Agriculture continues to come under fire from those who have no understanding about our industry, but the fight is nothing new. Our way of life has been questioned for decades by those who “think” they know about life on the farm.
Many years ago, I lived along the Missouri River in Lafayette County, Mo., a beautiful area filled with row crops, apple and peach orchards, and cattle. One day, I was in a local grocery store buying “store bought” meat for the first time in my life when an older, well-dressed lady walked beside me as I stood there evaluating the ground round in the meat department.
“I wouldn’t buy any of this if I were you,” she said, waving her hand in a dismissing manner.
Taken back a bit by her comment, I simply asked why.
“Do you know what farmers do to the animals? They pump them full of all of these chemicals to make the meat taste better. You just never know what these farmers are going to do next to make a buck,” she responded.
I admit I was a little dumbfounded by what she said, and as I attempted to keep my big mouth shut, which is very difficult for me at times, she continued with her rant with how farmers did this and that. She then told me about how bad people were who raised pigs, and how she is thinking about giving up on all meat. She started to sound like the teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons; waa, waaa, waaa is all I heard after a minute or so.
Finally, she stopped and as I stood there with a package of hamburger in my hand, I said, “Oh, I guess you grow and raise all of your own food then?”
“Oh no,” she responded with a laugh. “I have never lived on a farm and I wouldn’t know the first thing about growing a garden or anything like that. I just read a lot.”
“Oh, well I grew up on a farm and never remember doing anything to our cattle and hogs,” I quipped back. “I’d really like to know where you read that.”
This time she appeared to be the one who was a little dumbfounded.
“I don’t remember,” she said as she quickly turned her shopping cart and scurried off to another isle.
A little part of me wanted to follow her and make little comments like, “Oh, I wouldn’t buy that bottle of mustard. Do you know what they put in that stuff?” But, I didn’t; my mother always told me to be nice to people.
I know now that I should have taken the opportunity to share the truth about agriculture with that lady and shared our way of life with her. While I might not have changed her mind, at least she might have thought twice about walking up to a stranger at the meat counter in the grocery store.
I would have never guessed that the quick, yet strange, conversation I had in that small grocery store in Lexington, Mo., 20 years ago was a sign of things yet-to-come in agriculture. I just thought that she was a bit “eccentric,” not the beginning of a movement against farming.
Unfortunately, the agriculture industry is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to dispelling the rumors that have been decades in the making. Most of us were just going about our business of feeding the world, never dreaming that we would one day be in a constant battle to save our way of life, and that our own communities would become the frontlines.
How can we win the battle? I don’t know, but we can continue to arm ourselves with the most valuable resource we have – our knowledge. We need to share that knowledge at every opportunity and provide verifiable resources for the information we give to consumers not just say that we read about it somewhere – unless it was in the pages of Ozarks Farm & Neighbor.
Julie
