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Mysterious Group "In Defense of Farmers" to take on Michael Pollan in Madison
I want to flag a very weird little piece in Feedstuffs, a weekly Big Ag trade mag, that caught my eye this weekend: "Farmers unite in response to Pollan appearance at University of Wisconsin this week."
In the article, writer Sarah Muirhead claims that a farmers group called "In Defense of Farmers" is mounting a response to Michael Pollan's appearance.at UW-Madison for it's "Go Big Read" program this Thursday (his book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is on the big ten university's recommended reading list):
Local farmers are reacting to Pollan’s scheduled appearances by organizing a show of solidarity and have invited all farmers, students, agriculture professionals and “people who are thankful for our safe abundant food supply” to attend the event and wear the color green.
“The choice of this book for the Go Big Read, together with the recent movie Food Inc., and the Time magazine cover story, and now a New York Times article attacking Wisconsin Dairy Farms all call into question the decisions we make on our farms about raising crops and animals. It’s important that we show up at this public event to share our stories,” said the agriculture-based group known as In Defense of Farmers.
Notice anything odd there? The writer quotes the group, not an individual spokesperson. Furthermore, the group, which she calls "In Defense of Farmers," doesn't have a website that I can find nor does Muirhead mention contact information for interested farmers to contact the group. Is this a real group, or a figment of an ag-journalist's imagination. Indeed, the group's name turns up only in Muirhead's article from what I can tell. Not even a phone number that a masked man could use for a bit of mockery and unmasking? Dang.
It's maybe worth asking who this group really is, since, as it turns out, there's been a bit of a broil in Madison over UW Chancellor Biddy Martin's selection of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food for Go Big Read. The UW's Ag School and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau both got vocal back in July when this "controversial" book was announced for the roster.
"We currently have a number of Farm Bureau members who are reading 'In Defense of Food,' so that they can participate in the public dialogue that will take place this fall," Langan said. "Since finding out that Mr. Pollan's book was selected for 'Go Big Read,' the Farm Bureau has worked with Jahn to ensure that Wisconsin's farmers and agriculturists will have an opportunity to publicly address the topics this book touches on."
Maybe "In Defense of Farmers" is nothing but a fantasy group in Muirhead's head. But keep an eye on this story. We might get to see how well big aggies astroturf.
El Dragón
Comments
In Defense of Farmers
Interesting choice of a headline for this letter-to-the-editor, no?
"In defense of farmers, food and having a clue about how it gets to your plate"
http://blogs.wisbusiness.com/bizopinion/2009/09/in-defense-of-farmers-fo...
Looks like we have a candidate for our mystery group's spokesperson.
I must comment!
I can't seem to post a comment on Mr. Sill's page, so I'll post it here. You can't let a pointed comment go to waste:
"You accuse Pollan of creating an 'uncomplicated creed,' while basically arguing that anyone who questions food science is anti-farmer and pro-disease and starvation. Creeds don't get less complicated than that. Your creed has been unquestioned for years and supported with millions of dollars of taxpayer money. If one book being put on a reading list is so threatening to it, maybe it's not as solid as you make out.
Claiming this book is an attack on farmers is laughable. It is a stinging critique of big agribusiness, your main client. Pollan's book is being talked about because people are increasingly unhappy with a food system that is having major negative impacts on the environment, rural communities and, increasingly, health. You won't be able to shut the debate down, so you better come prepared with facts instead of broad generalizations and a ridiculous victim mentality."
Oooo, he's lucky he didn't have to read that. He'd be crying for days.
They should be afraid of you, True Mosquito
Awesome. I learn how to talk about these complicated matters every time you post, TM.
One small point.
Not "millions" but billions of tax dollars, as I'm sure you already know. B-b-b-billions, folks. In fact, our Farm Bills make the Big Handout of 2008 look downright affordable. The farm bill is basically a massive bank bailout, dished out every five years, and we've been bailing out Big Ag like this for nearly a century.
I really hope Pollan decides to engage conventional farmers (if not in Madison, eventually), and to do that, if he's as smart and compassionate as he usually is, Pollan will need to separate the smaller commodity and livestock farmers from Big Ag and Big Food (Kraft, General Mills, Conagra, etc), and address each separately. One of the fascinating aspects of talking to small conventional family farmers and ranchers on Twitter is how dutifully they'll defend big CAFOs and factory farms. They'll say, "We all have the same practices. You attack them, and you're attacking us." I had an exchange with one farmer who I believe said he had a 200-head dairy and he was defending a 10K-head CAFO operation. Totally nonsensical, right? I was like, "Do you have manure lagoons? Do you antibiotic run off spilling into your wells?" Those questions went unanswered..
And yet, these folks get "sustainability" (albeit, with a slightly different spin). These smaller operations tend to have a more intimate relationship with their farms, they engage in soil conservation practices because that's how their parents and grandparents farmed, and they look to the future of their financial and ecological well-being -- in short, they're "sustainable," so to speak. These are farmers who have real stories, great narratives, but they should also have a legitimate beef with Big Ag, not Pollan. Pollan's not the one who's selling them down the river by ruining their great stories with awful practices. They need to see that associating themselves with bad actors is a bad strategy.
I have a hunch that sustainability can actually find converts and allies in these smaller, more "in touch" farmers and ranchers -- or at the very least, we can find common ground.
More info on mysterious group
According to the UW student paper, The Badger Herald, the group In Defense of Farmers issued a statement. Again, no named spokespeople, no website, no contact information.
An association of Wisconsin dairy processors has formed in retaliation to the book, calling their group In Defense of Farmers. The group plans to attend the Pollan lecture, donning T-shirts with the slogan, “Eat food. Be healthy. Thank farmers.”
“The University of Wisconsin is a world renowned center for teaching and research in agriculture, an institution we support and believe in,” the group said in a statement. “However, the choice of this book, the unintended endorsement of Pollan and these views simply cannot go unanswered.”
http://badgerherald.com/news/2009/09/23/go_big_read_point_of.php
"An association of Wisconsin dairy processors." Not farmers, but processors. I'd guess the Wisconsin Dairy Products Assocaiton, located just outside Madison in Middleton:
http://www.wdpa.net/
In Defense of Farmers
I wore one of those green shirts at the Pollan Speech. In Defense of Farmers is not an organization; we dont have meetings or anything like that. In fact we aren't necessarliy opposed to everything Pollan has to say. We simply want to be advocates for agriculture. One person decided that we should wear T shirts, so a large group of farmers, students and other agriculturists who wanted to hear what Pollan had to say wore them to the speech to show who we are and that we are not ashamed of it. It was not meant to raise questions about a "Mysterious" group. You are looking into this too much. There really isn't a spokesperson. I dont even know who started this whole thing. El Dragon, I'd love to show you what agriculture is all about and answer any questions you have. If farmers want to end this "war" we need to educate the public about farming, instead of people like you spreading rumors or things you think to be true.
In Defense of In Defense of Farmers
You don't know who started In Defense of Farmers but it's not a mysterious group? Someone handed out t-shirts -- do you know who paid for and distributed them? Do you know who paid for the bus that took several hundred farmers and ag-journalists to the Pollan speech?
http://www.thecountrytoday.com/story-news.asp?id=BLAG6MC30FB
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but those are some of my lingering questions. I have to say, I really have no idea what to make of In Defense of Farmers, especially after your comment.
As for educating me, I'm always open to learning. But you be open, too. Don't read one post on a blog and decide you know the writer. Read at least one more on this "In Defense of Farmers" matter and see if you understand my position a little better.
All I know about who started
All I know about who started it was that an ag nutrition company came up with the idea, and they along with some other people funded the event. The shirts were meant to identify us as farmers, not necessarily for or against pollan. That company dropped off shirts at a few of the ag houses around campus for students to wear. Before the event, that company had a cook out for farmers to socialize and get some background about the book. Chancellor Martin went to a meeting at that Business the week before the speech to talk about the "farmers" thing... I really dont think that this was meant to upset people or even bring up many questions. Its really not even an organization... just a bunch of people wearing the same shirt.
Just stop. You're proving my point.
If the UW chancellor was meeting with this company in advance of Michael Pollan's visit, then the company was the face and brains of In Defense of Farmers (IDF). If the company "came up with the idea" as you say, coordinated with UW agricultural fraternities, put up the money for t-shirts, a barbecue, and transportation, and offered participants "background about the book," then IDF was not at all what it claimed to be, namely, a grassroots group of local farmers that was "not affiliated with any group or organization."
It's important to distinguish between grassroots and what they call "astroturf," that is, fake grassroots groups created by companies in order to trick the media into covering their business agenda, so that we understand where opinions and information are actually flowing from. In this case, marching orders for IDF were coming from ag industry, according to you. And you're not alone. According to another commenter, Vita Plus, the ag group you're talking about, has connections to Monsanto. Monsanto and Vita-Plus obviously have a vested interest in countering Michael Pollan's visit at a big ag school like UW-Madison. What would happen if young farmers started (gasp)( seeing organic and sustainable farming as a career path?
Maybe to you it was just a bunch of people wearing the same green shirt. To the companies behind In Defense of Farmers, it was a way to gather small farmers into a group and use them as a front to get Big Ag's agenda covered in the media. And it worked. (Indeed, Michael Pollan's speech probably wouldn't have even made regional news without Big Ag targeting him like this.)
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