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.
Industrial ag, cheaper, if you don’t count the well documented hidden costs to environment, community, health, hunger, economy (less wealth and jobs creation), and if you don’t count the way Congress, following corporate lobbyists, has forced US & global farmers to massively subsidize AgBiz/consumers with below cost food. Remember, “Corn Farmers Have Long Subsidized You, Not the Other Way Around” (etc. net result), as the data clearly shows (“Hidden Farm Bill: Debunking 3 Myths”).
The Farm Bill issue is the ABSENCE of nonsubsidy market management policies and programs (price floors & ceilings, supply reductions as needed and reserve supplies) leading to massive reductions in income, not the PRESENCE of subsidies to compensate for a small fraction of the reductions. Farmers have fought against the spin that these massive reductions was in any way FOR farmers (you know, “safety nets”? absurd!) for 6 decades.
Wendell Berry has the best analysis I’ve seen of your issues about our unsustainable lives (as that relates to agriculture) in his book The Unsettling of America.
American industrial ag has made food cheaper and more available than any prior system notwithstanding quality. If you can find a niche to promote quality over quantity, that’s great. Americans generally choose an industrialized life, and leave their completely non-sustainable office in their non-sustainable city, drive to the grocery store and purchase food then go to their non-sustainable home, and repeat for 30 years. There is really nothing sustainable in the way most Americans live- even though they compost in the back yard of their non-sustainable homes and grow a tomato plant in their front yard so everyone can see how sustainable they would like to be. It’s not surprising that most of their sustenance is derived by industrial farming producing lower quality, cheaper food. Some choose to live more simply than most, but we are in a miniscule minority. The author tends to criticizes producers who don’t produce his way, and then blames “big ag” for their transgression. That’s B.S. He disagrees with the way most people choose to live, and choose to spend their money; so do I. Ag subsidies, land prices and inflation hurt the small farmer as much as anything else (all those thing were supposed to help the little guy, remember?). I’m glad the author ditched the “corporate food system.” Very glad for him… Picking on a super bowl commercial as though it is some sort of an insult is like getting angry at a mirror because you hate the image you see… I am pretty sure that the advertising company nailed the target consumer with a hammer on that one.
This is one of the better reviews, though I disagree with parts. Sustainable agriculture is the new trend that updates traditional family farming and it’s way of life, (which is really a pattern of history,) on a post modern, post industrial model. It’s where the ad is most true today, along with much of dairy farming and other diversified farms with livestock. It’s very true that conservative “rugged individualism” has been used against farmers, to get them to call for an end to the farm bill and a return to free-market “Hooverism.” On the other hand, the same values have been huge in the Family Farm (Farm Justice) Movement, in fighting against Agribusiness (for 5 decades prior to the food movement, and more). The line about A key flaw in this review is the emphasis on “Big Ag” as the “villian” destroying the food/farm system, rather than Ag Biz, starting with the buyers of farm commodities. Large farms have had the largest reductions were created by Ag Biz exploitation and the Congressional lowering of price standards, but they also have had huge reductions (market price x volume of production) from Ag Biz domination. The Paul Harvey text is an important sociological/literary expression of our cultural heritage. That heritage should not be conceded to anyone. It should be front and center at farmers markets. The line about operating at a loss is important but not well developed. The line about burdening others for the sake of ourselves is misleading, in that our losses have been gains to the Ag Biz buyers/consumers, and those gains have been about 8 x bigger than farm subsidies, for example. But farmers fought against those subsidies, and for minimum prices (plus supply management like other industries,) set at fair trade levels, with price ceilings and strategic reserve supplies to protect consumers, as in the Food From Family Farms Act of the National Family Farm Coalition.
I feel that we are making it too complicated. We can discuss what our government has legislated in the way of farm subsidies for long
periods of time-it is very convoluted and most likely recorded incorrectly at times. That is not the real problem. Lets break it down and make it simple. In farming we are utilizing technologies that are anti-health. We need to educate our population in the sciences so that the farmer does not feel the need to utilize poisons or genetically modified organisms in order to support their family. The governments are not going to bring about this education because the government is lining it’s pockets with our lack of knowledge. The bigger picture is almost too painful to look at …….-Most farming practice in the United States is against health and the sooner that this information about poor farming practice gets spread among us the better. As a tax specialist, I believe that the majority of organic farms are making a profit and with out government subsidies or pricing controls. If you look at RECENT legislation-you see a trend of government attempting to either knowingly or unknowingly make it difficult if not impossible for small farms to survive. Before the 1950’s, before our “better living thru chemicals era”-our farms were models for this planet.
We need more science education for our children.
Start at the http://www.westonaprice.org
7 Gates Farm/Ohio
My view is that the issues are connected, from farm subsidies to healthy food, and all need to be understood (Read my “Farm Bill Economics: Think ecology,” where I compare the narrow, false subsidy paradigm to “better living thru chemicals”). We’ve had a false paradigm on subsidies, so it’s harder (to unlearn and relearn). In simple terms we’ve reduced and ended farm bill market management, (fairly balanced supply & demand and high & low prices,) then later very partially compensated farmers for the bad farm bills, which confuses the issue. We need policy changes that make it economically possible for farmers to come on board with healthy food. The sustainable agriculture has been weak at joining on with these farm justice issues, in part because the premiums for organic have been sufficient. But they are affected, increasingly so, and are facing increasing corporate concentration issues. A local cheese or an organic dairy premium is low when it’s on top of massive dairy losses in the conventional market, and the same holds for other items. Chapter 1 in Wenonah Hauter’s book Foodopoly, in chapter 1, addresses this specific issue, the biggest farm bill issue. We had the good programs 1942-1952. The Weston Price group has provided information on some of this history, through it’s connection with the late Charles Walters, who was one of the leading writers on these Farm Bill justice issues in the 1960s-70s.
That commercial was not meant to skew our image of a farmer. Quite the contrary. In fact, it was a beautiful tribute to the folks working the land. One of the most wonderful commercials I’ve ever seen.
HOWEVER.
In this day and age, when God is forced out of everything we hold dear and super powers like Monsanto have all of us by the throat, one has to wonder about its motives. Trying to clean up their image???? When pigs fly.
I really don’t think this is what Dodge intended. Everything is open to interpretation including this commercial. Although I do agree with your statement “Bigger is not always better”, I think Dodge simply put out a commercial for the average American (or other ethnicity watching) to show that farmers work VERY hard and a Dodge truck can be extremely helpful. If it can be that helpful to a farmer, viewers may see it being helpful for their line of work as well. Hence the message at the end: To the Farmer in all of us. That is how I perceived it anyway…
The article definitely points out some important issues in our world today, but again I don’t think that a vehicle manufacturing company wanted to illustrate a skewed image of “The Farmer”.
This commercial controversy is just another example of something being blown out of proportion.
Often we focus so much on analyzing every statement made and every action done that we often miss the simple message.
If anything, I think this commercial brought more awareness to how hard farmers work and we SHOULD support them!
Superbowl Ad, how about hyperbole ad? Chrysler and Dodge are no longer American Companies. They owned by Fiat. So much for the American Dream, huh?
This commercial wasn’t about big ag and the campaign goes to FFA. At some point, we have to be thankful that we had a bit of a hat tipped to us and what we do.
Yes big ag ruined us. Yes we are having it hard right now. But we can’t be so bitter we become our own undoing.