communicate to our customers the reasons for the superior quality of the food that we produce, and be able to convey to them the need to pay prices that provide farmers a decent living.
Jim V
April 6th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Have to laugh about the “gender confusion” of the college kid! I heard it said once that we have raised a generation that knows how to have sex at 12 but at 20 would starve to death with a bag of seed potatoes! You’re right about the need to educate people and some of the main people we need to educate are farmers themselves. The main vision of most farmers now seems to be follow the bigger-better that is preached by the main line ag magazines and organizations. We got caught up in that vision even though we were an organic dairy. Now we are returning to our small farm, self-sufficient roots, we hope it’s not too late to save our farm!
April 7th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Brent,
I hope that you can save your farm. There are very few dairy farms left in my area even though years ago almost every farm milked a few cows. Instead we have horizon to horizon crops, large hog confinment barns, and the occasional larger dairy.
A imagine a large majority of people would starve if they were forced onto the land and had to raise their own food. Past generations had a lot more connection with farming and the biological processes that ultimately support us. This point in history seems very unique.
Jim V