Cut to the Chase: Agriculture Experts Without Portfolio

By Blake Hurst

America’s “paper of record,” the New York Times, has a new opinion columnist, Mark Bittman, who writes about our food system. Bittman wrote a food column for the Times for many years, and is the author of several books, including The Minimalist Cooks at Home, and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Despite the latter title, the Times assures us that Bittman is not a vegetarian.

Bittman’s autobiography mentions the famous chefs he has interviewed, and his books are no doubt a faultless guide to better cooking, but it is clear his social and professional circles don’t include many farmers. It seems a stretch to think writing about famous chefs and exchanging recipes qualify Bittman as an expert on the food system.

In one article, Bittman complains about the amount of land the world devotes to raising cattle, and claims cattle should be fattened on grass instead of corn. Five minutes with an actual farmer could have made clear to Bittman that feeding cattle corn allows beef to be produced on fewer acres than it would take to finish cattle on grass. Bittman’s ignorance of agriculture shines like a beacon from every page he writes.

Bittman is not the only ‘agriculture expert’ without portfolio criticizing modern farming. Claire Berlinski, in a recent post on the website Ricochet.com, worries our treatment of hogs is worse, in her eyes, than our treatment of dogs. Berlinski’s agricultural background includes an Oxford education and a journalistic career that has taken her around the world, including her present home in Turkey. I doubt her travels allowed her to spend much time in Missouri or the rest of flyover country where we raise food.

Written by Lisa Miller, Divided We Eat, a recent Newsweek cover story about class and income distinctions in our diet, may be the perfect example of what is wrong with the way we think about food. Miller is convinced obesity is caused by income disparity. If only the poor could afford organic, locally raised food we would all be healthier. Miller goes on for pages about what is wrong with the food supply, talking to everyone from food stamp recipients to a social scientist, but she never talks to a farmer.

These “experts’ get the story wrong, but what is so infuriating and condescending is the assumption that farmers are not even worth a phone call for a quote. Farmers are the missing piece in all of these articles. We welcome the chance to answer our critics, but we never get that chance. The New York Times is famous for sending journalists wherever the story is found. One of the biggest stories in the world is happening on America’s farms. Maybe the Times should think about covering that story.

(30)

(Blake Hurst, of Westboro, Mo., is the president of Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)