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The Food Issue
2016
Grains
West
36
BY LYNDSEY SMITH
CANUNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEXITYOF FARMINGHELP TOBRIDGE THEGAP
BETWEENCONSUMER PERCEPTIONS AND FARMINGREALITY?
F YOU ASK A RANDOM
person in a grocery store
whether he or she’s thought
about the farmer who grew the
ingredients for the loaf of bread in their
hands, you’ll likely get a “no.” Ask that
same consumer what he thinks of gluten,
GMOs or Roundup, and you might end
up having a conversation about all that’s
wrong with food production these days.
There’s an interesting, and at times
frustrating, difference between the
opinions people have about what’s in
their food and how it was grown, and
their opinion of the farmers themselves.
It seems in the hubbub of food fads and
cleanses, the actual faces and lives of
those who shoulder the most risk in the
farming games are lost or have become
an afterthought.
Those in farming understand all too
well the difficulty of growing a crop.
Long hours, significant financial risk
and the unpredictability of the weather
add up to a high-stakes industry that’s
responsible for growing a product every
single person on Earth truly needs. It’s
no wonder, then, that when a consumer
Feature
brings up a concern, such as the use of
genetically modified (GM) crops, farmers
often get defensive.
The trouble is, it’s difficult to have
a constructive conversation if you’re
already on the warpath. Most consumers
just lack the context of how their food is
grown. They may not even know their
question is all that negative—they’re just
asking about something they’ve heard
about.
Many farmers want consumers to
understand how they farm and what
it takes—not because they want a pat
THE
GREAT
DIVIDE