A Real
Dilemma
By Rebecca French
Smith
Can someone please tell me the
difference between “real” food and “fake” food? I used to think the latter was
plastic until a newspaper article suggested otherwise. Growing up we had fake,
rubber grapes that my mom put in a bowl on the table, and I admit, I have beaded
pears in a crystal vase on my sideboard.
The title of a
recent column in the New York Times, “Celebrate the Farmer!” by Mark Bittman, piqued my
interest. Celebrating farmers is somewhat of a passion of mine, so I read on,
but I quickly discovered he meant only one kind of farmer, one who grows “real”
food. His definition of a “real” farmer is different from mine.
To me, real
farmers are those people who grow something, who plant seeds or breed and raise
animals. That’s it. Within that there is, of course, a vast variety. There
aren’t good farmers or bad farmers, or real farmers or, uh, not-real farmers;
they merely do things differently. Mr. Bittman’s definition is much narrower,
however. His farmer cultivates small plots of land to grow specialty crops
(vegetables and fruits like you might grow in a garden) and raise organically
grown meat. His farmer’s produce is most always in season and provided only to
local markets. I get it. I like local food too, and I frequent farmers’ markets
when I can, especially since my garden was not a producer this summer. The
farmers’ markets in my area are only open on certain days, though, and it’s not
always convenient or even possible for me to make their hours. So I go to the
grocery store, too; I know when I do that a farmer somewhere has taken great
care to provide the food for me to buy and feed to my family.
My issue is with
Mr. Bittman’s distaste for farmers who choose to plant corn or soybeans on large
pieces of land, who use a combine to harvest and/or who happen to be business
savvy. He suggests that “we need more real farmers, not businessmen riding on
half-million-dollar combines.”
No matter the
size of the farm, every farmer is a businessman or woman if they’re selling
their crop in the marketplace; and I’ll wager if they’re small, they have dreams
of being bigger in some way. That’s the nature of business. The altruistic side
of farming is only part of the equation. Without profits, a farm goes under, and
then no one gets food from that farmer.
Bigger farms are
most often family-run—98 percent of American farms are. Several generations are
involved in the planting, harvesting and day-to-day operations. It has taken
years to grow these farms. Mr. Bittman calls for more, small 10-acre farms to
spring up. We are in need of new farmers, regardless of the size of their
operation, to produce food for the billions of people on the planet.
According to the
latest data, on average, each U.S. farmer produces enough food and fiber for 154
people in the U.S. and abroad. In 1940, a single farmer only fed 19 people.
Since that time, the number of farms dwindled from 6.3 million to 2.2 million.
What farmers—both large and small—today accomplish is remarkable. In the U.S. we
have food security because of their efforts.
Granted, Mr.
Bittman had issues with other things as well—the minimum wage, unemployment,
food stamps and the “nonsensical and wasteful system that pays for corn and
soybeans to be grown to create junk food and ethanol.” These things affect
consumers’ ability to buy food and where they buy it, but so do many other
issues. Perhaps a visit with a few Missouri farmers might increase his
perspective.
Agriculture is
complicated and multi-faceted, but it is still driven by markets, which in turn
are driven by supply and demand. It is, at best, a leap to think that increasing
food stamps will increase the amount of broccoli sold, when you may actually see
more boxes of Cheerios fly off the shelves.
This issue is
too large to make sweeping statements that would cause harm to one farmer and
good to another just because of the size of their farm. We
should celebrate the farmer, but not just the small ones or
those that raise chickens in the front yard. You cannot pick and choose which
farmers you’re going to advocate for if you’re truly concerned about feeding the
growing population. It will take all of them—regardless of how they produce
food—to meet the needs and demands of consumers.
(Rebecca French Smith, of
Columbia, Mo. is a multi-media specialist for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the
state’s largest farm organization.)
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