Does this corn frighten you?
Yesterday I was reviewing my blog statistics and found something interesting. One of the links bringing people in to my Occupy the Food Supply post was coming from NPR’s “Judge Dismisses Organic Farmers’ Case Against Monsanto“. I could not remember commenting on an NPR post or even reading one lately. As it turns out someone left a link to my Occupy post in the comment section that was driving some traffic back to me.
But this post isn’t about organic or GMO crops. This post is about the picture at the top of the page and a comment that was made about it. I grew up on a farm, and now I work on that farm. Everything I do on the farm is normal to me because I experience those things everyday. But many of the things I do are a mystery to many people, including my wife who is the person closest to me. You see, she grew up in town and we’ve been together since 1996, but she doesn’t have a great deal of hands on experience around the farm. For instance, she didn’t know until recently that farmers don’t own all their land. Many farmers rent land. Sometimes they even rent more than they own. I like to learn more about her job too. The point I want to make is that since I’ve been around farming my entire life it’s quite difficult for me to think of agriculture from an outsider’s perspective. It’s hard for me to know what the consumer doesn’t know, or in this case what the consumer thinks they know.
Let’s get back to the picture. Looks entirely normal to me. Standard operating procedure that I’ll be performing in just a few short weeks. That farmer is filling his corn planter from a bulk seed box using a setup very similar to what we use. That’s all I see. It isn’t incredibly exciting. Like I said, I do this kind of thing everyday. As I finished the NPR article I started to browse some of the comments and one of them stuck out like a sore thumb.
“All you have to do is look at the color of the seeds going into that hopper and the fact that the farmer feels that he should use rubber gloves when handling the seeds to realize something is wrong with this picture.”
That’s a thought that would never occur to me. It’s obvious to me that the seed is treated with a pesticide, fungicide, or maybe nematicide of some sort. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact the seed is genetically modified. The green coloring comes from the seed treatment. Whoever left that comment is likely concerned about GMOs in the environment and in his or her food. I would hazard to guess that same person is concerned about pesticide applications. The treatment protects the seed from insects and disease meaning there’s a good chance the farmer won’t have to fire up another machine to make an application of pesticide during the season. We’ve actually up the rates of pesticides on our seed treatments this year so we don’t have to run any liquid insecticide with the planter.
A typical roadside sign shows which seed company provided the seed and the variety growing in that field.
Another example of perception is reality with consumers appeared during a study of non-farm Illinois citizens. If you drive country roads in corn and soybean country during the summer you are going to see signs on the edges on many fields. It couldn’t be more clear to me that these signs are put up by seed salesmen next to good-looking fields. Whether or not the beautiful stand of corn or beans actually corresponds to the brand and variety stated on the salesman’s sign is another story. You farmers know what I’m talking about. A group a signs in close proximity indicates a test plot has been planted. Anyway, that’s not what I’m discussing here.
More than 50% of the 2,000 people who participated in the study said they believe that farms are owned by corporations. What reason did the participants cite as leading them to that conclusion?
“When asked how they reached that conclusion when most farms are family owned, the respondents said they saw the seed signs and assumed that the corporations owned the land.”
That ties into the whole “factory farming” stigma we hear all the time. Like I said, the meaning of the sign is second nature to me. Never in a million years would I have thought those signs told people what “Big Ag” conglomeration owned that land. To be honest, it blew my mind to hear such a thing. A statement like that just isn’t on my radar because I’m so familiar with agriculture. The vast majority of farms in the United States are family owned and operated, but not everybody understands that.
The moral of these two stories is that farmers need to talk to consumers more than they do now. It is really tough to know what the other 98% of the population thinks of what farmers are doing if farmers don’t talk to them. The consumers mentioned in this post were mistaken about the green corn kernels and the road signs, and both of them were enlightened by someone who knows better. But how many times does that NOT happen? I don’t blame the consumer for not knowing something. I’m sure there are assumptions in my head right now about another profession that are way off base, but until I find out differently I’ll have no idea. Leave me your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear them.
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It shows also that most of them aren’t even gardners. Any vegetable gardener would know that his green bean or sweet corn seed is often treated. But I never once would have thought that the signs would have given someone that mistaken impression about land ownership. I grew up watching fields of Funk’s G hybrids, Pioneer, and before they closed down, the local Schenk hybrid corn plots. There were some years back in the 70s, I could just look at a field and tell which number of Pioneer hybrid in which the field was planted. Nowadays, it’s getting more difficult to tell.
Brian, you and the other agvocats like you are part of the exact movement you are begging for. Keep fighting the good fight! All of you.
Thanks, JC.
Being a Southern California native, I’ve never lived far from farming, yet I’ve also never been on one of them. To me they have have just been a visually different landscape from the traditional arid scrub as I’m traveling North or East or South. Growing up we always played the game of trying to guess what was growing there. The first farmer I ever met is when I was staying in a hostel in Paris, and a woman who had an alfalfa sprouts farm near my office was also a guest there.
I’m fascinated by the process of growing food, and I love my little backyard garden, but the “how” of large-scale productions is well beyond me.
When I think of farmers, the only mental image I have is the Joad family in Grapes of Wrath. That is why your blog is so interesting to me. Your photo posts normally leave me scratching my head wondering what I’m looking at or how it is used. But I’m learning. Thanks for this education.
Love your comment! You are exactly who I hope to have as an audience here! Thanks for reading. Next time you scratch your head, just ask me a question!
Great post! I work in an ag retail in Alberta, Canada and know all about signing fields; it had never occurred to me that those signs could be mistaken as signs of ownership. Farmers get frustrated with consumers that don’t seem to understand why farmers do what they do when instead we should all be taking a look in the mirror and asking ourselves, “What am I doing to change people’s perceptions?” We can only control our own actions. Consumers may jump to conclusions and not seem interested in learning the truth, but it is up to our industry to make them interested and communicate our message to them. Thanks for doing what you do with this blog!
Reblogged this on SunnyRomy.
Great blog and well said. I blog about our farm as well as we “want to tell our story”, we do a Dinner on the Farm to try to reach out to those who want to know how their food is raised. The Idaho Farm Wife, Gayle
Interesting article about that brightly colored seed, here:
http://www.unitedsoybean.org/media-center/releases/editorial-a-few-extra-steps-for-soybean-farmers-one-big-step-for-soybean-quality/
an interesting post…I never noticed the rubber gloves…or if I did, I assumed it was to protect the seeds for possible oils, acids, or bacteria on your hands to promote healthy growth.
I float and fish the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in VA. One stretch of the river passes through a farm and I often pass cows bathing in the river. I always wonder how this impacts the health of the river…especially during our infamous summer thunderstorms.
Regardless, I always love spending time on your blog and I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Stop by my post to pick up the badge. http://chrisnorkun.blogspot.com/2012/03/versatile-blogger-award.html
Water quality can be a big issue with manure, but I don’t know that a few cattle in the river is a big deal. Fish poop in there right? I would say a field bordering the water that isn’t managed properly or experiences very large amounts of rainfall could lead to bigger runoff and leaching issues.