I did see the “farmer”
commercial, and I liked it (as far as commercials go). I thought it was nice that
it might plant a seed in someone’s head to think about the farmers who wake up
at 4:30 in the morning to milk, care for their animals, and tend their crops no
matter what the weather - from sub-zero ice breaking to scorching summer heat. Kinda nice to see a commercial have a secondary
message that was something other than, women are objects, baby animals are
cute, and MSG is the nectar of the gods.
"We’re members of each other—all of us—everything. The difference is not whether you are or not, but whether you know you are or not. Because we’re all under each other’s influence. We’re all are affected by one another’s others lives and decisions. And there is no escape from this membership."
I understand
there are a lot of people who have no idea what’s going on with their food, and,
sadly, there’s a group of people who know about the damage factory farms are
doing, but still throw all farmers into some paddock full of uneducated
rednecks looking for a handout. This is proof that they’re doing nothing to
back-up their complaints, because, if they had, they would have found a farmer’s
market by now. Those guys with baskets of fresh eggs and winter greens can’t get those
subsidies you’re talking about. Sorry my misinformed friend, but there are many
people who care and sacrifice to keep ethical, time-honored traditions alive. These
people deserve our respect.
Now, this second one is snarky, but
hits at another truth – what have we let happen?! Maybe if we honored the farmers' work, the family farm wouldn’t have been decimated. Maybe a parent would pass on with pride that their child was apprenticing at a farm instead of going into computer programming. It is one of the
hardest jobs there is and it’s a rare alignment of factors that could even
allow for the chance that the farm could keep a family out of poverty. People
who carry on despite the challenges are devoted to preserving this way of life for
US. If you aren’t supporting family farms I don’t think you get the right to
laugh at this parody.
