Farmers of America - Connect People To Their Food
This piece ran in the Capital Press on March 10, 2006The conversation started simply enough. The young man at the drug store asked me, “Is it cold enough for you yet?” I was visiting my parents in Redding, Ca and, at 38 degrees Fahrenheit at 3PM, it was indeed cold enough for me. My reply took the conversation down a long, illuminating path for both the young drug store clerk and for me.
“It is cold enough from me but it is way too cold for the almond trees,” I replied off-handedly as I handed him my Snicker’s Almond bar. The young man’s ears perked up, “What happens to the almonds when it gets too cold,” he enquired.
“Well, two main things,” I stated, “the buds can freeze and the bees get too cold to do any work so they stay in their hives.”
The young man laughed with amazement, pointing to the candy bar, “You mean it takes bees to make that candy bar, who knew?”
Twenty minutes later, I left the store after engaging in a deep conversation with the young man about how almonds are grown. He was a keen listener and sharply inquisitive to boot. His parents were both professionals and he grew up detached from both the land and the production of food. “I never knew that bees had a real purpose in making food,” he confessed, “I guess somebody probably told me at some point in time but I mustn’t have paid attention.” He was enthusiastic about learning as well, “you should write a book about what it takes to make all of the ingredients in a meal,” he urged me insistently.
The truth of the matter is, most people grow up totally disconnected from agriculture. As people involved in the production of food and fiber, it is easy for us to forget that we make up less than 2% of our nation’s population. However, most people have never or will never meet a farmer. As a result, any sort of encounter with a farmer will be memorable one for the general public. Thus, the time that you invest in interacting with the public will be both educational for you and the public, and beneficial to agriculture.
Our culture, with its strong emphasis on technology, is becoming more disconnected by the minute. Tools like the Internet and the cellular phone (with its bizarre wireless Bluetooth headset) that are meant to connect people often alienate us from our physical communities. Entertainment devices like the television, video game consoles, and the iPod (with its ominous and ubiquitous white headphones) provide us with fun ways to checkout of our physical reality. Finally, the automobile has made long commutes to work possible, which has cut into the time that we used to have to prepare meals and to eat together.
Everybody has to eat and people want to be connected to something meaningful. The signs are pointing in one direction; now is a great time for farmers to interact with the public. By sharing information you will learn.
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posted by Brian J. Kenny @ 2:38 PM
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