Thursday, February 7, 2013

farmers, farmers, farmers


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.

 
When I heard the words in the commercial I thought of folks like Joel Salatin and Wendell Berry.



"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.
 
Original:
 
 
 
Find link to the second here:
 

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