Calling ALL Farmers

As a farmer’s business expands available time for advocacy and education may need to contract.  This is potentially one reason why farmers at every scale have a hard time with food policy work.  It's almost too much to ask of them to make meetings at a time when they should be getting ready for bed, many times on their rural homesteads, distant from where most food policy council meetings are held.

 

One particular statement from a food policy council member continues to stick out in my mind when she wrote about her perspective as a "producer" and her continued attendance, "...the presentations, while interesting, do not compel my presence."

Obviously it's imperative that a food policy council makes space for farmers (or “producers” as we sometimes call them, which implies everyone else consumes) to share their concerns, but we can't expect them to be involved when their needs aren't being met.  They have a hundred more urgent farm-things to attend to.

In addition, farmers aren't necessarily concerned with low-income food access or nutrition issues – we can’t expect them to be.  Discussions around food policy tend to cross many boundaries.  Maybe too many, and those who grow food are not social workers, chefs, labor organizers, school administrators, or public health educators…they’re farmers.  They're probably more likely to be concerned with getting healthy food into schools and institutions if it means they'll be able to sell more product.

If the dialogue and actions of food policy councils does not directly affect the bottom line of farming, in an economy that rewards quantity over quality, then how will more farmers become active in the national conversation around how we source our food and what’s in it.

 

I've said this in not so many words to various food justice and policy groups:  if there is going to be long-term success by way of food policy work, not just a "social hour" as one farmer put it - but instead the sort of success that actually changes our food landscape - those of us organizing around food issues need to go knocking on farmer's doors and have one-on one-conversations with them to identify those who understand the issues, and those who need food policy councils to advocate for them.

The experience of real farmers is needed for a correct perspective in terms of land ownership, land use, real costs, and resources.  Not reaching out for their input risks too much.  By not seeking their involvement, without having to say a word, the message of a food justice group becomes, “You aren’t farming how we want you to farm, and what you’re producing is not good enough for us.”  The foodies then become too much of the idealist who doesn't understand the business of farming, and are therefore ignored.

And what about the question of how social justice issues overlap with food justice?  Can we expect the average farmer to dedicate time to thinking about the deep history of the land they are growing on?  Can we expect decision makers to install subsidies that simultaneously provide fair wages to farm workers and farmers for what they grow while keeping the cost of locally grown food low so that low-income families can afford better nutrition?  If the answer is "maybe not", then it’s also likely we would either frustrate or confuse these actors with attempts to include social justice issues within the same conversation rather than talking about farming issues affecting their business today.

As it stands now, I would hesitate to think that real farmers (the kind supplying the basics by the ton, bushel, or hundreds of gallons) would see food policy and food justice organizers as realistic or balanced since the real economics of feeding massive populations from a more local base of growers is either not understood or not being addressed.  Until the supply and demand economics of food and resources force a change that encourages these two groups to work together - be it by shortage, war, or climate change - local food producers will continue to be stuck with CSA's and farmer's markets, and large scale farmers will continue using the short cuts that allow them to stay viable as a farm in the global market. 

A huge divide persists between those of us who farm a few acres without chemicals for our neighbors, and those of us who feed the rest of the world.  At this point very few seem to have the time, desire, and courage to cross that chasm.

There continues to be a lot of conversation amongst us (the "foodies") yet it's largely one-sided.