Monday, March 31, 2014

Just Thinking About It: Farm People

Honestly, the real entertainment value for me in a show like Food Inc. is watching people discover how much they care about something they've convinced themselves is unimportant. Like where food comes from. I showed sheep for nine years in 4H and worked with people who have been concerned about things like food purity for a long time. These people are turned into punch lines in popular culture.

As I think about this ignorance, I do worry because the people I interact with daily are in college. That means they have at least finished high school and have done well enough into the school. We need to be leaders but the concept that many have only now begun considering where their food comes from is frightening. Finding the source of the food is not that challenging, one just doesn’t think about doing so. So what else haven’t I thought of? Are we still missing something?

Perhaps we are but for now, we can focus on food. You are not powerless. You can buy food from a farmers’ market or even grow it yourself. The soil in Indiana is fertile and it’s so easy to grow vegetables and livestock. This work is not fit for everyone. It requires dedication and that you make it home every night to work on it so they can pay farmers to do it. Not the Walton family. Consumers drive the market and I really cannot blame anyone but them (us).

Considering my readers may have done their best to stay away from a Future Farmers of America meeting, I can assure you that there are people willing to do things the right way. Farmers do not want to be slaves to a huge corporation on the land their fathers once owned.  They would love to have you as a customer.

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