Editor’s Note: The following essay by Tim Wightman, sustainable farmer and President of the Farm to Consumer Foundation is a response to the Dodge Superbowl Commercial “God Made a Farmer” that was seen by millions this past weekend. I have included the commercial here for you to view prior to reading Mr. Wightman’s eloquent, insightful and moving words.
Are you a sustainable farmer? How did you react to the “God Made a Farmer” commercial? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
God may have made a farmer ….
I came of age on the Great Plains of this continent spanning from Texas to North Dakota seated in the cab of a combine consuming endless square circles of wheat for 4 summers. I met, worked with and for many farm families during those years. We regularly worked 16 to 18 hour days, sometimes for as long as 103 days in a row. Three times a day on AM radio, the words of Paul Harvey rang clear and true, reinforcing the work ethic those of us in the fields came to acknowledge as sacred.
Mr. Harvey told me John Wayne had passed on along with many other stories and legends of hard work and sacrifice that seemed to be the path of every American who had succeeded in this land and the selfless contribution that was the ingredient to success. I had heard the same mythology from my grandfather and his peers cutting trees and pulling stumps and calves and nursing food and forage from the land where only the wild had existed before.
So in 1979 I headed west not knowing if I had graduated early from high school to earn my place in the agricultural community through the many hours and sacrifice I was told was part of the job.
7 months prior Mr. Harvey gave that speech that served as the basis for the Dodge Super Bowl ad to the attendees of the Future Farmers of America National Convention. Little did the attendees know that the Earl Butz expansion model of cheap money to farmers was at full bore and by 1981 the planned consolidation of that policy would hit the agricultural community harder than anything Mother Nature could ever have thrown at them.
Farm Aid was launched in 1985 to pick up the pieces and I was left with the task of finding work in a rapidly disappearing calling. It seemed all my effort was lost to a fading memory of a proud history now blamed for doing itself in. It wasn’t until 1994 that I heard of a new movement in agriculture. They called it sustainable, community supported and organic but the movement was so new, it had just barely gotten off the ground.
As we sit and watch this commercial heralding the fact that “God made a Farmer”, it is important to remember that it was Big Ag and its lobbying in Washington that broke that same farmer’s back.
This ad perpetuates the myth that rugged individualism and the competition it creates was and is the way forward. Perpetuation of the delusion that the products grown are of no value at the farm gate, that the farmers who grew them are lucky to get anything for them, and that “off farm jobs” are normal.
In this finite wisdom we now have a collapsing health care system and soils near the end of their ability to provide for us. This is all part of Big Ag’s “bargain” – a chemically altered microbial system that has been so compromised that the tragic end result is too much to face so no one mentions it save for the occasional whisper.
The visuals of the Dodge “God made a Farmer” commercial is what we have always wanted to believe, told we should believe. I find myself having lived long enough to call 1978 long ago and words from that time stir memories and passion today. I even found myself being reminded of the myths and desire to be that rugged individual that was up and at it before much of the country hit snooze. By the end of the commercial, a sickening feeling of being sold a lie and persuaded to believe it set in, and how the reality of today’s farming community is so far from Mr. Harvey’s words of 1978.
There are those who still want to feed us, but to do so alone as a rugged individual is no longer an option. It is not that they all want new Dodge pickups, it is the fact that all should be eating in the land of plenty and no one should be scared of their food.
The commercial conveniently glosses over the fact that three-quarters of those farmers in the commercial operate at a loss for the food industry. Yes, they are their own boss but it is not fair to burden others for the sake of ourselves.
I ask that we do not take these myths, these manufactured perceptions perpetuated in the commercial to our farmer or farmers market this week. Thank them for thinking and growing out of the box. Yes, they work hard but no longer need to stand alone.
It is this generation of local farmers that will put the face of agriculture back to its rightful place in our society. Every dollar you spend directly with a local farmer is another dollar less that will be used against all of us.
I fell for the hype of serving a corporate food system with duty, honor and 100 hour weeks and very nearly ruined my health in doing so. I am now reminded of all the John Henrys I have known over the years, desperately trying to stay ahead of the system. I am reminded of the migrant workers who’s names we will never know still working the 100 hour standard. I am reminded of all the farm sons and daughters who are not on the land. God may have made a farmer, but Big Ag broke his back, broke the spirit of his wife and damned near turned our futures to dust.
Most farmers are slaves to Monsanto. Most farmers couldn’t survive without gov’t subsidies. Most farmers couldn’t afford a new truck.
Most farmers have not survived even WITH government subsidies (ie. since 1953), because they have covered only about 1/8 of the amount that Congress reduced fair price standards. We need to return to a fair trade, living wage farm bill, which eliminates the need for subsidies. See the major “Farm Justice Proposals for the 2012 Farm Bill.”
I have read your blog for a couple of years and have gained so much from reading it. Recently I have seen profanity in some of the comments and now at the end of this post. I agree with Mr. Wightman, but heartfelt words don’t need the emphasis of profanity and would ask that you would choose to keep your blog clean.
I love this post. I was thinking the same thing as I watched the dodge commercial with my husband. I told him how ironic this commercial was because of how messed up the farming and food industry is nowadays…
Dear Post moderator,
Did you delete my post?
It was very heartfelt and informative,
why did you delete it?
Please advise,
thank you,
Something to think about for those that hunt. and fish in farm country, The wildlife that survives is roundup ready. Eat up, find out if you are roundup ready.
sorry about that, I see it now. Sometimes, computer software does change the letters/words in transmissions on it’s own.
thank you for offering this sign post.
N
Dear post moderator,
I do not see my post. Did you delete it and if yes why please.
thank you,
Nikki
I have been a small farmer in mid-western Ohio since 1987. I was certified organic in 1991 by OEEFA. I have not been certified since the 1990’s because I no longer needed to prove to my customers that my goal was to provide the cleanest healthiest food possible by avoiding man made molecules in my production and adding back to health of the living soil bank. As the years have progressed, my status has been changed from being a weird hippy to a person whose experience, knowledge and courage to be different from most of the rest of the farmers in my area is now admired and requested, by some. Integrated careful healthy farming takes a lot of mental and physical work-my research is never ending. With my partner slowly losing his body strength to heart disease and diabetes, I can no longer do the farm work and take care of my family at the same time-it is that hard of work. I have raised 100% organic grassfed jersey, family cow, shiitake mushrooms on oak logs, specialty produce and berries plus more. My farming neighbors around me are; mono-cropping, spraying glyphosate 4 times a years (vs the once a year they used to spray it), using every new chemical that comes down the pike that the fing…da tells them is safe to use, they are raping the earth of all the trees they can possibly cut down in order to put just just a few more acres in production, it looks like a war zone around here with trees laying everywhere (that part makes me cry if I am not careful) then the wind blows even harder removing their metal barn roofs and silos, their soil and man made chemicals cover my property every time the winds blows, the GMO seeds my neighbor’s are planting in effort to put their balance sheet back into the black are destroying the health of my daughter in the form of a disease that has been given the name of Morgellens. I know their bottom lines- I used to be a tax expert, I prepared tax returns for farmers in the county that has the richest soil in the world and I will tell you, the only reason most of them have a profit at the end of the year is from farm subsidies that they received from the government-in other words, if they tried to use their mono-cropping with huge machinery model with out the government money-they would not be making it. And do these neighbors of mine realize what they are doing? Would they listen to me if I tried to teach them about the death they are creating for all of us? Their dead toxic soil and man made chemicals cover my property every time the winds blows, I think that deep inside of them somewhere, they must be feeling some type of sorrow or guilt for trashing the planet in the interest of monetary gain. So many times I have wanted to knock on their door and try to show them some things about health and farming, in a nice respectful way, but I do not. The banking system and money are predatory- this monetary system has so ruined our American farming system, and it is
about to ruin life on the planet, big pharma, communications conglomerate, Monsanto and big oil all are trashing the health of the planet and us and we are suffering mightily right now. I have never seen such a large percentage of the our population sick or stressed to the limit. Now that most of us have access to the internet and books, we can all look around and find the answers, and the answers must come from us. We must make the changes ourselves instead of waiting for the old guard at the top to do it, they are like my neighbor farmer’s, it is their identity and they cannot accept anything else.. In my little sharing with you today-my purpose? Not money.. I want you to find the strength to look up the answers for yourself, the information we need is already out there-been there all along-it’s just not being shoved in your face by the communications conglomerate. I want you to look at the truth and not what a government agency is telling you is safe and healthy. University studies have proven beyond any doubt that organic farming yields are higher in the long run. Thoughtful truthful human beings are building and running research laboratories where we are proving once and for all with science that man made molecules do not belong in the food system. Do your research and learn to follow the money trail. Then, begin to change things little bits at a time, by how you use your money,we can do this. The “God made a farmer” commercial illustrated that we need to make a change in our farming system, I liked that part, but I also laughed, Dodge is obviously using emotions to sell something, at least they weren’t using fear to manipulate us like our government is prone to doing.
Oh, and I will go back to farming, I will be an example.
Start here at the best website in the world; http://www.westonaprice.org
respectfully,
Nikki
7 Gates Farm-Ohio
This is the most heart rendering comment I’ve read in along time. Can’t say it any better.
You have put my thoughts into words that I am unable to compose! If this is not thought provoking, I don’t know what could be. People need to understand that all the sickness and suffering from all the new ‘diseases’ are a direct result of the new farming practices that are mandated by our government (in bed with Monsanto). Our bodies don’t recognize all this dead food and GMO crap. Sad to see everyone just accepting what is being dished out and seeing the natural world being forever changed. My poor little grandchildren have to suffer the consequences.
As as fossil fuel prices rise, and costs rise from the Agribusiness-input complex (Monsanto, Dow, John Deere, those pick-up trucks) sustainable agriculture can provide part of the solution, ways to save money on production costs. We also need a good farm bill. The National Farmers Union has offered an important new approach, similar to the fair standards of the past, in the “Market Driven Inventory System.”
This commercial was about selling Dodge pick-ups to non-farmers. There aren’t enough farmers left to keep Dodge in business. On one hand farmers are portrayed as the salt of the Earth, hard working s.o.b., all around good guy. On the other hand is the ingorant, corn-pone hick. Guess what? Neither is correct! We’re just like everyone else, some are good, some are bad, and alot are in between. This is an example of a multi-national corporation using the mythology of the farmer to sell product. It’s just like buying a stick of margerine with a red barn on the label.
p.s. I’m a fourth generation farmily farmer.
There is a point here; with better editing I might be able to discern what it is. You write with enough passion to ignite interest and suggest credibility, but don’t provide context enough for a reader who is not familiar with agricultural issues to feel informed. “Shop locally” sounds like a great idea, but for those of us who are struggling to make small or occasional paychecks stretch to feed our children, it remains a luxury. I love our farmer’s market, but shopping there is significantly more expensive than the same items at the local grocery. I don’t want farmers to work at a loss, but I am literally struggling to feed my own children on a month-to-month basis. More information might inform and suggest solutions to move the incentive to change from the privileged few to the rest of us.
I’m a small farmer and I could always use help around the farm. I would be happy to help someone out with food, for a little of their time. I would also love to have a highschool kid who was interested in farming come help too. You might check around and see if there’s anybody who needs help. I mean this with the upmost resect. Our family struggled when I was growing up durring the farm crisis, things were very tight.